How did Sichuan cuisine develop?

Recently refined the "Sichuan Cuisine Culinary Matters", "fine Sichuan Cuisine", "Shark's Fin & Pepper" three books of some of the views from the history of Sichuan Cuisine, the characteristics of Sichuan Cuisine, the types of Sichuan Cuisine, three aspects of the views.

(Article reading time is about 5 minutes)

One, talk about the history of Sichuan cuisine

Since ancient times, the history of Chinese cooking has a long history...

From the Shang Dynasty by the kitchen into the Zai Yin Yi, to the Spring and Autumn good tune five Yi Ya...from the Warring States, the author of the "Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals - the taste of the Lu Buwei. From Lu Buwei, who wrote "Lv's Spring and Autumn", to Sun Simiao, who mastered food therapy in the Tang Dynasty...

From Lu You, who preferred Sichuan food in the Southern Song Dynasty, to Li Shizhen, who practiced medicinal food therapy and dietary support in the Ming Dynasty...

Not to mention Guo Moruo, Zhang Daqian and others in the modern era.

And Sichuan cuisine, which originated in the pre-Qin Dynasty, developed in the Northern Song Dynasty, and matured at the end of the Qing Dynasty, also occupies a strong ink in the culinary history:

1) The Eastern Jin Dynasty, in the "Huayang Guo Zhi", the dietary tastes of the Sichuanese people are depicted as "still savory, and good pungent aroma."

2) In the Northern Song Dynasty, Sichuan cuisine was introduced to the capital city of Tokyo (now Kaifeng), and restaurants specializing in Sichuan cuisine appeared.

3) At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Sichuan introduced the cultivation of South American chili peppers, which really developed its own characteristics in the cuisine.

Second, talk about the characteristics of Sichuan cuisine

The first key word: "flavor"

Eating in China, taste in Sichuan.

The flavor of Sichuan cuisine has a "variety of flavors, rich in change" characteristics.

The characteristics from the surrounding geographical seasoning endowment, the dam in the soy sauce, Langzhong vinegar, PI County's bean curd, Zigong well salt ... good seasoning base has brought all kinds of composite flavor: spicy, paste spicy, hot and sour, pepper, red oil, fish, salty and fresh, sweet and sour, garlic and so on dozens of flavors.

The second keyword: "civilianization"

Traditionally developed, there are four major regional cuisines in China, broadly speaking.

The court cuisine in the north (Beijing cuisine, Lu cuisine)

The literati cuisine in the east (Huaiyang cuisine)

The merchant's cuisine in the south (Cantonese cuisine)

The commoner's cuisine in the west (Sichuan cuisine)

While the commoner's cuisine of Sichuan is broadly characterized by three features:

1) locally sourced ingredients 2) making the best of what is available 3) a combination of meat and vegetable dishes

For example, buying a radish, in which the radish skin is used as a pickle and the radish heart is used as a main dish; or slaughtering a chicken and cooking the chicken meat, chicken mash, and chicken wings separately can reflect the move of making the best use of what you have.

Three, talk about the types of Sichuan cuisine

Sichuan cuisine is divided into three main categories: feast dishes, home cooking, and local snacks

Unlike in the imagination, the impression is that Sichuan cuisine is very populist, but its feast dishes are still part of the high-class state banquet.

Sichuan banquet cuisine has its unique characteristics:

1) high-grade materials 2) into the dish generous 3) table elaborate

4) cooking to simmering, burning, steaming, braising, stewing, less fried

5) pay attention to the specifications

For example, the number of cold food from "four single dish "

The main dishes include Chinese cabbage in boiling water, snowflake chicken nao, big knife and golden silk noodles, and pickled pepper and Liao Sen, etc. At present, Sichuan-style feasts are still used in Chengdu restaurants such as Yu Zhilan and Song Yunze.

As a daily meal, Sichuan-style home cooking has four characteristics:

1) strong flavor 2) affordable price

3) fast food 4) small portions of the main

Seeing that, home-cooked Sichuan food is close to the people's lives and is rich in vernacular characteristics, so most of the restaurants operating on the market today belong to Sichuan-style home cooking.

Sichuan flavor local snacks are more from the old "food burden"

Goods men shoulder loaded with food utensils walking along the streets, selling along the street, some head loaded with raw materials or semi-finished products, one head to pick the stove, encountered eaters will be ready to do now sell.

There used to be Zhong Wensen's Zhong Dumplings, Lai Yuanxin's Lai Soup Dumplings, Husband and Wife's Lung Slices, Dan Dan Noodles, Tofu Brains, and so on...

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Finally, I would summarize it with a line from "Shark's Fin and Pepper...

"Eating." itself is a matter of cultural belonging.

Identifying with a cuisine is essentially identifying with and respecting the culture to which it belongs, and there is also a ****ing sense of communion with that culture.