China's food culture has a long history and is profound, among which "flowers are food" is unique in China's food culture.

In ancient times, when our ancestors were in contact with nature, they used taste buds to explore which foods were both delicious and edible. At the same time, fragrant flowers inadvertently triggered their taste buds, thus feeding on flowers gradually entered the vision of our ancestors and became an indispensable choice in their diet.

Taking flowers as food means taking flowers from four seasons as ingredients and cooking them into dishes or snacks. As early as Shang Dynasty, Yi Yin, a minister proficient in cooking, was good at making delicious food with flowers. The recorded history of eating flowers is nearly three thousand years.

"Spring comes late, flowers flourish" in The Book of Songs "Wandering in July" is about people picking white wild chrysanthemums in the spring season; The phrase "Joo Won? is in full swing and violets are in full swing" in The Book of Songs Ya refers to the situation in which people in the Book of Songs pick hibiscus flowers as food. In the Book of Songs "Xiaoya Picking Wei", "picking Wei, picking Wei and stopping Wei" refers to the scene where people eat wild pea flowers.

The poet Qu Yuan's "Nine Songs" includes "Drinking osmanthus wine and stirring pepper paddles" and "Drinking Mulan dew in the morning and having autumn chrysanthemum in the evening" in "Li Sao". We can also know that during the Warring States period when Qu Yuan lived, the main elements such as osmanthus wine, pepper wine, magnolia and autumn chrysanthemum were very common on people's dining tables.

During the Warring States Period, when Qu Yuan lived, chrysanthemums entered the literary field from food, and then gradually formed an elegant tradition of loving, appreciating and eating chrysanthemums. Tao Yuanming's "Picking chrysanthemums under the east fence, leisurely seeing Nanshan" in Jin Dynasty and Meng Haoran's "Wait until the mountain holiday, I will come back when I am in chrysanthemum" in Tang Dynasty are the ideal pastoral life of the ancients. It is not difficult to see from their poems that chrysanthemum has always been a beautiful image of poetry, and chrysanthemum is also considered to be the embodiment of romantic feelings.

In addition to the cultural connotation of chrysanthemum, osmanthus fragrans is also one of the flowers with both food and profound cultural connotation.

The famous dim sum "Hundred Flowers Cake" in Tang Dynasty is a kind of delicious food with flowers as its food, which was initiated by Wu Zetian. One year at the Flower Festival, Wu Zetian was infected by blooming flowers. She asked the maids to pick all kinds of flowers, mash them with rice, steam them into cakes, and named them "Hundred Flowers Cake". This kind of flower cake has the fragrance of petals and grains and tastes excellent. Since then, every flower festival, Wu Zetian will make a hundred flowers cake and give it to ministers to taste.

Later, Osmanthus Jelly was also inspired by Wu Zetian's pioneering work of eating flowers, and became a delicacy on people's table. Osmanthus fragrans can make more food besides Osmanthus Jelly, such as sweet-scented osmanthus Yuanxiao, Osmanthus Jelly and Osmanthus Jelly with lotus root starch. In addition, Osmanthus fragrans can also be used to make salted Osmanthus fragrans, Osmanthus fragrans wine, Osmanthus fragrans fish bones, Osmanthus fragrans tenderloin, Osmanthus fragrans porridge and other foods.

In the Song Dynasty, flower monographs began to appear. In the Song Dynasty, Lin Hong's book "Shanjia Qing Palace" was widely collected, which included foods with vegetables and fruits produced in Shan Ye as the main raw materials, and described the names, materials and cooking methods. There are anecdotes, poems, etc. Among them, there are as many as 15 species of flowers.

Shouyue, a book worn in Ming Dynasty, is in chronological order, accompanied by books such as silkworm, fish, bamboo, peony, peony, orchid and chrysanthemum. There are 16 species of flower food recorded in this book. In addition, in the Ming Dynasty, Lu He said in "Edible Materia Medica" that "the aroma of rose food is sweet and refreshing"; In the Qing Dynasty, Gu Zhong also wrote a flower cookbook, Fanfang Spectrum, which clearly described the edible parts and conditioning methods of flowers.

From Qu Yuan's "drinking the dew of Mulan and eating the beauty of autumn chrysanthemum" to Wu Zetian's picking flowers for cakes and giving them to ministers; From Lin Hong's "The Sacrifice of the Mountain Family" to Gao Lian's "Eating Herbal Medicine" in Ming Dynasty, and then to Gu Zhong's "Fan Fangpu" in Qing Dynasty, the pace of time has never stopped, and people's complex of eating flowers is increasing day by day, and eating flowers has become the embodiment of romantic feelings.

Nowadays, eating flowers has become an art of diet. Introducing flowers into cooking can not only make dishes colorful, but also increase the taste of food by using the aroma and appearance of flowers to satisfy people's taste and visual enjoyment.

Many places in our country still maintain the tradition of eating flowers. Day lily, also known as day lily, fresh yellow flowers can be eaten, and it is also an indispensable good companion in some foods after drying. Stir-fried cakes with pumpkin powder, fragrant Huang Liang and unique delicious and smooth Sophora japonica have become the best raw food for people and children because of their slightly sweet fragrance.

Plum blossoms can be made into plum porridge or plum soup cakes. Chinese rose can be used to make Chinese rose sauce, Chinese rose cake, Chinese rose jam, Chinese rose sugar douban and so on. Jasmine is an excellent raw material for smoked tea. Jasmine tea smoked with fresh jasmine flowers has a strong and refreshing taste and pleasant floral fragrance. White orchid has a strong fragrance and is a good raw material for perfume industry and smoked tea. At the same time, white orchids can also be eaten in porridge. Others, such as lotus, cherry blossom, epiphyllum, carnation and Luoshen flower, can be eaten.

Taking flowers as food has been sublimated into a food culture integrating health care and nutrition in China. Among our common flowers, the fragrant and pleasant rose can clear away heat and quench thirst and benefit people's appearance; Chinese rose can promote blood circulation to reduce swelling and treat carbuncle pain; Chrysanthemum is known as the "longevity guest", which can improve eyesight, nourish liver and prolong life; Orchids can clear away lung heat, osmanthus has the effect of warming stomach and dispelling cold, jasmine can promote hair growth and strengthen muscles, peach blossom and beauty beauty, etc.

Modern medical research also shows that flowers contain a variety of trace elements and nutrients beneficial to human body. Taking flowers as food is not only delicious in color, smell and edible value, but also has the medical and health care functions of promoting metabolism, improving human immunity, treating diseases and prolonging life.

Taking flowers as food is a concise life interest and health philosophy in China's food culture, an organic part of China's food culture and a reflection of romantic feelings in China's food culture.