Therefore, the dishes under the "Yangzhou kitchen knife" have two nicknames: Huaiyang cuisine or Weiyang cuisine. As early as about 4000 years ago, the ancestors of Yangzhou had already got rid of the ignorance of eating animals and drinking blood, and surpassed the primitive budding era of Fuxi burning meat and Shennong burning valley, and cooked food on the fire with ceramic cookers! The pottery age can be regarded as the formation period of Yangzhou cooking. Yangzhou entered the ancient Han Dynasty, that is, the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties in the Central Plains. Bronze Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding. Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding recorded in Shangshu: "Huai Yi Gong Yu" appeared in Xia Dynasty, which seems to be the original document record of Huaiyang cuisine; "Local Records of Li Zhouzhi" records that "Yangzhou is in the southeast" ... its valley is suitable for rice ",which shows that Yangzhou is a natural land of fish and rice. These are enough to prove that Yangzhou cooking about 3000 years ago has entered the bronze culture era.
In 468 BC, Fu Cha, the king of Wu, destroyed the ancient Han kingdom, dug Han ditch and built Seoul, which was of epoch-making value not only to Yangzhou urban construction, but also to Yangzhou cooking. The record of "Wu Wang Guan Hu" used as a wine paddle and the "hard seal" unearthed in Jinba, northwest of the city show that Fucha introduced a whole set of dietary experience in the late Spring and Autumn Period. This is the first work that foreign food culture has influenced Yangzhou cooking.
After the Qin Dynasty, the phrase "Huai Yi and Fish" in Shanggong refers to the time when the tribal residents in the lower reaches of Huaihe River have taken mussels and fish as tributes. Taking fish as a tribute, it is estimated that it is related to the delicious understanding of a pair of fish and being good at making delicious fish. In the Western Han Dynasty, Mei Cheng, a native of Huai 'an, wrote a famous poem "Seven Hairs", in which there was a passage in which Wu Ke advised the King of Chu to taste all kinds of delicious food in the world, including bamboo shoots, tripe, dog soup with stone ears, stewed bear's paw, five-flavor sauce, roasted animal loin slices, carp, pheasant, leopard tires, autumn vegetables and so on. Yangzhou has realized the transformation from natural division to administrative division. In the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Ying, the king of Wu, established Guangling as the capital of southeast China, hence the name "Huaizuo Du Ming". Because of the benefit of cooking salt and casting copper, it is rich in financial resources, elegant scholars and generous countries. Bao Zhao's "Wu Cheng Fu" says: "In the past, when flowers bloomed, cars hung on their shoulders, people rode on their shoulders, and songs fluttered!" Yangzhou people are rich and have bulging pockets. Naturally, I am not hungry, and then I am full and eat well. The bronze ding unearthed from Han tombs in the suburbs of Yangzhou, as well as lacquered utensils such as bowls, plates, pots and spoons, are all very exquisite, which not only tells us that the development and research of tableware in Yangzhou is in a leading position in the country and has its own personality; But also reflects the diet of Yangzhou people at that time. In the spring of Song Dynasty, Ouyang Xiu, a great literary master, brought the gospel to Yangzhou cuisine. This drunkard often holds banquets with guests in Pingshan Hall. His articles are too defensive and full of words. From then on, Su Shi also learned about Yangzhou. He cooked fish maw and chicken head with four gentlemen flying snow, which created a precedent of injecting fresh blood into Huaiyang cuisine, and the elegant and handsome literati style of Huaiyang cuisine was born from this, which lasted forever. The collision between North and South cuisines finally broke out again in Yangzhou. In AD 1 125, Song Huizong fled to Yangzhou City in panic when the Jin people invaded, and hundreds of sheep were cooked by spring lanterns in the small town to eat and drink; A year later, Qin Hui was exiled, and Emperor Gaozong and 40,000 members of his country's royal family also fled to Yangzhou City. "Walking in" is not empty talk, but also wants to eat and drink! Although Yangzhou was plundered, it is also a fact that the catering industry developed abnormally under the background of national subjugation. From then on, the court favored Yang, and Yangzhou became the crossroads of the Song and Jin regimes. There is confrontation and docking between north and south food cultures. Yangzhou, a city full of delicious food and wine, set up the "Koryo Pavilion" and set up nine dishes according to the system of the imperial banquet in Lin 'an.
The emperor's journey is undoubtedly equivalent to holding a national cooking skill competition and a great exchange of food culture in Yangzhou, which is naturally conducive to the formation and development of Huaiyang cuisine. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the salt industry in Huaihe River (south of Huaihe River and north of Huaihe River) was quite developed, and it was the largest salt area in China. Yangzhou salt merchants earn huge sums of money from all walks of life in the process of managing salt industry, which can be described as "as rich as an enemy". Due to the need of communication with the government and business entertainment, coupled with showing off wealth and eating, drinking and having fun in time, many salt merchants are "naked and naked"; Tableware should be prepared for craftsmanship; You will be happy, you will dance and you will sing; Feast and play, almost no virtual day ... arrogance and extravagance, habits. Salt merchants are everywhere, especially Yangzhou. "
It is worth noting that due to the improvement of consumption level, commercial competition and the creation of chefs, the famous "Red Chamber Banquet and Manchu-Han Banquet" appeared in Yangzhou in the Qing Dynasty, which shows that the level of Yangzhou chefs in the late Qing Dynasty was really high.
During these two periods, especially during the Kanggan period, Huaiyang cuisine entered the second climax.
The Yuan Dynasty listed Yangzhou as the grain supply base of the imperial palace. In the 16th year of Yuan Dynasty, the Eagle House in Yangzhou captured the Red Mansion in Lu Hua, and was responsible for fishing and hunting in the wild places of lakes and mountains for dining in the inner room.
Zhu Yuanzhang had a special liking for Huaiyang cuisine, and ordered Chu Yang to specialize in internal meals. This is the official record of Huaiyang cuisine taking root in Beijing; Emperor Zhengde's southern tour of Yangzhou, the prince and the geisha, of course, did not forget Huaiyang cuisine, and everything could not be left behind. Their favorite foods are shad, saury and squid, which are all specialties in Yangzhou area and are called the Three Immortals of the Yangtze River. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the Records of Yangzhou recorded: "Yangzhou's diet was extravagant, its system was exquisite, its products were common, and it boasted of its river surface ..." It showed that Yangzhou's diet at that time was ostentatious, exquisite and rich, and it was already proud of Jiangnan. In the Qing Dynasty, Huaibei was a prosperous and prosperous town, and the pivotal position of salt transportation made Yangzhou sit on the throne of the southeast catering center, which led to the emergence of "the most luxurious banquet in the north of the Yangtze River" (official record of Kangxi Yangzhou in the Qing Dynasty). One of the most important factors is the emperor's favor. Huaiyang cuisine has greatly increased its influence in the imperial dining hall of the Forbidden City. Besides fruits and spices, 65,438+0,052 game such as wild geese, pheasants and quails are needed every year. During the reign of Qing Qianlong, Baoying handed over about 1.28 thousand Jin of lotus root starch every year, in addition to Qin Gong meatballs, Qinyou winter soup, Jieshou dried tea and other local products. According to "Palace Diet", there are more than 100 kinds of dishes that the Qing emperor likes to eat, including more than 60 kinds of Huaiyang-style dishes such as braised lion's head and stir-fried shrimp. A typical example is Cao Yin, the grandfather of Cao Xueqin, the author of A Dream of Red Mansions. He is a salt supervisor in Yangzhou and contributes southern flavor to Emperor Kangxi every year.
Kangxi, Qianlong's southern tour and Huaiyang cuisine are even more grand. According to the record of Yangzhou boathouse, "before and after going to the street, there are big kitchens in the hall to prevent the boss from having a hundred lawsuits for drinking." State banquets are mainly based on Huaiyang cuisine, especially in modern times. The reasons are as follows: First, because it is exquisite and delicate, including knife method, temperature, collocation, modeling, etc., all of which reflect kung fu; Second, the ingredients are simple and easy to get, unlike the representative dishes in Guangdong, which are all raw seafood, or even internationally protected animals, such as shark's fin and other foods that have been banned; Third, the taste is light or sweet, unlike Sichuan food, which may bring discomfort to guests.
However, Weiyang cuisine is not as popular as Sichuan cuisine and Hunan cuisine because of its delicious taste, time-consuming workmanship and light or sweet taste.