Hunan cuisine, also known as Changsha local cuisine, is one of the eight major cuisines with a long history in China, which was formed as early as the Han Dynasty. Xiangjiang River Basin, Dongting Lake Area and Xiangxi Mountain Area are the three major local flavors. Hunan cuisine is well-made, widely used, diverse in taste and variety; The color is bright, thick and practical; Pay attention to spicy, fresh and tender taste; The making method is called stewing, stewing, waxing, steaming and frying. The representative dishes of official Hunan cuisine are Anzu Hunan cuisine, such as Anzu tofu and Anzu shark's fin. The representative dishes of folk Hunan cuisine include chopped pepper fish head, stir-fried pepper meat, Xiangxi grandma, Jishou sour meat, beef powder, Hengyang fish meal, Du Qifeng fish meal, Dong 'an chicken, goldfish playing lotus, Yongzhou blood duck, Jiuyishan rabbit, Ningyuan stuffed tofu, steamed bacon, sister jiaozi, Ningxiang delicious snake, Yueyang ginger and spicy snake and so on. A large number of exquisite pottery vessels and wine vessels unearthed from the Neolithic sites in Hunan Province, as well as the remains of grains and animal bones unearthed with these pottery, confirm that Xiaoxiang ancestors broke away from the original state of eating animals and cooked food as early as 89,000 years ago. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Hunan was mainly a place where Chu people and Yue people lived together, with many nationalities living together, different eating customs and prevailing sacrificial rites. In the past, there was a good temple of ghosts and gods between Wen Yi and Yuanxiang, the southern camp of Chu State. Their temple must make songs and have fun to inspire the gods ... "Every ritual activity always appears in the form of feast and dance. Sacrifice to the gods, places, ancestors, happy events, funerals, welcoming guests and seeing them off all need to eat. There are strict requirements for the variety of dishes, and they are also very particular about color, fragrance, taste and shape. For example, during the Warring States Period more than 300 years BC, the great poet Qu Yuan was exiled to Hunan and wrote the famous poem Chu Ci. Among them, "Evocation of Soul" and "Big Trick" reflect the rich and delicious dishes, drinks and snacks in this sacrificial activity at that time. There is a description in "Evocation": "... I ate too much, covered my rice with wheat, and had too many pipes. "Bitter and salty, it is difficult to make a difference. Fat cows smell better. If you are bitter, Chen Wu will have some soup. The turtle shoots mutton with some pulp. Sour fish, fry some red fish. It is unpleasant to show the chicken. " Explained in the vernacular, it is like this: "The food you eat is rich and colorful. You can eat rice, millet, glutinous rice and Huang Liang at will. Sweet and sour, salty and bitter, harmonious and palatable. Beef tendon is soft and fragrant. Sour black fruit soup. Roasted turtle, roast mutton and sugarcane juice. Vinegar boiled swans, braised pheasants, fried fat geese and cranes, braised chicken and stewed turtle soup are delicious and full of energy-they will last for a long time. "In addition, the big move also mentioned Chu cheese-Chu cheese, dolphins-pork sauce, bitter dog meat dried dog meat, roasted crow, steamed pheasant, fried. It can be seen that there were dozens of cooking methods such as burning, roasting, stewing, frying, boiling, steaming, stewing, vinegar cooking, halogen and sauce in the diet life of Hunan ancestors at that time. The raw materials used are also natural resources with the color of Chu Xiang. In addition, according to the records in Songs of the South, the snacks at that time were also very distinctive. Qu Yuan described it this way: "... and some honey and erbium. Yaojiang honey spoon is more feathery. If you drink cold, it will be cooler. Chinese food is frozen, and there is some nectar .. "Interpreted as vernacular, it means:" There are fried honey glutinous rice Baba and steamed honey cake, and caramel. The iced glutinous rice wine is really cool and mellow, and the jade yellow wine is enough to make you intoxicated ... "All these show that as early as the Warring States period, the dietary life of Hunan ancestors was quite colorful and the cooking skills were quite mature, forming a southern flavor dominated by sour, salty, sweet and bitter. As for the daily staple food of Hunan ancestors during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, according to archaeological and historical records, there are rice, sorghum, beans, wheat, millet, millet and rice, but rice is the main one. Steamed rice retort, pot, kettle, etc. Steamed rice is not sticky or sweet. When cooking porridge, put rice and water into the porridge and cook it with fire until the rice is cooked. When the rice porridge is ready, after the dish is ready, it must be put in a container for easy eating. At that time, Hunan's utensils were not only complete in variety, but also exquisite and elegant. As far as materials are concerned, it mainly includes pottery, bronze, iron, lacquer and so on. Although these food containers have appeared since the Shang Dynasty, their shapes have their own characteristics in Hunan. In particular, thousands of lacquerware unearthed from Chu Tomb in Changsha, Hunan, have beautiful shapes, bright colors and smooth patterns. It has a long history. Among the three cooking techniques: hot cooking, cold cooking and sweet blending, there are only a few of each technique, and there are dozens of others. Relatively speaking, Hunan cuisine is better at stewing meat, almost reaching the point of perfection. Stew can be divided into red stew and white stew in color change, and clear soup stew, thick soup stew and milk soup stew in seasoning. Slow stew, original flavor. Some dishes are crystal clear and mellow, some dishes are pure and nourishing, some dishes are soft and delicious, some dishes are crisp and delicious, and many stews have become famous dishes in Hunan cuisine.

Hunan cuisine