Dietary customs in Changsha

The earliest extant Changsha local chronicles said: "Wu Yue's family has more porridge and less food. On the other hand, Changsha is rich in food, but it is the worst at the party. If not, it will be laughed at as despicable. "

Since ancient times, Changsha people have taken rice as their staple food, including brown rice, cooked rice, Redmi and white rice. Before the Republic of China, people mostly used iron cookers with round mouths and sharp bottoms to cook and hung them on hooks, which were suitable for all seasons. After the Republic of China, pot-stewed rice became more and more common. Steamed rice with wooden retort is often used in big occasions and big families. In Dongxiang, Liuyang, every household uses Xiao Mu retort, and dried vegetables and meat are steamed together. Many people's meals are often mixed with coarse cereals such as sweet potatoes, shredded sweet potatoes, millet, sorghum, peas and broad beans. Sometimes they only eat two meals a day, or only porridge in the morning and evening. When the green and yellow are not connected, the rice is often mixed with bean leaves, small bamboo shoots and selfheal. Or cooked with pumpkin Baba, buckwheat Baba, wheat Baba, mugwort Baba, etc. , which is the so-called half-year grain of melons and vegetables. In the mountainous area, we eat shredded potato rice all year round.

Changsha calls fish meat big meat, eggs, loach and shrimp small meat, tofu and vegetables as a rope, commonly known as side dishes. Rice is obscene, only in the rich families of officials and gentry. Ordinary citizens only eat braised pork on the first and fifteenth day of the first month, which is called "toothache sacrifice". Usually pick (buy) tofu, water tofu, grilled fish, dried fish, steamed (fried) eggs and the like. In rural areas, only craftsmen come to the door or celebrate their birthdays, which is called meat tofu. Folk guests include bacon, salted fish, loach, eel, dried bamboo shoots and tofu. "When Jiaqing, Changsha people used four ice trays and two bowls for banquets, which was extremely shameful, but they used ten bowls for dry seats when they got married. Daoguang Shen Jia Yiyou becomes a sea cucumber mat. Five ugly rooms, four small bowls, twelve plates of fruits and vegetables ... After that, change shark fin seats ... Xianfeng Dynasty is more useful. " Of course, sea cucumber, shark's fin and bird's nest seats are only available to dignitaries. In the vast rural areas, ten bowls of dry summer sleeping mats are the norm. Incredibly, for modern people, snake meat, dog meat and frog meat have long been considered disgusting things. Not only can they not sit at the main table, but they are also not allowed to cook on the stove.

Fortunately for northerners, Changsha people can enjoy fresh vegetables all year round, even in winter, they can eat green vegetables such as chrysanthemum, winter amaranth, spinach and rape moss. Changsha cooking pays attention to color and taste, and uses a lot of condiments. The most commonly used condiments are douchi and pepper, which are hardly spicy. The so-called "Hunan people have a strange thing, you can't cook a dish without pepper." Especially eating fish, I feel that there is no taste without Chili. There are traditional varieties of Changsha pepper, such as smooth skin pepper, horn pepper, lantern pepper, morning pepper and so on. Squashed and fried sweet pepper and horn pepper are the most mouth-watering and are called "rice delivery". Green pepper with salt is made into sauce pepper and cover pepper, which can be used in all seasons. Red pepper is often dried and ground into powder, which is convenient to use; Or chop it directly into Chili sauce and mix it with garlic, sword beans, lobster sauce, etc. And then pour the right amount of wine and sesame oil to keep fresh for a long time. In addition to Chili douchi, coriander, onion, garlic, ginger, pepper, star anise and cinnamon are also popular condiments in Changsha, which can not only help improve the taste, but also refresh, eliminate dampness and keep out the cold.

Changsha people are good at processing and storing dishes, and ordinary families will smoke bacon, fish and marinated eggs to make moldy tofu. Bacon can be stored in tea oil or barn until the dog days, and it is not moldy and tasteless. As for the pickling method of side dishes, there are various methods. Every household has an acid altar, and pickled kudzu, beans, cucumbers and radishes can be eaten at any time, which is both economical and convenient. Beans and taro stalks soaked in Taomi have a unique flavor. Vegetables, Chinese cabbages and Chinese cabbage can be pickled in different ways, which can be changed into pickles and sauerkraut with different flavors. If pickled into pickles, it is sweet; If you don't add salt to ferment it, take it out to dry, and then steam it with maple leaves, it will have a fragrance and can be preserved for a long time after drying. As for ginger, eggplant, bitter gourd, radish and so on. After drying and pickling, it is both a delicious food and a gift. For example, sword beans and ginger are made into bat shapes, which are homophonic "fu"; Made into the shape of a magpie, symbolizing "happiness"; Cut into bluegrass, which means "male", are very popular craft foods.

Skillful women in Changsha are good at making household non-staple food, and there are dozens of varieties of sweet potatoes, which can be said to be fancy renovation. For example, peeling sweet potatoes, cooking them, mashing them into paste, mixing them with sesame orange peel, cutting them into pieces, and drying them in the sun are called potato cakes. Deep-fried in oil or sand, fragrant and crisp. Sweet potato boiled with sugar is sweet and sticky. Potato flour, also known as glutinous rice flour, is an excellent liquid food. Potato flour is processed into vermicelli, which is one of farmers' favorite dry goods. As for rice and glutinous rice, they can be processed into various non-staple foods, such as rice cakes, rice cakes, glutinous rice balls, frozen rice cakes, oil cakes, brown rice and eight-treasure rice, as well as rice noodles and summer solstice jiaozi (or long summer japonica rice), which are all favorite foods of Changsha people. On festive occasions, housewives will put on homemade colorful non-staple food, accompanied by fried peanuts, beans and melon seeds to entertain guests. This kind of food is called "dry tea" (or China tea), and in some places it is called tea food or "tea exchange".

Changsha has been rich in wine since ancient times, and most farmers make their own wine. When the guests come, heat the wine with a tin pot and taste it slowly. Rich people also brew their own sweet wine. People usually drink river water and well water. By 1949, there are water wells in the urban area, such as Baishajing, Nanshajing and Yuanyangjing. Before the Republic of China, Baisha well water was not only drunk by residents in the south of the city, but also by rich households in four cities. All day long, the voice of "buying sand and water" continued. As for mountainous areas, many people have been eating "tap water" since ancient times. They used bamboo rafts to introduce the clear spring behind the mountain into their water tanks. In summer, both urban and rural people like to drink herbal tea, that is, honeysuckle, lophatherum gracile, selfheal, plantain and mint. It is sweet and delicious to use gypsum decoction instead of tea, and it also has the functions of clearing away heat and relieving summer heat, diuresis and detoxification.

Tea is mostly produced and sold, and can also be replaced by Vitex negundo leaves and Mahonia leaf. Hexi, Ningxiang and other places in the midwest have the custom of eating sesame bean tea, that is, adding fried soybeans, sesame seeds and Jiang Mo when making tea. Weishan in the west still has the habit of eating tea. Love fennel tea in the northern town of Liuyang in the east, that is, adding Chuanxiong and fennel to the tea has the functions of dispelling cold and relieving pain, invigorating stomach and expelling wind. According to legend, there was a cough in ancient times, which often caused nausea and vomiting, and cold pain in the lower abdomen, which could not be cured for a long time. One day, she accidentally drank fennel tea, suddenly felt a strange smell and gradually became a hobby. After years of illness, she was cured. Neighbors learned that they followed suit and got into the habit of drinking fennel tea. Because people in Changsha cannot live without tea, they equate tea with rice. When they ask how many people there are, they often say "how many people eat tea and rice".