Huang Ziwei eats delicious food.

Puyi, the last emperor, described the royal diet in detail in the book My First Half Life. He said that the biggest extravagance that consumes manpower, material resources and financial resources is eating. When it's time to eat, the emperor only needs to order a meal, and the little eunuch will say a meal to the eunuch before hall of mental cultivation, and then pass it on one by one. Before the echo disappeared, dozens of well-dressed eunuchs carried single tables and red paint boxes and entered the main hall in turn. Before the dishes are served, they must be tasted by eunuchs to see if anyone has poisoned the dishes. After the emperor sat down, an eunuch shouted.

Behind this series of seemingly solemn and dignified struggles, there are actually many problems hidden. For example, one day the emperor ordered the meal to be delivered earlier than before, and the emperor would not wait for the kitchen to serve food like the diners now. If he waits for a long time, he will move his head carefully. Therefore, the slave in the chef can only wait for food and others, and will never wait for food. In order to let the emperor eat hot food at any time, he can only prepare dishes and staple foods in advance and put them in special heat preservation vessels to ensure that the emperor can deliver meals at any time wherever he goes.

However, this will cause a big problem. First of all, the dishes prepared for the emperor in advance should not be those that pay attention to the temperature and taste, because these dishes will be very unpalatable if they are kept for a long time, so on the one hand, the optional range of the emperor's imperial diet menu is limited. Secondly, after a long period of heat preservation, most dishes will greatly reduce their own nutrients and tastes, so many imperial meals look good, but the real taste is not flattering, which is why the last emperor Puyi described imperial meals as offering food to the dead. In his original words, they are really not delicious, just the same, and the taste is not good.

So Puyi said that he never eats the dishes cooked by the chef. In fact, this form of food is mostly used for ostentation and extravagance, but it is not delicious. Then what does he eat? According to Puyi, he actually ate the dishes sent by Empress Dowager Cixi, because Empress Dowager Cixi or Taifei had their own kitchens, and the dishes cooked by senior chefs were delicious. There are always 20 kinds of dishes in every meal, all of which are placed in front of the emperor, and then the dishes cooked by the chefs are placed far away, just for show.

It is not easy for an ancient emperor to eat a fruit after a meal. According to historical records, on June 29th, 2005, 40 lychees were distributed in Fujian. Except for Empress Dowager Cixi, these 40 lychees were distributed to two concubines in other palaces, but none of them were favored. These 40 lychees are naturally distributed to the harem concubines, as well as the prince and grandson.