Folk Customs and Famous Shops, Finest Products (Part 3)
Section 3: Hunan Cuisine, Signature Brands — China's Earliest Recipe Book: Recipes for Fine Food. In 1999, the "Recipes for Fine Food" was unearthed from Han Tomb No. 1 at Huxishan, Yuanling. It is China's earliest record of cuisine, documenting complex cooking procedures. For example, preparing mutton and beef involved steps from slaughtering to cleaning to adding seasonings (some spicy...).
This article has been compiled from historical materials in the "Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network" (33519.com · City Overview section). Some administrative divisions, population, socioeconomic data, and policy information may be outdated and are for reference only; for the latest situation, please refer to official releases by the local government and scenic areas.
Section Three
Hunan Cuisine, Distinctive Brands
China's earliest gastronomic recipe book—Meishi Fang
In 1999, at Han Tomb No. 1 at Huxishan in Yuanling, there were unearthed The Meishi Fang culinary manual. This is China's earliest record of food and drink. The Meishi Fang records very complex cooking procedures. For example, when making mutton and beef, from slaughtering to cleaning, to adding mixed seasonings (some pungent spices), to steaming, and finally to becoming a dish, there are altogether10many processes. 'The Gourmet Recipes' is mostly damaged, about300sections, concise yet comprehensive and lengthy46, wide0.8, thick0.1centimeters long. This batch of bamboo slip materials will play an important role in studying the social economy and culture of that time.
A well-known domestic cuisine culture—Hunan cuisine culture
Hunan cuisine is one of China's eight great cuisines and enjoys considerable fame in the world. Hunan cuisine selects ingredients from the Xiang River basin, the Dongting Lake area, and the mountainous areas of western Hunan. It is finely processed and exquisitely prepared, gathering the treasures of mountains and rivers and the wonders of heaven and earth onto plates and cups. It stands out in the world and endures because of its sour and spicy, scorched and numbing, fresh and fragrant, crisp and tender, smoked and cured flavors, original juices and tastes, clear distinction between rich and light, and moderate taste. After the founding of the People's Republic, Hunan cuisine was systematically excavated and organized, and its techniques became increasingly refined. People from all walks of life at home and abroad who have tasted it invariably find lingering fragrance on the palate and praise it highly. Hunan cuisine has now gone beyond the province, to the whole country, and to the world. Hunan restaurants have opened in the United States, Japan, Germany, and some Southeast Asian countries, which fully shows the extraordinary status of Hunan cuisine.
Hunan's most locally distinctive food culture—Xinhua's three "tens"
Xinhua's food culture is extremely rich in local characteristics. Many dietary customs of the Miao, Yao, Dong, and other ethnic groups have been preserved to this day and have also been innovated and developed. Mixed foods, a liking for spicy flavors, a fondness for sourness, strong tastes, and a love of liveliness are the characteristics of central Hunan's food culture. Loudi has the praise of "eating in Xinhua," and Xinhua's "ten meats," "ten vegetarian dishes," and "ten drinks" are famous far and wide. Ten meats: snowflake meatballs, sanhe soup, rice flour pork, loach stewed with tofu, thunder-struck duck, red pepper vinegar soup fish, firewood cured meat, hairy beef tripe, twice-cooked dog meat, and raw meat slices. Ten vegetarian dishes: glutinous rice cakes, fern root cakes, bamboo shoot cakes, glutinous rice cakes, cup cakes, shenzi cakes, fried cakes, han buckwheat cakes, pig blood cakes, and zongzi. Ten drinks: lei cha, rice wine, sweet fermented rice wine, rice spirits, coix seed wine, ice plum wine, cloud-mist tea, black tea, licorice mint honeysuckle tea, and cool tree water.
China's number one pepper—Yongzhou Yao family pearl pepper
The Yao family pearl pepper is a very special fruit. Observe its shape: it is about the size of a tomato. Examine its color: it glitters like a pearl. Taste its flavor: it combines sweetness, sourness, and spiciness. It is rich in 18 kinds of vitamins and amino acids, crude protein, crude fat, and other trace elements. With the excellent quality of a purely natural green product, it has become a natural health food for people returning to nature and pursuing harmony and unity with the natural world. This is the treasure of the "kingdom of peppers." Once described as "raised in the deep boudoir and unknown to others," the Yao family pearl pepper, worthy of being called "China's number one pepper," has now become the Yao family's "money tree" for escaping poverty and becoming rich. It has successively won the provincial title of "Domestic New Product," the Silver Award at the Second Hunan Famous, Excellent, Special, and New Agricultural and Sideline Products Expo, and the Gold Award at the Fifth China New Technology and New Products Expo.
A famous Hunan snack—Changsha stinky tofu
Changsha's famous snack stinky tofu is a food with a unique flavor. "It smells stinky but tastes fragrant" is its greatest characteristic. Among Changsha's stinky tofu, the century-old Huogongdian fries it best: crisp and slightly crunchy on the outside, soft and fresh-tasting inside. Changsha "Huogongdian's" stinky tofu was even written into former U.S. President George H. W. Bush's memoirs.
Hunan's most famous soybean product—Youxian dried tofu
Dried tofu is one of the traditional foods of the people of Youxian, with a unique color, aroma, and taste and a distinctive production method. Its production process generally goes through ten steps—soaking beans, grinding pulp, filtering pulp, boiling pulp, coagulating pulp, putting into boxes, brining, cutting into pieces, skewering, and air-drying—before the product is made, and every hundred pieces are strung together with palm leaves. The reason Youxian dried tofu has a unique flavor is mainly three measures: first, using pure local well water; second, not removing the tofu skin, in order to preserve its essence; third, when skewering, first moving each small piece onto a bamboo mat similar to a conical hat, drying it to about eighty percent, then sun-drying or roasting it, so that it does not blister and has no burnt crust, forming firm, yellowish, translucent squares. Youxian dried tofu can be eaten in many ways. It can be eaten directly with alcohol, chewed slowly, fragrant, chewy, and tasty; fried until crisp, it tastes like puffed pork skin but is even crisper; if soaked in water until swollen, cut into thin strips, and stir-fried with meat, it resembles shredded cuttlefish and has a distinctive flavor.
Hunan's best winter drink—Miluo Changle sweet wine
Legend has it that when Emperor Qianlong toured Jiangnan, he passed through present-day Changle in Miluo City, smelled the fragrance of sweet wine, and tried it. It filled his mouth with saliva and was sweet to the heart and spleen, so he bestowed the name "Changle sweet wine" and made it a tribute product. Changle sweet wine thus got its name and became famous throughout Jiangnan. The beautiful legend adds a layer of mystery to Changle sweet wine. The tribute Changle sweet wine is nutritious, cool and transparent, mellow and sweet in taste, and aromatic, with a unique flavor, suitable for all ages. It is rich in polysaccharides, minerals, organic acids, amino acids, B vitamins, and other nutritional components. Because Changle's soil and climate are suitable, with proper cultivation, the ears are long, the grains are plump, and yields are high, and the rice quality is excellent; it can also be called a Changle specialty. Looking to the future, the company will continue to pioneer and innovate, strive forward, and provide customers with the finest products and the most perfect service. The full-of-vitality "tribute sweet wine" is willing to join hands with friends from all walks of life and make further contributions to our country's green food.
A famous tea of northern Hunan—sesame, bean, ginger, and salt tea
Ginger-salt tea's full name is ginger-salt bean-sesame tea, also called Yue Fei tea, Xiangyin tea, or Liuhe tea. As the name suggests, its main ingredients are tea brewed from ginger, salt, soybeans, sesame, and tea leaves. Peanuts can also be used instead of soybeans. There is a rather interesting origin story for sesame, bean, ginger, and salt tea: legend says that Yue Fei, a famous general of the Southern Song Dynasty, led troops south according to the imperial court's orders and came to the Dongting Lake area to suppress the peasant uprising led by Yang Yao. Most of the soldiers came from the Central Plains. After arriving in the south, they could not adapt to the climate and water and soil, and in the military camp the number of patients with abdominal bloating, diarrhea, loss of appetite, and fatigue increased day by day, seriously affecting the soldiers' fighting ability. Yue Fei usually liked to read medical books. Seeing that the area was rich in tea leaves, soybeans, sesame, and ginger, he instructed his subordinates to brew a drink with salted ginger, soybeans, and sesame. Sure enough, diseases in the army were greatly reduced. The common people around the military camp prepared it in the same way, and from then on sesame, bean, ginger, and salt tea spread throughout the Dongting Lake area. In Hunan's Xiangyin and Miluo areas, people traditionally love to use this tea to entertain guests, and this hospitality custom is still preserved today.