Why can’t Luoyang Water Feast leave Luoyang?

If you think about it carefully, it is indeed true. It seems that you have never seen Luoyang Water Feast in other places. Even though I, a native of Dengfeng whose home was close to Luoyang when I was a child, only gradually became familiar with water mats after I graduated from college and came to Luoyang.

Let’s first learn about Luoyang Water Feast!

Luoyang Water Banquet is a famous traditional banquet in Luoyang, Henan Province, belonging to the Henan cuisine. The reason why it is called water banquet is because most of the dishes come with soup.

The full banquet *** has 24 dishes, including 8 cold dishes, 4 large items, 8 medium items, and 4 table dishes, including hot and cold, meat and vegetable, sweet and salty, hot and sour dishes Yes. The order of serving dishes is very particular. First, 8 cold dishes are served as appetizers. Each dish is a combination of meat and vegetables, 16 dishes per plate. After the guests have had three rounds of wine, the hot dishes are served: first, 4 large hot dishes are served. Each dish is followed by two middle dishes (also called side dishes or seasoning dishes), which is euphemistically called "scallops to the court"; finally, four table dishes are served, including an egg soup, also known as farewell soup, as a token of appreciation. The seats are full.

The sixteen hot dishes are divided into four themes: table preparation, eight major items, and four finishing touches.

How do you feel when you see this?

To be honest, this is already very cumbersome, doesn’t it? That's right! Luoyang water banquet has many dishes, which leads to many people never having a complete water banquet, including myself.

Usually when we go to have a water banquet, we usually order a few dishes, such as peony agarwood, cloud-covered fermented bean curd pork, sliced ??pork in soup, fake sea cucumber, Luoyang stewed goods and eight-treasure rice, etc., because we order too many Really can't finish it.

After all, Luoyang water banquets are large in quantity and full of flavor. Most of the dishes are spicy and sour, and the spiciness is spicy with a heavy peppery taste. In this way, people from different regions have different tastes, and they have different tastes for Luoyang. Acceptance of water mats also varies.

Of course, although the Luoyang water banquet method is unique and has not left Luoyang as a whole, many dishes, such as pork slices in soup, eight-treasure rice, etc., seem to be seen and eaten in many places outside Luoyang.

In fact, our country has a vast territory, rich resources, and distinctive regional characteristics. You can taste unique local specialties wherever you go, which only adds to the fun of travel. How boring would it be if everywhere you go you can find KFC and braised chicken and rice?

(Li Yuanbo)

I traveled to Luoyang by car and entered the city to find restaurants and prepare to eat. After inquiring like this, I found out that "Water Banquet" is the most beautiful "food" in Luoyang. After passing many twists and turns, I found the flagship store of Shuixiyuan. As it was approaching noon, there were a lot of people in the store. What does "Water Feast" look like? Is it delicious? In order to taste the most delicious meat in Luoyang, we chose to stand and wait.

When ordering, I listened to the waiter’s introduction and understood what “Water Banquet” meant. After using it, we couldn't help laughing. What the water banquet means is that all hot and steamed dishes are "all soup dishes", and the soup is watery; the dishes are served one after another, just like running water.

Although the water banquet in Luoyang has its own characteristics, it does not have the elegance of the eight major Chinese cuisines. It has no connection with the traditional Chinese food culture. This kind of water mat is also found in Luoyang and is recognized by the locals. But it’s hard to get out of Luoyang i

I’ve been to Luoyang twice and had water banquets, both at time-honored famous restaurants. I really thought it tasted terrible, but the beef soup in the small shop tasted good. . One reason is Ledo, there are not so many dishes in other places. The second reason is that there is a lot of soup, which is not used in other places. The three reasons are that the spicy and sour taste is not used to other places. There are many single items available, such as braised pork ribs, braised pork ribs, braised fish, braised pork elbow, lotus soup pork slices, eight-treasure rice, Sixi meatballs, egg soup, steamed chicken, etc.

First, because the merchants selling authentic Luoyang water mats all over the street are cutting corners and sacrificing their own jobs without even realizing it.

Second, Quanjude, Goubuli is said to be amazing, but is it delicious? I can touch my conscience and say: It’s just average, not as good as the roast duck and steamed buns in the market downstairs at my house, but why are Quanjude and Goubuli so well known at home and abroad? It’s just because of its long history. People in ancient times had less food to eat, so they thought Quanhe dogs were the best. But now, when normal people can live a life of eating and drinking every day, Quanhe dogs are just average. , the same goes for the water table in Luoyang. You only have a name but you still wantonly ruin it. Who do you think will pay for it?

How many foreigners will give sour and smelly comments when mentioning Luoyang Water Banquet? You can go to Meituan and other apps to check for yourself. Real Luoyang people, are your water mats really sour and smelly? Everyone knows it. Except for the smell of pepper noodles and vinegar, there is no other taste. It is not delicious. How can it come out of Luoyang? Like Qishan Shaozi Noodles, Qishan Shaozi Noodles only eat noodles without drinking soup. After eating, you realize that you can't eat noodles with sour soup, so how to drink soup. Niche cuisine does not conform to the currently popular domestic tastes such as spicy or seafood, and the ingredients are too regionally specific, so it is impossible to become a popular dish. Even in Luoyang, it is not something that can be eaten everywhere. So it is even less likely to become popular nationwide.

The reason why Luoyang water banquet cannot go out of Luoyang is that the urban catering management industry has not promoted it to other places. Although it is a local delicacy in Luoyang, if you want to have a water banquet, you must serve 24 dishes. , and outsiders may not be used to it, and the process is very cumbersome, and no one in other places may try it, so only in Luoyang are people familiar with water mats.

Let’s not talk about the distance, let’s talk about Zhengzhou. I would like to ask all readers, has anyone tried the barely authentic Luoyang beef soup in the provincial capital? I'm afraid there are only a few of them. It is estimated that even Luoyang soup restaurants are rarely seen. Most of them just use the name Luoyang as a sign, but the actual taste has nothing to do with Luoyang!

Beef soup is like this, let alone the "delicate" water banquet.

Why is the water mat called "delicate"? Luoyang Water Banquet is one of the oldest famous banquets in history, with a history of thousands of years.

The order of Luoyang water banquet is the first eight dishes (cold dishes), four table dishes, eight large dishes, four finishing dishes, and the last twenty-four dishes. After one hot dish is finished, it will be served again. It tastes like running water, and this is what makes it so "delicate". It's really troublesome to eat the entire water banquet. Unless someone is getting married or attending a gathering with a lot of people, you can have the opportunity to eat it completely. superior. Therefore, the investment in this kind of restaurant is very large, and the cost of expanding outward is also high.

Moreover, many friends came to Luoyang to eat water banquets, but after eating, their comments were not good. They all found it too sour, too spicy, too numb, and generally they just couldn't get used to the taste! This is related to the fact that Luoyang had a cold climate in ancient times and did not produce fruits. Therefore, folk meals mostly used soups, and they liked hot and sour food to resist the dryness and cold.

Luoyang Water Banquet, which is said to be the most authentic, is really different. If you have Wu Zetian toasting you, if you say it is grand, it is really grand. If you say it is not delicious, it is really not delicious. It is not as good as some small restaurants on the street. Foreign tourists especially like to go here. After eating, they smacked their lips and thought: This Luoyang water banquet is nothing more than that!

I really hope that Luoyang Water Feast can be carried forward, and I will be satisfied if it is half as famous as Sichuan and Hunan cuisine. If it is only passed down by Luoyang people, I am afraid that Luoyang Water Feast will be so cold that it will disappear from history in a hundred years. The stage is up.

It’s not that I can’t get out, it’s that I haven’t left at all. In the field of business development, Luoyang is relatively weak.

At first everyone thought: Luoyang water mats came from the people, and no one thought they came from the Tang Palace. After the reform and opening up, that is, a few years after the Peony Flower Fair was held, the Luoyang Municipal Government realized the problems existing in Luoyang's tourism development. At that time, it wanted everyone to see: peonies, Longmen Grottoes, Guanlin, White Horse Temple, and others. Nothing more. What to eat, what to drink, where to stay? What travel products should you take away?

Let’s start with the “Really Different” hotel as a pilot project, expand Luoyang’s water banquets, and gradually expand tourism products... It should be said that it’s done well, but the conservative Luoyang people are very disgusted and feel that the “Really Different” hotel’s water banquets are adaptable. It spoils the taste of outsiders and ruins the tradition.

When the water mat expansion was carried out, the government advocated and supported it and tapped into the traditional development of tourism. The bad thing is: it improved too quickly. The road in the old city was so blocked that every year There must be a few traffic policemen on duty to help.

Today, the market economy cannot rely entirely on the government. The government is right to advocate support. Those wealthy bosses should see the reputation of Luoyang Water Banquet and take advantage of it to expand overseas. It does not necessarily have to be Will the "office" coordinate and help you again? Luoyang water banquets are also popular among outsiders. We have all done research and found that eating can reveal culture and the atmosphere of Tang Dynasty. This is not simple.

Compared with other cities in recent years, Luoyang's industrial and technological expansion has been slow, and the tourism industry has also been irritatingly slow. It is still very different from other people's things, such as city walls.

I am not talking about ridicule, but a practical issue. I am from Luoyang and I love my hometown. The worst thing is that it is slow, but the best thing is: steady development. Livable cities are the future prospects. Comparing with other cities is meaningless. Only by settling down and developing our own characteristics can we get out of the predicament. Luoyang will get better and better. I have seen it and everyone has seen it. In the past few years, it has been a bit slow and a bit "meaty". Let's gradually understand.

On the way back to my hometown, I saw a push about Luoyang Water Feast. After reading some of the answers, I felt quite disappointed. I tried to answer it myself. Please correct me if there are any shortcomings. Thank you in advance!

First of all, what is a water mat? Water banquet means serving the dishes like running water, not because the dishes are all filled with water. Water banquets are more common at wedding banquets. As a culturally rich city in Luoyang, how could there be only water and no meat at the wedding banquet? The real water banquet not only has many meat dishes, but also has a very generous portion. Friends who have questions about these will understand after visiting the water mats in rural Luoyang.

Second, why was the signboard of the water table damaged? In my opinion, the main reason is the market. This golden signboard is used by everyone as much as possible. Many store materials can be saved as much as possible, and as many tourists as possible can be deceived. There is no cost. As time goes by, your reputation becomes worse and worse. How do you get out?

Finally, the process of making water mats is complicated and requires preparation of ingredients very early. Another most important thing is that there are many people at the water table, basically starting with a hundred or ten people, so that you can have the feeling of water flowing. Just after finishing this plate, the next one arrived within three minutes. By the way, the empty plate was Let the person who serves the food take it away. . .

If you have the chance next time, take a video of the water mat so that everyone can have a more intuitive experience.

I was lucky enough to go to Henan for a week during the Chinese New Year. Before I went, other people in my family said that we Guanzhong people are not used to the food in Henan. On the way there, I took a Didi car and the driver happened to be from Luoyang. I was chatting with the driver The chefs all say that the food in Daguanzhong is delicious, and I must not have been used to it in the past.

I went there for a few days because during the Chinese New Year, in general, the food was not as bad as expected. Because of the Chinese New Year, many famous shops I heard about were closed. Even if there are some, many of them only have a limited number of dishes, or you can only order a fixed set meal, and you can't order what you want.

Now let’s talk about the water banquet. From what I know and the water banquet we eat, to put it bluntly, it is a steamed bowl. Except for a few exceptions, such as Luoyang Yancai, which are not available elsewhere, most of the ingredients are relatively common. The difference is that the soup in these steaming bowls has a little more juice, and it is relatively sour and has more pepper. some. Even children who don’t eat spicy food can’t accept it.

The above is my understanding of the water mat. If there is any presumptuousness, it is purely a personal opinion.

When talking about representative famous dishes, the first thing people think of are the eight major cuisines, Sichuan cuisine, Shandong cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, Jiangsu cuisine, Zhejiang cuisine, Fujian cuisine, Hunan cuisine and Anhui cuisine. In fact, in addition to these eight major cuisines, there are also many traditional famous dishes, but they are ranked outside the eight major cuisines for various reasons.

For example, Luoyang water banquet, which belongs to the Henan cuisine, is particularly famous in Luoyang, but if it is ranked nationwide, it can be said to be unknown.

Any tourist who comes to Luoyang must have a meal of Luoyang Water Banquet to be considered perfect. After all, this is one of the oldest famous banquets in history.

When it comes to Luoyang food, I have to say Luoyang Water Feast.

Luoyang water mat has a history of more than 1,300 years. The Luoyang water banquet, which has been passed down to this day, consists of 24 dishes. The ingredients are not fried, but are steamed, boiled, simmered, simmered and other cooking techniques. The taste is delicious. What's more interesting is that each dish has a cultural allusion.

The serving procedure is: first place 4 meat dishes, 4 vegetarian dishes and 8 cold dishes on the table, then serve 4 large dishes, and for each large dish, bring two Chinese dishes, which is called "Scallop Shangchao". The fourth main course is beet soup. Then the main dish is served, followed by four side dishes, and finally the egg soup served as a farewell meal, which Luoyang people jokingly call "egg soup." Seeing this dish means that the dishes are all ready and it’s time to go.

Luoyang water mat originated in the Tang Dynasty and is said to have a certain relationship with Wu Zetian. It is said that the famous fortune teller Yuan Tiangang of the Tang Dynasty observed the stars at night and predicted that Wu Zetian would ascend the throne in due time. But because the secret must not be leaked, Yuan Tiangang designed this famous banquet. It heralds Wu Zetian's 24th year as emperor. There are a total of 24 dishes in the Luoyang water banquet, which happened to be the 24th year between Wu Zetian's taking charge of the government and his death. This Luoyang water banquet has soup and water, and the dishes are served one after another, which also means that Wu Zetian's ascension to the throne is a matter of course.

Luoyang is surrounded by mountains and has little rainfall all year round. In order to adapt to this dry climate, people used radish and cabbage to make hot and sour water mats. Firstly, they can keep out the cold. Secondly, who can buy radish and cabbage cheaply? Everyone can afford it. Because of this feature, Luoyang water banquets were already popular in the Tang Dynasty.

The 24 dishes include 8 cold dishes, 4 large dishes, 8 medium dishes, and 4 table dishes. These 24 dishes include hot, cold, soup, water, and meat. white. After eating, one dish is served and another is served, and the flow is endless, like running water, flowing continuously. Because of this meaning, it was named Water Seat.

Luoyang Water Banquet is undoubtedly a representative of Luoyang, but this famous banquet with a history of thousands of years has not left Luoyang. Many people do not know that such a famous banquet exists until they come to Luoyang. So what is the reason? What is the result?

It is mainly related to the catering management in Luoyang. Although Luoyang water banquet is a famous banquet, there are very few restaurants operating Luoyang water banquet in other places. Think about having 24 dishes in one meal. This restaurant also requires a lot of investment, and ordinary people simply cannot afford to expand. Over time, those who knew how to make Luoyang water banquets stuck to the soil and water of Luoyang, and this traditional famous banquet with a history of thousands of years also lost the opportunity to go out of Luoyang.

It’s a joke that you want to leave Luoyang with such a smell!

At the end of April last year, I had the opportunity to go to Zhengzhou for a business trip for a meeting. After the meeting, I spent the May Day holiday in Henan. I also had a taste of Henan’s food and beverages – I really can’t use the word “gourmet food”. Braised noodles for breakfast, spicy soup, braised noodles and dumplings for lunch, braised noodles and dumplings for dinner, braised noodles and dumplings for midnight snack, this is Zhengzhou’s local dining culture. Of course, I also went to several restaurants where you can order a la carte, and ordered Yellow River The big carp and several local Henan dishes were very disappointing. Almost none of them could be called delicious.

Later I went to Dengfeng Shaolin Temple, and then stayed at the Dongshan Hotel in Luoyang for two nights. At the hotel where I stayed, I ordered a dish from the Luoyang water banquet, peony agar, which cost more than 70 yuan a serving. The carrot soup was bland and tasteless. Fortunately, I didn’t order a whole set of Luoyang water banquets. Otherwise, I would have fallen out of favor on the spot after spending more than a thousand yuan.

Henan people are quite pitiful. They have been the imperial capitals of so many dynasties, but they have not handed down any delicious food. Compared with the historical imperial capitals such as Xi'an, Nanjing, and Beijing, it is really different