So, what are the three styles of Shandong cuisine? Come and have a look with me!
Jinan gourmet
Chefs in Jinan use rich resources to learn from others, from delicious food to fruits and vegetables. The dishes are fragrant, tender and pure in taste. "One dish is blind, and a hundred dishes are not heavy." They pay attention to materials and knives, and belong to Chun Xue in Shandong cuisine.
Jinan cuisine makes good use of soup, clear soup is fresh, and milk soup is white and mellow. In the famous Book of Qi Yao Min in the Northern Wei Dynasty, a kind of soup was recorded, which was repeatedly boiled with chicken, duck and pork chops, but the soup finally boiled was as clear as tea. "Sweet and sour Yellow River Carp" is a traditional dish in Jinan cuisine. In the Book of Songs, there is a record of eating the Yellow River carp: "Eating its fish is the carp of the river". According to legend, after Confucius got his son, Duke Zhao of Lu presented carp as a gift, and Confucius named his son Kong Li.
In addition, the Taishan flavor, which is not far apart, also overflows here. With more and more temples built in Mount Tai, monks and Taoists are in an endless stream, and incense is flourishing, so vegetarian dishes with elegant colors and smooth taste are quite popular. For example, the Taishan Tofu Banquet began when the ancient emperors came to Taishan to worship Zen, "being a vegetarian and keeping your body and mind clean".
Jiaodong cuisine
Jiaodong cuisine originated in Fushan and has a history of more than 700 years. Local people are good at cooking and have produced many cooking families. There is a small village called Luanjiazhuang in the north of Fushan, with a big name. It is said that some people in this village served royal meals to the emperor in the palace, which was very appreciated by the emperor. When he retired in his later years and returned to his hometown, the dishes cooked by other chefs were difficult to satisfy the emperor. Finally, the emperor had to send someone to take him back to the palace with half a pair of horses (only the emperor can bring one) and continue to cook for the emperor.
Because of its proximity to the sea, Jiaodong cuisine has inherited the custom of eating fish from coastal ancestors. When cooking seafood, the taste is fresh and light, and little seasoning is used to enhance the taste, but the flavor is complex and subtle. For example, a single fish can be made into hundreds of varieties, such as fried liver diced fish, fried fish slices, sweet and sour fish pieces, three treasures wrapped fish and eight treasures stuffed fish, which is amazing.
Confucius cuisine
Confucius is a gourmet. He is not only "never tired of eating essence, never tired of eating", but also has a series of "don't eat" opinions, such as "the fish is hungry and the meat is defeated, the color is evil and the food is tired, the food is not hungry, and from time to time, the sauce will not be eaten when it is not right ...". With the prosperity of Confucius, the emphasis on eating vegetables has become more and more meticulous and rich. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Shandong cuisine entered the court in large quantities and became a treasure of imperial cuisine. In order to flaunt the heart of respecting sages, Emperor Qianlong visited Confucius' House eight times and married his daughter to Confucius' 72nd generation grandson Kong Xianpei. There is a set of "silver, copper and tin for Han banquet, antique pictographic fire and water tableware" in the dowry, which further promotes the development of the wonderful "Confucian cuisine" in Shandong cuisine to a high, refined and sharp direction.
As the only dish in the aristocratic residence of China, Confucian cuisine pays attention to "color, fragrance, taste, shape, container, meaning and treatment". Among them, "utensils" means that food needs beautiful utensils to dress up. The utensils of Confucius banquet are exquisite in shape and exquisite in craftsmanship. The materials are porcelain, gold, silver, copper and tin, and the shapes are square, round, ingot, gossip and cloud. Fish is in the shape of fish, and duck is in the shape of duck, which is very imaginative.