There is no specific one uniform cuisine of the Han people since the food eaten varies from Sichuan's famously spicy food to Guangdong's dim sum and fresh seafood. Analyses have revealed their main staple to be rice and noodles (different kinds of wheat foods). During China's Neolithic period, southwestern rice growers transitioned to millet from the northwest, when they could not find a suitable northwestern ecology – which was typically dry and cold – to sustain the generous yields of their staple as well as it did in other areas, such as along the eastern Chinese coast.
Food
Han Chinese
Han Chinese | Food
Spicy food to dim sum and fresh seafood. Sichuan's famously spicy food, Guangdong's dim sum There is no specific one uniform cuisine of the Han people since the food eaten varies from Sichuan's famously spicy food to Guangdong's dim sum and fresh seafood. Sichuan's famously spicy food to Guangdong's dim sum and fresh seafood; main staple are rice and noodles.
who was don bradman?
user
He was an Australian international cricketer.
assistant
where was he born?
user
Cootamundra, New South Wales (NSW).
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what is the climate like in the latter?
user
Arid to semi arid climate with rainfall.
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what languages are spoken here?
user
English, Mandarin, Arabic, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Greek.
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where is the fourth one commonly spoken?
user
Guangzhou and its surrounding area in Southeastern China.
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was this place a center of any revolution?
user
Yes, the Uprisings of 1895 and 1911.
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does it have a twin town ?
user
Yes.
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people of which ethnic groups can be found here?
user
Han Chinese.
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can you name any dynasty belonging to this ethnicity?
user
The Han dynasty.
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what is a famous cuisine of this race?
user
There is no specific one uniform cuisine of the Han people since the food eaten varies from Sichuan's famously spicy food to Guangdong's dim sum and fresh seafood. Analyses have revealed their main staple to be rice and noodles (different kinds of wheat foods). During China's Neolithic period, southwestern rice growers transitioned to millet from the northwest, when they could not find a suitable northwestern ecology – which was typically dry and cold – to sustain the generous yields of their staple as well as it did in other areas, such as along the eastern Chinese coast.
Han Chinese | Food
Seasonings mentioned in the recipes include sugar, honey, soy sauce, and salt. Recipes in the Han usually called for meat stuffed in cereals, cakes, and other wrappings. Like their modern counterparts, the Han-era Chinese used chopsticks as eating utensils. For drinking beverages, wealthy people during Han often used cups with golden handles and inlaid with silver. For the poor, hemp was the common item used to make clothing, while the rich could afford silk clothes. Silk clothes found in Han tombs include padded robes, double-layered robes, single-layered robes, single-layered skirts, shoes, socks, and mittens. The wealthy also wore fox and badger furs, wild duck plumes, and slippers with inlaid leather or silk lining; those of more modest means could wear wool and ferret skins.
Society and culture of the Han dynasty | Clothing and cuisine
The most common agricultural food staples during Han were wheat, barley, rice, foxtail millet, proso millet, and beans. People of the Han also consumed sorghum, Job's tears, taro, mallow, mustard green, melon, bottle gourd, bamboo shoot, the roots of lotus plants, and ginger. Some of the fruits the Han ate included the chestnut, jujube, pear, peach, plum (including the plum of "Prunus salicina" and "Prunus mume"), melon, apricot, red bayberry, and strawberry. The Han Chinese domesticated and ate chickens, Mandarin ducks, geese, camels, cows, sheep, pigs, and dogs. The type of game animals hunted during the Han included rabbit, sika deer, turtle dove, goose, owl, Chinese bamboo partridge, magpie, common pheasant, and cranes, while fish and turtles were taken from streams and lakes.
Society and culture of the Han dynasty | Clothing and cuisine
Beer—which could be an unfermented malt drink with low alcohol content or a stronger brew fermented with yeast—was commonly consumed alongside meat, but virtually never consumed alongside grains such as rice. Wine was also regularly consumed. The 2nd-century-BCE tomb of the Lady Dai contained not only decayed remnants of actual food, such as rice, wheat, barley, two varieties of millet, and soybeans, but also a grave inventory with recipes on it. This included vegetable and meat stews cooked in pots, which had combinations such as beef and rice stew, dog meat and celery stew, and even deer, fish, and bamboo shoot stew.
Society and culture of the Han dynasty | Clothing and cuisine
Arguably all branches of Hong Kong eastern style are in some ways rooted from the original dynastic cuisines. "Manhan Quanxi", literally "Manchu Han Imperial Feast" was one of the grandest meals ever documented in Chinese cuisine. It consisted of at least 108 unique dishes from the Manchu and Han Chinese culture during the Qing dynasty, and it is only reserved and intended for the Emperors. The meal was held for three whole days, across six banquets. The culinary skills consisted of cooking methods from all over Imperial China. When the Manchus conquered China and founded the Qing dynasty, the Manchu and Han Chinese peoples struggled for power.
Chinese culture | Food culture
The most common staple crops consumed during Han were wheat, barley, foxtail millet, proso millet, rice, and beans. Commonly eaten fruits and vegetables included chestnuts, pears, plums, peaches, melons, apricots, strawberries, red bayberries, jujubes, calabash, bamboo shoots, mustard plant and taro. Domesticated animals that were also eaten included chickens, Mandarin ducks, geese, cows, sheep, pigs, camels and dogs (various types were bred specifically for food, while most were used as pets). Turtles and fish were taken from streams and lakes. Commonly hunted game, such as owl, pheasant, magpie, sika deer, and Chinese bamboo partridge were consumed. Seasonings included sugar, honey, salt and soy sauce.
Han dynasty | Food
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties non-Han people like the Xianbei of Northern Wei introduced their cuisine to northern China, and these influences continued up to the Tang dynasty, popularizing meat like mutton and dairy products like goat milk, yogurts, and kumis among even Han people. It was during the Song dynasty that Han Chinese developed an aversion to dairy products and abandoned the dairy foods introduced earlier. The Han Chinese rebel Wang Su, who received asylum in the Xianbei Northern Wei after fleeing from Southern Qi, at first could not stand eating dairy products like goat's milk and meat like mutton and had to consume tea and fish instead, but after a few years he was able to eat yogurt and lamb, and the Xianbei Emperor asked him which of the foods of China (Zhongguo) he preferred, fish versus mutton and tea versus yogurt.
History of Chinese cuisine | Southern and Northern dynasties
Beer and wine were regularly consumed.
Han dynasty | Food
Large bamboo-matted suitcases found in Han tombs contained clothes and luxury items such as patterned fabric and embroidery, common silk, damask and brocade, and the leno (or gauze) weave, all with rich colors and designs. The Han also had tools for ironing clothes.
Society and culture of the Han dynasty | Clothing and cuisine
This catered to capital officials whose native provinces were in the southeast, and would have found northern cuisine lacking in seasoning for their tastes. In fact, texts from the Song era provide the first use of the phrases "nanshi", "beishi", and "chuanfan" to refer specifically to northern, southern, and Sichuan cooking, respectively. Many restaurants were known for their specialties; for example, there was one restaurant in Hangzhou that served only iced foods, while some restaurants catered to those who wanted either hot, warm, room temperature, or cold foods. Descendants of those from Kaifeng owned most of the restaurants found in Hangzhou, but many other regional varieties in foodstuffs and cooking were sponsored by restaurants.
History of Chinese cuisine | Liao, Song and Jurchen Jin dynasties
Not long after the expansion of the Chinese Empire during the Qin dynasty, Han writers noted the great differences in culinary practices among the different parts of their realm. These differences followed to a great extent the varying climates and availabilities of foodstuffs in China. Many writers tried their hands at classification, but since internal political boundaries over the centuries did not coincide with shifting cultural identities, there was no way to establish clear-cut or enduring classifications or ranking of foods and cooking styles. Different ethnic groups might occupy only small areas, but their cuisines were included in systematic lists from early on.
History of Chinese cuisine | Classifications
This catered to capital officials whose native provinces were in the southeast, and would have found northern cuisine lacking in sufficient seasoning for their tastes. In fact, texts from the Song era provide the first use of the phrases "nanshi", "beishi", and "chuanfan" to refer specifically to northern, southern, and Sichuan cooking, respectively. Many restaurants were known for their specialties; for example, there was one restaurant in Hangzhou that served only iced foods, while some restaurants catered to those who wanted either hot, warm, room temperature, or cold foods. Descendants of those from Kaifeng owned most of the restaurants found in Hangzhou, but many other regional varieties in foodstuffs and cooking were sponsored by restaurants.
Culture of the Song dynasty | Food and cuisine
Legendary accounts of the introduction of agriculture by Shennong credit him for first cultivating the "Five Grains", although the lists vary and very often include seeds like hemp and sesame principally used for oils and flavoring. The list in the "Classic of Rites" comprises soybeans, wheat, broomcorn and foxtail millet, and hemp. The Ming encyclopedist Song Yingxing properly noted that rice was not counted among the Five Grains cultivated by Shennong because southern China had not yet been settled or cultivated by the Han, but many accounts of the Five Grains do place rice on their lists. The most common staple crops consumed during the Han Dynasty were wheat, barley, rice, foxtail and broomcorn millet, and beans.
History of Chinese cuisine | Early dynastic times
Dessert molds of oiled flour and sugared honey were shaped into girls' faces or statuettes of soldiers with full armor like door guards, and were called "likeness foods" ("guoshi").
Culture of the Song dynasty | Food and cuisine
The records of the Imperial Banqueting Court () published in the late Qing period showed there were several levels of Manchu banquets () and Chinese banquets (). The royal Manchu Han Imperial Feast is one that combined both traditions.
History of Chinese cuisine | Qing dynasty
It is said that there were "Thirty-Two Delicacies," referring to the more exotic ingredients used for the banquet. The "Eight Mountain Delicacies" includes such dishes as camel's hump, bear's paws, monkey's brains, ape's lips, leopard fetuses, rhinoceros tails, and deer tendons. The "Eight Land Delicacies" includes several precious fowls and mushrooms, and the "Eight Sea Delicacies" includes dried sea cucumbers, shark's fin, bird's nest and others. Some of the individual names of the dishes within:
Manchu–Han Imperial Feast | The meal
The Kangxi Emperor wanted to resolve the disputes so he held a banquet during his 66th birthday celebrations. The banquet consisted of Manchu and Han dishes, with officials from both ethnic groups attending the banquet together. After the Wuchang Uprising, common people learned about the imperial banquet. The original meal was served in the Forbidden City in Beijing.
Chinese culture | Food culture
Commonly eaten fruits and vegetables included chestnuts, pears, plums, peaches, melons, apricots, red bayberries, jujubes, calabash, bamboo shoots, mustard greens, and taro. Domesticated animals that were also eaten included chickens, Mandarin ducks, geese, sheep, pigs, camels, and dogs. Turtles and fish were taken from streams and lakes. The owl, pheasant, magpie, sika deer, and Chinese bamboo partridge were commonly hunted and consumed. Seasonings included sugar, honey, salt and soy sauce. Beer and yellow wine were regularly consumed, although "baijiu" was not available until much later. During the Han dynasty, Chinese developed methods of food preservation for military rations during campaigns such as drying meat into jerky and cooking, roasting, and drying grain.
History of Chinese cuisine | Early dynastic times
Salt was used as a preservative from early times, but in cooking was added in the form of soy sauce, and not at the table. By the Later Han period (2nd century), writers frequently complained of lazy aristocrats who did nothing but sit around all day eating smoked meats and roasts.
Chinese cuisine | History
The term "Huaxia" was used by Confucius's contemporaries, during the Warring States era, to describe the shared ethnicity of all Chinese; Chinese people called themselves "Hua Ren". Southern Han people – such as the Hoklo, Cantonese and Hakka – all claim northern Chinese origins from ancestors who migrated from Northern China's Yellow River Valley during the 4th to 12th centuries. Hoklo clans living in southeastern coastal China, such as in Chaozhou and Quanzhou–Zhangzhou, originated from northern China's Henan province during the Tang dynasty. There were several periods of mass migration of Han people to southeastern and southern China throughout history.
Han Chinese | Historical southward migration of the Han people
From the Song period, works such as Dongjing Meng Hua Lu (Dreams of Splendor of the Eastern Capital) preserve lists of names for entrées and food dishes in customer menus for restaurants and taverns, as well as for feasts at banquets, festivals and carnivals, and modest dining. Many of the peculiar names for these dishes do not provide clues as to what types of food ingredients were used. However, judging from the listed seasonings they used for these dishes, such as pepper, ginger, soya sauce, oil, salt, and vinegar, Song era cuisine is perhaps not too different from the Chinese cuisine of today.
Culture of the Song dynasty | Food and cuisine
Many Chinese scholars such as Ho Ping-ti believe that the concept (ethnogenesis) of Han ethnicity, though an ancient one, was formally entrenched in the Han dynasty. The Han dynasty is considered one of the golden ages of Chinese history, and to this day, the modern Han Chinese people have since taken their ethnic name from this dynasty and the Chinese script is referred to as "Han characters".
Han Chinese | Han dynasty
Han-era historians like Sima Qian (145–86 BC) and Ban Gu (32–92 AD), as well as the later historian Fan Ye (398–445 AD), recorded details of the business transactions and products traded by Han merchants. Evidence of these products has also emerged from archaeological investigations. The main agricultural staple foods during the Han dynasty were foxtail millet, proso millet, rice (including glutinous rice), wheat, beans, and barley. Other food items included sorghum, taro, mallow, mustard plant, jujube, pear, plum (including "Prunus salicina" and "Prunus mume"), peach, apricot, and myrica. Chicken, duck, goose, beef, pork, rabbit, sika deer, turtle dove, owl, Chinese bamboo partridge, magpie, common pheasant, crane, and various types of fish were commonly consumed meats.
Economy of the Han dynasty | Traded goods and commodities
Other additional seasonings and ingredients included walnuts, turnips, crushed Chinese cardamon kernels, fagara, olives, ginkgo nuts, citrus zest, and sesame oil. Regional differences in ecology and culture produced different styles of cooking. In the turmoil of the Southern Song, refugees brought cooking traditions of regional cultures to the capital at Hangzhou. After the mass exodus from the north, people brought Henan-style cooking and foods (popular in the previous Northern Song capital at Kaifeng) to Hangzhou, which was blended with the cooking traditions of Zhejiang. However, records indicate that already in the Northern Song period, the first capital at Kaifeng sported restaurants that served southern Chinese cuisine.
History of Chinese cuisine | Liao, Song and Jurchen Jin dynasties
(皆惡廚陋習。只可用之於新親上門，上司入境)
Qing dynasty | Cuisine
Confucius has been deified and glorified in Chinese history, and has been posthumously awarded numerous ranks and titles by various Chinese emperors in Chinese history. The descendants of Confucius enjoyed the special privilege and status rewarded by the Chinese imperial dynasties, and Confucian cuisine is the cuisine developed by these descendants of Confucius as a result of such special social status. The special social status is further strengthened by the fact that in Qing Dynasty, one of the Confucius’ offspring married to Qianlong Emperor’s daughter. The majority of the dishes of the Confucian cuisine can directly trace their origin to Qianlong era.
Chinese aristocrat cuisine | Confucian cuisine
Wang and his father made and sold their homemade Liang Pi Cold-Skin Noodles, Spicy Cumin Lamb Burgers, hand-ripped noodles and other specialties, offering a taste of home to their own ethnic community. “We’re going to keep it pure, because that’s what people are coming to us for,” Wang told the New York Times.
Xi'an Famous Foods | History
In the English language, ""Zhongguo ren"" (; "People of China") is frequently confused and conflated with ""Han ren"" (; "Han people"). Dynasties of ethnic Han origin only used ""Zhongguo"" (; "Middle Kingdom") to explicitly refer to Han areas of their empire. The Ming dynasty used "Zhongguo" to refer to only Han areas of the empire, excluding areas populated by ethnic minorities under Ming rule from being defined as part of "Zhongguo". The Xianbei-led Northern Wei referred to itself as ""Zhongguo"" and claimed yogurt as a food of "Zhongguo". Similarly, the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty referred to itself as ""Zhongguo"".
Conquest dynasty | Scope of China ("Zhongguo")
This included fried tripe, pieces of mutton or goose, soups of various kinds, hot pancakes, steamed pancakes, and iced cakes. Noodle shops were also popular, and remained open all day and night along the Imperial Way. According to one Song Dynasty source on Kaifeng, the night markets closed at the third night watch but reopened on the fifth, while they had also gained a reputation for staying open during winter storms and the darkest, rainiest days of winter. Food historians have branded a claim that human meat was served in Hangzhou restaurants during the Song dynasty as unlikely.
History of Chinese cuisine | Liao, Song and Jurchen Jin dynasties
Although grape-based wine had been known in China since the ancient Han dynasty Chinese ventured into Hellenistic Central Asia, grape-wine was often reserved for the elite. Besides wine, other beverages included pear juice, lychee fruit juice, honey and ginger drinks, tea, and pawpaw juice. Dairy products and farming were foreign concepts to the Chinese, which explains the absence of cheese and milk in their diet. Beef was also rarely eaten, since the bull was an important draft animal. The main diet of the lower classes remained rice, pork, and salted fish, while it is known from restaurant dinner menus that the upper classes did not eat dog meat.
Culture of the Song dynasty | Food and cuisine
Hunan cuisine is very famous of its use of chili peppers and has a history of cooking skills employed in it dating back to the 17th century. Mao Zedong once told Otto Braun: “"The food of the true revolutionary is the red pepper, and he who cannot endure red peppers is also unable to fight".”
Hunanese people | Cuisine
Imperial, royal and noble preference played a role in the changes in Chinese cuisines over time. Because of imperial expansion and trading, ingredients and cooking techniques from other cultures were integrated into Chinese cuisines over time. The overwhelmingly large variety of Chinese cuisine comes mainly from the practice of the dynastic periods, when emperors would host banquets with over 100 dishes per meal. A countless number of imperial kitchen staff and concubines were involved in the food preparation process. Over time, many dishes became part of the everyday citizen’s cuisine. Some of the highest quality restaurants with recipes close to the dynastic periods include Fangshan restaurant in Beihai Park Beijing and the Oriole Pavilion.
Chinese culture | Food culture
A large number of exquisite ceramic cookware and wine utensils unearthed from the Southern Neolithic site, as well as the remains of cereals and animals, confirmed that the ancestors of Hunan people had eaten cooked food as early as 8000-9000 years ago. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Hunan was mainly where the Chu people lived. Multi-ethnic groups live in different parts of Hunan with different eating habits. Various dishes have strict requirements on color, smell, taste and shape. At that time, the ancestors had more than ten cooking methods, including burning, roasting, stewing, frying, and boiling. The cooking method of Hunan cuisine in the Han Dynasty was further developed.
Culture of Hunan | History
280 recipes are found in the Jia Sixie's text the Qimin Yaoshu.
History of Chinese cuisine | Southern and Northern dynasties
As Hu Sihui states, a large variety of foods were known in the court since Kublai Khan and this novelty needed special research as to its influence on health. Taken as a collection of recipes and ingredients alone, his book is a tremendously important description of Medieval food of Eurasia. The section of recipes starts with a variety soups, barley, then noodles and breads. Many recipes represent Central and West Asian cooking traditions, roughly translated into Chinese categories, some even translated from Turkic languages. Two examples of recipes are:
Hu Sihui | "Yinshan Zhengyao"
These restaurants featured regional cuisines. Gourmets wrote of their preferences. All these Song phenomena were not found until much later in Europe. There are many surviving lists of entrées and food dishes in customer menus for restaurants and taverns, as well as for feasts at banquets, festivals and carnivals, and modest dining, most copiously in the memoir Dongjing Meng Hua Lu (Dreams of Splendor of the Eastern Capital). Many of the peculiar names for these dishes do not provide clues as to what types of food ingredients were used. However, the scholar Jacques Gernet, judging from the seasonings used, such as pepper, ginger, soya sauce, oil, salt, and vinegar, suggests that the cuisine of Hangzhou was not too different from the Chinese cuisine of today.
History of Chinese cuisine | Liao, Song and Jurchen Jin dynasties
The name is also used extensively in product names in the food industry, such usage evident as brands of sauces and instant noodles by various companies. An abridged version of the Cantonese version of the imperial meal was depicted in "Mister Ajikko", where the dessert: Almond Tofu dessert is used as a contest against the expert in the dish: A corrupt monk in the Cuisine Temple.
Manchu–Han Imperial Feast | In popular culture
All ethnicities who were of the literati were possibly called Haner because ethnic Xianbei were referred to as "damned Chinese" by the Northern Qi. Appearing as culturally Xianbei and at the same time declaring Han Chinese ancestry was done by Gao Huan and the Han family. The Han Chinese Gao family of Bohai (渤海高氏) was claimed by Gao Huan as his ancestors.
Chinese nobility | Between Han and Sui
Many Uyghur dishes are also found among other ethnic groups in Central Asia, and their food also shows Han Chinese influence. In particular, the Han introduced many vegetables to the Xinjiang diet, as are reflected in Uyghur loanwords for vegetables like "xuangga" (, "huángguā", "cucumber") and "chäyza" (, "qiézi", "eggplant"). Prestigious meals at urban Uyghur life events, such as wedding banquets, typically feature food cooked using Han techniques like "so säy" (from , "chǎocài", "stir-fry"). Chinese dining etiquette is also followed in Ürümqi: a meal will start with "liang säy" (, "liángcài", "cold dishes") and "issiq säy" (, "rècài", "hot dishes") served family style.
Uyghur cuisine | Primary dishes
Cuisine aroused a cultural pride in the richness of a long and varied past. The gentleman gourmet, such as Yuan Mei, applied aesthetic standards to the art of cooking, eating, and appreciation of tea at a time when New World crops and products entered everyday life. Yuan's "Suiyuan Shidan" expounded culinary aesthetics and theory, along with a range of recipes. The Manchu–Han Imperial Feast originated at the court. Although this banquet was probably never common, it reflected an appreciation of Manchu culinary customs. Nevertheless, culinary traditionalists such as Yuan Mei lambasted the opulence of the Manchu Han Feast. Yuan wrote that the feast was caused in part by the "vulgar habits of bad chefs" and that "displays this trite are useful only for welcoming new relations through one's gates or when the boss comes to visit".
Qing dynasty | Cuisine
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Cold-Food Powder | Han Dynasty
They began to take on this role during the Han dynasty, but it was not until the Ming that they became ubiquitous for both serving and eating. It was not until the Ming that they acquired their present name (, "kuaizi") and their present shape. The wok may also have been introduced during the Han, but again its initial use was limited (to drying grains) and its present use (to stir-fry, as well as boiling, steaming, roasting, and deep-frying) did not develop until the Ming. The Ming also saw the adoption of new plants from the New World, such as maize, peanuts, and tobacco.
History of Chinese cuisine | Overview
Although there are plenty of meats, they should not be cooked more than staple food. There is no limit for alcohol, before a man gets drunk." During Shi Huangdi's Qin dynasty, the empire expanded into the south. By the time of the Han dynasty, the different regions and cuisines of China's people were linked by major canals and leading to a greater complexity in the different regional cuisines. Not only is food seen as giving "qi", energy, but food is also about maintaining yin and yang. The philosophy behind it was rooted in the "I Ching" and Chinese traditional medicine: food was judged for color, aroma, taste, and texture and a good meal was expected to balance the Four Natures ('hot', warm, cool, and 'cold') and the Five Tastes (pungent, sweet, sour, bitter, and salty).
Chinese cuisine | History
The prehistory of the Han Chinese is closely intertwined with both archaeology, biology, historical textual records and mythology. The ethnic stock to which the Han Chinese originally trace their ancestry from were confederations of late Neolithic and early Bronze Age agricultural tribes known as the Huaxia that lived along the Guanzhong and Yellow River basins in Northern China. In addition, numerous ethnic groups were assimilated and absorbed by the Han Chinese at various points in China's history. Like many modern ethnic groups, the ethnogenesis of Han Chinese was a long and lengthy process that involved the expansion of the Chinese dynasties and their assimilation of various non-Chinese ethnic groups that became sinicised over the centuries.
Han Chinese | Prehistory
Therefore, meat and bean products were not as popular as they were in the former dynasties. In the Qing dynasty, a famous dish was sweet potatoes. Maize and chili peppers were also introduced in around the mid-16th century. Other famous dishes including shark's fin soup and edible bird's nest also gained their fame during this period. Those two dishes were introduced to China by the explorer Zheng He in the early Ming dynasty. While these two dishes were becoming examples of extravagant dishes, sea cucumbers and prawns were also brought into China. Many famous cooks and chefs such as Song Wusao and Wang Eryu emerged in the Ming dynasty.
Chinese imperial cuisine | Imperial cuisine in the Ming dynasty
This left them unable to cook their staple grains like rice and millet or most other forms of Chinese food. At first, the most common dish was a cold form of uncooked congee or gruel; later, a menu developed of items that were precooked but kept long enough that they could be eaten unheated during the festival. From the 2nd to the 5th century, Zhou Ju (, , "Zhōu Jǔ"), Cao Cao, Shi Le, and Tuoba or Yuan Hong all attempted to ban this Cold Food Festival because of the suffering that it caused children and the elderly. All failed, in Shi Le's case because a massive hailstorm across all of Shanxi the year after his ban required that he adjust the policy.
Jie Zhitui | Legacy
The term Manchu–Han Imperial Feast (, also Comprehensive Manchu–Han Banquet) refers to a grand banquet held sometime in the Qing dynasty of China (1644–1911). One of the grandest meals ever documented in Chinese culinary history, the banquet reportedly consisted of 108 dishes served in six meals over the course of three days. The dishes themselves involved exotic ingredients and a variety of cooking techniques from every part of Imperial China.
Manchu–Han Imperial Feast | Introduction
It is one of the largest provinces in terms of area and is also considered as the originating place of the Chinese style of cooking. The cuisine is known by various names due to being used under different dynasties such as Yu cuisine and Zhongyuan. The province has been surrounded by regions from all sides shows the collaboration of the cooking style and culinary adherence and adaptation from them, which makes an exquisite style. However, there has been disagreement among the Hans Chinese relating to the originating style of the cuisine because the province always been a political and economic center in the past, making it almost impossible to trace the historical development of the cuisine.
Henan cuisine | Cultural Relevance of Henan Cuisine
Mongolian hotpot is very famous in China, and popular with the Han ethnic group too.
Chinese regional cuisine | Mongolian
Writers during the Western Zhou and Han dynasties derived ancestral lineages based on Shang dynasty-era legendary materials, while the Han dynasty historian Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian" places the reign of the Yellow Emperor, the legendary leader of Youxiong tribes (), at the beginning of Chinese history. The Yellow Emperor is traditionally credited to have united with the neighbouring Shennong tribes after defeating their leader, the Yan Emperor, at the Battle of Banquan. The newly merged Yanhuang tribes then combined forces to defeat their common enemy from the east, Chiyou of the Jiuli () tribes, at the Battle of Zhuolu, and established their cultural dominance in the Central Plain region.
Han Chinese | Prehistory
The fascination with exotics from the diverse range of the Tang empire and the search for plants and animals which promoted health and longevity were two of the factors encouraging diversity in Tang dynasty diet. During the Tang, the many common foodstuffs and cooking ingredients in addition to those already listed were barley, garlic, salt, turnips, soybeans, pears, apricots, peaches, apples, pomegranates, jujubes, rhubarb, hazelnuts, pine nuts, chestnuts, walnuts, yams, taro, etc. The various meats that were consumed included pork, chicken, lamb (especially preferred in the north), sea otter, bear (which was hard to catch, but there were recipes for steamed, boiled, and marinated bear), and even Bactrian camels.
History of Chinese cuisine | Tang Dynasty
The most famous Chinese imperial cuisine restaurants are both located in Beijing: "Fang Shan" () in Beihai Park and "Ting Li Ting" () in the Summer Palace. Styles and tastes of Chinese imperial cuisine vary from dynasty to dynasty. Every dynasty has its own distinguishing features. The two famous styles of Chinese imperial cuisine are from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Many famous dishes emerged in these dynasties, such as Wensi tofu and Peking duck.
Chinese imperial cuisine | Introduction
In the south along the coast meat from seafood was by default the most common, as the Chinese enjoyed eating cooked jellyfish with cinnamon, Sichuan pepper, cardamom, and ginger, as well as oysters with wine, fried squid with ginger and vinegar, horseshoe crabs and red crabs, shrimp, and pufferfish, which the Chinese called 'river piglet'. Some foods were also off-limits, as the Tang court encouraged people not to eat beef (since the bull was a valuable draft animal), and from 831 to 833 Emperor Wenzong of Tang banned the slaughter of cattle on the grounds of his religious convictions to Buddhism.
History of Chinese cuisine | Tang Dynasty
During the Yuan dynasty Mongolian rulers divided people into four classes: Mongols, Semu or "Colour-eyeds", Hans, and "Southerns". Northern Chinese were called Han, which was considered to be the highest class of Chinese. This class "Han" includes all ethnic groups in northern China including Khitan and Jurchen who have in most part sinicized during the last two hundreds years. The name "Han" became popularly accepted. During the Qing dynasty, the Manchu rulers also used the name Han to distinguish the local Chinese from the Manchus. After the fall of the Qing government, the Han became the name of a nationality within China.
Names of China | Han
When the Manchus conquered China and founded the Qing dynasty, the Manchu and Han Chinese peoples struggled for power. The Kangxi Emperor wanted to resolve the disputes, so he held a banquet during his 66th birthday celebrations. The banquet consisted of Manchu and Han dishes, with officials from both ethnic groups attending the banquet together. After the Wuchang Uprising, common people learned about the imperial banquet. The original meal was served in the Forbidden City in Beijing.
Manchu–Han Imperial Feast | Qing dynasty
Other additional seasonings and ingredients included walnuts, turnips, crushed Chinese cardamon kernels, fagara, olives, ginkgo nuts, citrus zest, and sesame oil. Regional differences in culture brought about different types of foods, while in certain areas the cooking traditions of regional cultures blended together; such was the case of the Southern Song capital at Hangzhou. After the mass exodus from the north, people brought Henan-style cooking and foods (popular in the previous Northern Song capital at Kaifeng) to Hangzhou, which was blended with the cooking traditions of Zhejiang. However, records indicate that already in the Northern Song period, the first capital at Kaifeng sported restaurants that served southern Chinese cuisine.
Culture of the Song dynasty | Food and cuisine
This included restaurants catering Sichuan cuisine that emphasized use of pepper, dishes and beverages from Hebei and Shandong, and coastal foods of shrimp and saltwater fish. The memory and patience of waiters had to be keen; in the larger restaurants, serving dinner parties that required twenty or so dishes became a hassle if even a slight error occurred. If a guest reported the mistake of a waiter to the head of the restaurant, the waiter could be verbally reprimanded, have his salary docked, or in extreme cases, kicked out of the establishment for good. In the early morning in Hangzhou, along the wide avenue of the Imperial Way, special breakfast items and delicacies were sold.
Culture of the Song dynasty | Food and cuisine
189 CE) and her brother, the regent He Jin (d. 189 CE), came from a family of butchers. Runners and messengers who worked for the government were also considered to have a lowly status, yet some later became government officials.
Society and culture of the Han dynasty | Other occupations
The Koreans' consumption of dog meat set them apart from the Manchus. The Manchu Han Imperial Feast () includes many notable dishes in Manchu cuisine. This banquet combined the best cuisine from the Manchus, Han Chinese, Mongols, Hui people and Tibetans. It included 108 dishes (of which 54 are northern dishes and 54 are southern dishes) that would be eaten over three days. The Manchu palace banquets were subdivided into six grades. The first, second and third grades were prepared for deceased imperial ancestors. The fourth grade food was served to the imperial family during the Lunar New Year and other festivals.
Manchu cuisine | History
The utensils, like the food, were lavish; the majority of utensils were finely crafted bronzeware, and porcelainware in the shape of many animals were designed with mechanisms for keeping the dishes warm throughout the meal. In general the Manchu dishes were first sampled, followed by the Han dishes.
Manchu–Han Imperial Feast | Utensils
Chinese imperial cuisine in the Qing dynasty was developed basing on the traditional diet of the Manchu ethnic group and Shandong cuisine. The famous Manchu Han Imperial Feast was created during this dynasty. There was a special organisation, the Imperial Kitchen, within the Qing imperial palace which was responsible for creating and making imperial cuisine for the emperor. The Imperial Kitchen was managed by the General Office of Internal Affairs. During the reign of the Qianlong Emperor ( 1735–1796), the Imperial Kitchen was divided into the Internal Kitchen and the External Kitchen. The Internal Kitchen had departments for meat dishes, vegetables, roasting, baking and rice cooking.
Chinese imperial cuisine | Imperial cuisine in the Qing dynasty
Han Hui-sun (hangul: 한희순, hanja: 韓熙順; 1889 – January 5, 1972) was the last kitchen court lady in the Joseon Dynasty. She played an important role in reviving Korean royal court cuisine, which had been dying out and which she also modernized. She was designated as Important Intangible Cultural Asset No.38: Korean Royal Court Cuisine First Artisan by the government of Korea in 1971.
Han Hui-sun | Introduction
The imperial meal was re-enacted in the movie "The Chinese Feast" and the television drama "Happy Ever After". It is also featured in the anime "Cooking Master Boy" and the television series "My Fair Princess", as well as in chapters 106 and 142 of the manga "Medaka Box". In modern times, the Chinese term "Manhan Quanxi" can be used as an idiomatic expression to represent any feast of significant proportions. As an example, various media outlets may refer to a dinner gala as "Manhan Quanxi", while in China there are also numerous cooking competitions which make use of the aforementioned name, while not specifically referring to the original meaning of the imperial feast.
Manchu–Han Imperial Feast | In popular culture
The meal comprised six banquets over three days with over 300 dishes. Altogether there are said to have been 196 main dishes and 124 snack dishes, for a total of 320 dishes sampled over three days. Depending on how the dishes are counted with the samples, at the absolute minimum there were 108 dishes. The feast was divided into inner-palace and outer-palace banquets; only the imperial family and meritorious officials, including Han officials above the second rank, were invited into the inner-palace banquets. A book from the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1735–1796) gives a detailed description of the feast and the dishes and ingredients.
Manchu–Han Imperial Feast | Preparation
Nine-rank system Dishu system Special "commanderies of immigrants" and "white registers" were created for the massive amount of northern origin Han Chinese who moved south during the Eastern Jin dynasty. The southern Chinese aristocracy was formed from the offspring these migrants. Celestial Masters and the nobility of northern China subdued the nobility of southern China during the Eastern Jin and Western Jin in Jiangnan in particular. The most populous region of China was southern China after the depopulation of the north and the migration of northern Chinese to southern China. Different waves of migration of aristocratic Chinese from northern China to the south at different times resulted in distinct groups of lineages, with some lineages arriving in the 300s-400s and others in the 800s-900s.
Chinese nobility | Between Han and Sui
Fermented black soybeans are the oldest-known food made from soybeans. In 165 BC, they were placed, clearly marked, in Han Tomb No. 1 at Mawangdui Tomb Site in South Central China. The tomb was sealed about 165 BC and was first opened in 1972. The high-ranking woman to whom the undisturbed tomb belonged was probably the wife of the first Marquis of Tai. In 90 BC, in the "Records of the Grand Historian" by Sima Qian, Chapter 69, refers to 1,000 earthenware vessels of mold-fermented cereal grains and salty fermented soybeans "(shi)". They were now an important commodity in China.
Douchi | History
Dongpo cuisine (Dong-po-cai, 东坡菜) was originally created by Su Shi, the famous Chinese writer, poet, painter, calligrapher, pharmacologist, gastronomist, and a statesman of the Song dynasty, mostly during his years of exile. Named after Su Shi's art name, the most famous dish of Dongpo cuisine is perhaps Dongpo pork. The most frequently used cooking methods includes simmer, stew, and roast, with the original flavor of the material retained. Because Dongpo cuisine was created in his exile era, the food consisted of common materials, as opposed to the expensive and rare materials that are more commonly used in other styles of Chinese aristocrat cuisine.
Chinese aristocrat cuisine | Dongpo cuisine
Hu Sihui's book was widely accepted in Later Yuan, but won even wider influence after the fall of Yuan. Ming Dynasty, after occupying Beijing in 1368, started to combine Chinese cuisine from other regions with the cosmopolitan cuisine of Yuan court. Jingtai Emperor of Ming (ruled 1449—1457) personally wrote a preface to an edition of Yinshan Zhengyao. As a culinary encyclopedia, this book made some regional recipes aссepted as part of national cuisine of the whole of China. For example, it is this book that contained a recipe of a roast duck that could be a predecessor of the widely known Beijing Duck.
Hu Sihui | Legacy
Yunnan cuisine is unique in China for its cheeses like Rubing and Rushan cheese made by the Bai people, and its yogurt, the yogurt may have been due to a combination of Mongolian influence during the Yuan dynasty, the Central Asian settlement in Yunnan, and the proximity and influence of India and Tibet on Yunnan.
History of Chinese cuisine | Mongol Yuan Dynasty
Chinese scholars have debated the ethnicity of Hanpu. They usually agree that Hanpu's "coming from Goryeo" does not mean he was of Goryeo ethnicity, since the Goryeo territory was populated by several ethnic groups. The people of the time did not always distinguish between state and ethnic group, so that in modern terms Hanpu may have been a Jurchen from the state of Silla, a man of Goryeo, or a Silla man. Jurchen people were under the influence of Korean Dynasty and many became Koreans, like many ethnic people in China are considered Chinese. Many ethnic people ruled China, but they are considered Chinese in history.
Hanpu | Hanpu's ethnicity
This is a list of historical Chinese sources referring to Chinese cuisine. Not long after the expansion of the Chinese Empire during the Qin Dynasty (221 BC–207 BC) and Han Dynasty (202 BC–220 AD), Chinese writers noted the great differences in culinary practices among people from different parts of the realm. These differences followed to a great extent the varying climate and availability of foodstuffs in China.
List of sources of Chinese culinary history | Introduction
To this day, China's majority ethnic group refers to themselves as the "Han Chinese", the Sinitic language is known as "Han language", and the written Chinese is referred to as "Han characters". The emperor was at the pinnacle of Han society. He presided over the Han government but shared power with both the nobility and appointed ministers who came largely from the scholarly gentry class. The Han Empire was divided into areas directly controlled by the central government using an innovation inherited from the Qin known as commanderies, and a number of semi-autonomous kingdoms. These kingdoms gradually lost all vestiges of their independence, particularly following the Rebellion of the Seven States.
Han dynasty | Introduction
This included fried tripe, pieces of mutton or goose, soups of various kinds, hot pancakes, steamed pancakes, and iced cakes. Noodle shops were also popular, and remained open all day and night along the Imperial Way. According to one Song source on Kaifeng, the night markets closed at the third night watch but reopened on the fifth, while they had also gained a reputation for staying open during winter storms and the darkest, rainiest days of winter. There were also some exotic foreign foods imported to China from abroad, including raisins, dates, Persian jujubes, and grape wine; rice wine was more common in China, a fact noted even by the 13th century Venetian traveler Marco Polo.
Culture of the Song dynasty | Food and cuisine
The name "Han" (/; ) derives from the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), who presided over China's first "golden age". The Han dynasty collapsed in 220 and was followed by a long period of disorder, including Three Kingdoms, Sixteen Kingdoms, and Southern and Northern Dynasties periods. During these periods, various non-Chinese ethnic groups invaded from the north and conquered areas of North China, which they held for several centuries. It was during this period that people began to use the term "Han" to refer to the natives of North China, who (unlike the invaders) were the descendants of the subjects of the Han dynasty.
Names of China | Han
The Han Chinese trace a common ancestry to the Huaxia, a name for the initial confederation of agricultural tribes living along the Yellow River. The term "Huaxia" represents the collective Neolithic confederation of agricultural tribes Hua and Xia who settled along the Central Plains around the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in Northern China. The tribes were the ancestors of the modern Han Chinese people that gave birth to Chinese civilization. In addition, the term "Huaxia" (literally "the civilized Xia people") was distinctively used to represent a 'civilized' ethnic group in contrast to what was perceived as 'barbaric' foreigners around them.
Han Chinese | Introduction
'姬' (Jì) is an ancient Chinese surname. It is an alternate surname of the Yellow Emperor (Gongsun Xuanyuan) and the Zhou ruling family. A descendant of King Wu of Zhou, Wan, was given land in Hanyuan. Wan's descendants created the State of Han during the Warring States period. When the state was conquered by Qin in 230 BC, members of the ruling family adopted Han '韩' as their surname.
Han (Chinese surname) | From '姬' surname
Until the end of the Qing Dynasty, the royal chef Pang Enfu escaped from the Forbidden City and lived in seclusion in Henan. He started teaching normal people to cook Hui mian, then Hui mian began spreading among common people in the society.
Hui mian | History
The cuisine as it is known today was created during the Yuan dynasty. It gradually spread to northern and northeastern China, Beijing and Tianjin, where it influenced Imperial cuisine. Shandong cuisine is primarily made up of eastern Shandong and Jinan dishes.
Shandong cuisine | Influence
The rich are known to have consumed an array of different meats, such as chicken, shellfish, fallow deer, hares, partridge, pheasant, francolin, quail, fox, badger, clam, crab, and many others. Local freshwater fish from the nearby lake and river were also caught and brought to market, while the West Lake provided geese and duck as well. Common fruits that were consumed included melons, pomegranates, lychees, longans, golden oranges, jujubes, Chinese and Japanese quinces, apricots and pears; in the region around Hangzhou alone, there were eleven kinds of apricots and eight different kinds of pears that were produced. Specialties and combination dishes in the Song period included scented shellfish cooked in rice-wine, geese with apricots, lotus-seed soup, spicy soup with mussels and fish cooked with plums, sweet soya soup, baked sesame buns stuffed with either sour bean filling or pork tenderloin, mixed vegetable buns, fragrant candied fruit, strips of ginger and fermented beanpaste, jujube-stuffed steamed dumplings, fried chestnuts, salted fermented bean soup, fruit cooked in scented honey, and 'honey crisps' of kneaded and baked honey, flour, mutton fat and pork lard.
Culture of the Song dynasty | Food and cuisine
After the end of the Qing dynasty, the cook previously employed by the Imperial Kitchens opened-up restaurants which allowed the people to experience many of the formerly inaccessible foods eaten by the Emperor and his court. However, with the beginning of the Chinese Civil War, many of the cooks and individuals knowledgeable in the cuisines of the period in China left for Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States. Among them were the likes of Irene Kuo who was an ambassador to the culinary heritage of China, teaching the Western of the more refined aspects of Chinese cuisine. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the nation has suffered from a series of major food supply problems under the Communist Party of China.
History of Chinese cuisine | Post-Dynastic China
Historically, members of the imperial courts in Chinese dynastic eras requested grand animals for their meals. Famous examples include the Manchu Han Imperial Feast. Today, "yewei" can be eaten by anyone with access to wild animals, which can also be imported.
Yewei | History
To show submission to the Han Chinese in the Sui dynasty the people of Turfan (Gaochang) undid their queues and so did Turks who surrendered to the Tang dynasty which was the reverse of what happened in northern China when some Han and Inner Asians like Xianbei wore braids (bianfa) and the northerners were called suotou (pigtail heads) by southerners during the Northern and Southern dynasties. Hairstyles showed affiliation to a tribal confederation or dynasty. Xianbei people among foreigners are depicted on paintings with their rear heads showing a small queue in the Western Wei cave 285 at the Dunhuang Mogao caves.
Queue (hairstyle) | Predecessors and origin
Jonathan Spence writes appreciatively that by the Qing Dynasty the "culinary arts were treated as a part of the life of the mind: There was a Tao of food, just as there was Tao of conduct and one of literary creation." The opulence of the scholar-official Li Liweng was balanced by the gastronome Yuan Mei. To make the best rice, Li would send his maid to gather the dew from the flowers of the wild rose, cassia, or citron to add at the last minute; Li insisted that water from garden roses was too strong. Yuan Mei takes the position of the ascetic gourmet, in his gastronomic work the "Suiyuan shidan", he wrote: After such a meal, Yuan said, he would return home and make himself a bowl of congee.
History of Chinese cuisine | Qing dynasty
The southern Chinese aristocracy was formed from the offspring of these migrants; Celestial Masters and the nobility of northern China subdued the aristocracy of southern China during the Eastern Jin and Western Jin, particularly in Jiangnan. With the depopulation of the north, due to this migration of northern Chinese, the south became the most populous region of China.
Han Chinese | Historical southward migration of the Han people
The northwest military aristocracy was where the Sui dynasty Emperors originated from and they emphasized that their patrilineal ancestry was ethnic Han, claiming descent from the Han official Yang Zhen. and the New Book of Tang traced his patrilineal ancestry to the Zhou dynasty kings via the Dukes of Jin. The Sui Emperors had maternal Xianbei ancestry from a woman of the Xianbei Dugu family. The Guanzhong noble families of Han Chinese background married the Northern Zhou Xianbei Yuwen family. The Tang dynasty Imperial family claimed to be paternally descended from Laozi (whose personal name was Li Dan or Li Er), the Han dynasty General Li Guang, Qin General Li Xin and Western Liang ruler Li Gao.
Chinese nobility | Northwestern aristocracy
Documents compiled during the Jin dynasty (1115–1234)
List of sources of Chinese culinary history | Jin Dynasty
This included restaurants featuring highly spiced Sichuan cuisine; there were taverns featuring dishes and beverages from Hebei and Shandong, as well as those with coastal foods of shrimp and saltwater fish. The memory and patience of waiters had to be keen; in the larger restaurants, serving dinner parties that required twenty or so dishes became a hassle if even a slight error occurred. If a guest reported the mistake of a waiter to the head of the restaurant, the waiter could be verbally reprimanded, have his salary docked, or in extreme cases, kicked out of the establishment for good. In the early morning in Hangzhou, along the wide avenue of the Imperial Way, special breakfast items and delicacies were sold.
History of Chinese cuisine | Liao, Song and Jurchen Jin dynasties
The Han are descendants of the hero Gija, who was a Shang Dynasty king, and rode his white horse and set a nation in "The Farthest East". The nobles with the surname Han were greatly praised, and not to be bothered.
Han (Korean surname) | Cheongju clan
They have evolved into various types, such as steamed fish and smoked meat. Seasonings used in cooking include salt, soy sauce, bean paste, sugar, honey, plums, cinnamon, pepper and goji berries. Since Hunan is rich in products, since the Tang and Song Dynasties, especially during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the development of Hunan cuisine has become more complete, and Hunan cuisine has gradually become a specialty among the eight major Chinese cuisines.
Culture of Hunan | History
In Chinese folk religion, ancestor veneration is conducted by offering food to ancestors and Chinese festivals involve the consumption and preparation of specific foods which have symbolic meanings attached to them. Specific religions in China have their own cuisines such as the Taoist diet, Buddhist cuisine and Chinese Islamic Cuisine. The Kaifeng Jews in Henan province once had their own Chinese Jewish cuisine but the community has largely died out in the modern era and not much is known about the specifics of their cuisine but they did influence foods eaten in their region and some of their dishes remain.
Chinese cuisine | Relation to Chinese religion
The Imperial Dynasty restaurant was a five-star restaurant in Hanford, California. The restaurant was founded in 1883 in Hanford's Chinatown, and was run by the same family for four generations. Richard Wing combined French and Chinese cooking in the 1960s to create one of the first fusion cuisines. The restaurant closed in early 2006. Wing died in 2010 at the age of 89.
Imperial Dynasty restaurant | Introduction
To this day, modern Han Chinese refer themselves as "Descendants of Yan and Huang". Although study of this period of history is complicated by the absence of contemporary records, the discovery of archaeological sites has enabled a succession of Neolithic cultures to be identified along the Yellow River. Along the central reaches of the Yellow River were the Jiahu culture (c. 7000 to 6600 BCE), the Yangshao culture (c. 5000 to 3000 BCE) and the Longshan culture (c. 3000 to 2000 BCE). Along the lower reaches of the river were the Qingliangang culture (c. 5400 to 4000 BCE), the Dawenkou culture (c.
Han Chinese | Prehistory
Whereas individual retainers had earlier joined a host by their own personal decision, by the late 2nd century CE the lives of the retainers' entire families became heavily controlled by the host.
Society and culture of the Han dynasty | Guests and retainers
The External Kitchen prepared the palace banquets, feasts and sacrificial rites. During the Qing dynasty, the rites for the meals, the number of people, and the use, cost, variety and quality of sumptuous courses at each meal were the greatest of all the dynasties in China.
Chinese imperial cuisine | Imperial cuisine in the Qing dynasty
Hubei cuisine is one of China's ten major styles of cooking. With a history of more than 2,000 years, Hubei cuisine, originating in ancient Chu cuisine, has developed a number of distinctive dishes, such as steamed blunt-snout bream in clear soup, preserved ham with flowering Chinese cabbage, and others. On the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar, many in Wuhan eat (), an egg dish which is supposed to prevent illness in the coming year. "No need to be particular about the recipes; all foods have their own uses. Rice wine and tangyuan are excellent midnight snacks, while fat bream and flowering Chinese cabbages are great delicacies." This attitude expressed in "Hankou Zhuzhici" reflects indirectly the eating habits and a wide variety of distinctive snacks with a long history in Wuhan, such as Qingshuizong (a pyramid-shaped dumpling made of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves) in the Period of the Warring States, Chunbinbian in Northern and Southern dynasties, mung bean jelly in the Sui dynasty, youguo (a deep-fried twisted dough stick) in the Song and Yuan dynasties, rice wine and mianwo in the Ming and Qing dynasties, as well as three-delicacy stuffed skin of bean milk, tangbao (steamed dumpling filled with minced meat and gravy) and hot braised noodles (reganmian) in modern times.
Wuhan | Cuisine
There are currently (as of 2017) eight styles of Chinese imperial cuisines of different Chinese dynasties have been restored:
Chinese imperial cuisine | Styles
During the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368), contacts with the West also brought the introduction to China of a major food crop, sorghum, along with other foreign food products and methods of preparation. Hu Sihui, a Mongol doctor of Chinese medicine, compiled the "Yinshan Zhengyao", a guide to cooking and health which incorporated Chinese and Mongol food practices. The recipes for the medicines are listed in a fashionable way which allow the readers to avoid lingering over the descriptions of the cooking methods. For instance, the description included the step by step instructions for every ingredients and follow by the cooking methods for these ingredients.
History of Chinese cuisine | Mongol Yuan Dynasty
Dezhou braised chicken is a traditional dish from Dezhou City, Shandong Province and it is named after its place of origin. When the Qianlong Emperor travelled to Dezhou City, a Han Chinese family made braised chicken for him. The emperor thought highly of this dish and praised it as "a wonder of all cuisine". After eating Dezhou braised chicken, the Qianlong Emperor ordered that this dish be included in the menu of imperial cuisine.
Chinese imperial cuisine | Dezhou braised chicken
Tan family's cuisine is the most representative of Chinese aristocrat cuisine mainly based on and developed from Cantonese cuisine, and it is a fusion of Cantonese cuisine and regional cuisines of northern China, with more than 200 dishes available today. The most significant characteristic of Tan family's cuisine is its taste; the salinity and sweetness of the dishes is moderate, fitting the taste of both northern and southern Chinese. Like Cantonese, the original flavor of the food is also emphasized in Tan family's cuisine. The cooking method most frequently used includes roast, simmer, stew and steam. Tan family's cuisine is famous for shark fin, abalone, and sea cucumbers.
Chinese aristocrat cuisine | Tan family’s cuisine
The mythical Yellow Emperor had a son Chang Yi (昌意), who had a son with the given name Han Liu (韩流). Those who claimed to be Han Liu's descendants adopted Han as their surname.
Han (Chinese surname) | From given name to surname