What food culture is there on the dining table in Guangzhou?

Characteristics of Guangdong's Food Culture

Cantonese cuisine includes three categories: Guangzhou cuisine, Chaozhou cuisine and Dongjiang cuisine. Guangzhou cuisine combines the characteristics of Nanhai, Panyu, Dongguan, Shunde, Zhongshan and other local flavors, and combines the advantages of foreign cuisines such as Beijing, Jiangsu, Yangzhou and Hangzhou, as well as western cuisines, forming its own family. Guangzhou cuisine has a wide range of materials and a wide variety of flowers, which is dazzling. Almost everything that flies in the sky, crawls on the ground, drills in the soil and swims in the water can be eaten. Needless to say, partridges, sparrows, leopards, civets, pangolins, seal fish and other wild animals and birds; Cats, dogs, snakes, rats, monkeys, turtles, rabbits, and even grass mistaken for "grasshoppers" are cooked. Once cooked, they suddenly become exotic and delicious, which makes China and foreign people sit up and take notice and be very surprised. Guangzhou cuisine pays attention to dosage, exquisite materials, exquisite decoration, and is good at innovation in imitation. As many as 5,457 species were introduced in Guangzhou Famous Cuisine Art Exhibition 1965. Guangzhou cuisine pays attention to quality and taste, and its taste is relatively light, seeking freshness in the clear and beauty in the light. And it changes with the seasons, with summer and autumn being light and winter and spring being heavy. Food tastes clear, fresh, tender, cool, smooth and fragrant; Seasonings are sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty, and some are mainly sweet.

Typical dishes in Guangzhou cuisine are: Long Hudou, boiled shrimp, roast suckling pig, braised pork with taro, scrambled eggs in Huangpu, braised Mi Chong, dog meat pot, colorful shredded snake, etc. Among them, Long Hudou takes snakes as dragons and cats as tigers to make a pot, which is delicious; And roast suckling pig is also a must, crispy skin and tender meat. ...

Chaozhou cuisine is good at cooking seafood, with exquisite knife skills and sweet taste. I like to use fish sauce, sand tea sauce, plum mutton sauce, ginger wine and other condiments. There are many kinds of beets, including 100 styles, which are coarse and fine, sweet and delicious. Chaozhou cuisine likes to put 12, and the order of serving is head and tail beets, followed by salty snacks in the second half. Before the Qin Dynasty, Chaozhou belonged to Fujian, and its language family and customs were close to those of southern Fujian, but different from those of Guangzhou. Because of its different origins, its cooking characteristics are also different. Its representative dishes are: roast goose, sauce chicken, Chinese cuisine, assorted black ginseng, fried crab with onion and ginger, dried shrimp and red dates. , all famous Chaozhou dishes, spread to Lingnan area and at home and abroad.

Dongjiang cuisine, also known as Hakka cuisine, is also a relatively weighty cuisine in Guangdong. The so-called Hakkas are the Han people who moved south from the Central Plains in ancient times and lived in Lingnan, so they became Hakkas. Most Hakkas have moved from the whole village or clan, so many customs and habits still follow the Central Plains, and the characteristics of dishes have been preserved. Hakka dishes, represented by Huizhou cuisine, are heavy in oil, salty in taste and simple in sauce, but the main ingredients are prominent. I like to use the meat of three kinds of livestock, seldom use vegetables and not much seafood. Representative varieties are: Dongjiang salted chicken, Dongjiang fermented bean curd, refreshing beef balls and so on. , showing the strong diet style of ancient Zhongzhou.

Table manners of Guangzhou people

1. Pick up chopsticks: Before the younger generation picks up chopsticks, be sure to invite the older generation to dinner. They must start from the youngest, the oldest will say "pick up chopsticks", and then everyone will say "pick up chopsticks!" Move chopsticks.

2. People shake fortunes: sitting down to eat, one leg and two legs can't be built. In the past, you built a leg to represent a dishonest person (being a prostitute). Two legs, representing the poor (water man). Don't shake your legs. As the saying goes, "people shake wealth."

3. Eat Seven: Guangzhou people, rich or poor, can live alone and eat nine dishes, but they will never cook seven dishes unless they want to do something "white" and "eat seven" is not good.

4. Eat fish: you can eat the nest, tail or back first, but you are not allowed to eat the head first, or be picky about food first, and you can't turn the fish over. Guangzhou people like to talk about meaning, and the fish head is of course eaten to the end. It's even more unlucky when the fish turns over. Fish can represent boats, cars, houses and so on.

5. Respect the ground before respecting others: Guangzhou people like to drink soup with old fire before meals, regardless of their elders, but they must dip a few drops with chopsticks before drinking, and then gently bounce it to the ground outside the bowl (this is also the habit of drinking tea and drinking). You can drink it after the ceremony. It's called "Respect the ground first, then respect others". There are rules for pouring tea and wine. "Tea is half respectful, and wine is half deceitful." The etiquette of drinking is the same as above.

6. Fly like an elephant across the river: Don't carry chopsticks to the other side. If they are carried to the opposite side, mother will separate them with her own chopsticks, and then say: fly like a river! In fact, the elephant flying over the river is an elephant playing chess. Of course elephants can't cross the river. There are also many manners to grasp and put chopsticks, such as grasping chopsticks without pointing, putting chopsticks horizontally and so on.

7. Breaking dishes: It is common for children to accidentally break dishes and cups, which is not good for their heads. So, with the sound of landing, they said loudly, "Flowers that fall to the ground are rich and glorious", and then picked up a piece and hid it in a high place.

8. Leave three feet gentle: When I was a child, because there were many sisters, I always sat around the table to eat, and it was very easy for my elbow to touch my elbow. My mother would say: leaving three feet is gentle! So for the word "sven", everyone obediently stepped back.

9. Dropping chopsticks: Once, I accidentally dropped a chopstick on the table and wanted to bend down to pick it up. My mother was quick-sighted and quick-sighted. Before I could pick it up, my mother dropped the other one. I wonder why my mother did it. Mom said: "Happy, happy, good things of course in pairs!" " "After the meal with other dishes.

Taboos on the dining table of Guangzhou people

1. Fish belly and chicken head should face the host and guest.

Generally speaking, the fish belly is pointed at the host and guest, mainly because the fish belly has fewer thorns and is tender, smooth and delicious. However, there is actually another allusion. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Prince He Lv of Wu wanted to kill him and set up his own business. Wu Zixu recommended the assassin Zhuan Xu to Gongziguang, but Zhuan Xu usually didn't have a chance to get close. Knowing that Liao loves grilled fish, Zhuan Xu went to worship Taihe Gong as his teacher. After learning the craft of grilled fish, Zhuan Xu took the opportunity of inviting Wu Wangliao home for dinner to prepare a whole fish, hid a dagger in the belly of the fish, took out the dagger when serving, stabbed Wu Wangliao, and Zhuan Xu was also killed by Wu Wangliao's guards. From then on, all banquet guests should point the fish belly at the host and guest to show goodwill. It is also different from the dining etiquette of "chickens don't offer their heads and ducks don't offer their tails" in other provinces. In a hotel in Guangzhou, if it is a white-cut chicken in the shape of a chicken, the waiter must point the head of the chicken at the host and guests to show respect. When the host and guests move chopsticks, they usually tilt the chicken's head slightly to show humility.

Don't say "full" after eating.

In Guangzhou, many elderly people usually think, "Are you hungry? Complain about hunger, but don't complain about fullness When chopsticks fall to the ground, you should say "Chopsticks are dropped" and when you break a bowl, you should say "Flowers are blooming on the ground" ... So many customs and taboos are ignored by many young people now, but in formal occasions, you still need to wake up the memory of this pile of things, which not only reflects the elegant etiquette at the dinner table, but also inherits and inherits the local national culture.

Don't knock the bowl and basin with chopsticks.

Guangzhou people are very taboo to beat bowls and pots with chopsticks when eating. When having dinner at home, especially don't knock chopsticks on the bowls and basins casually. It is often said that only beggars beat bowls and basins with chopsticks when begging. There is also a saying related to the ancient legend of "antivirus". According to legend, this method is a poisonous insect cultivated artificially. People put all kinds of insects into the altar. Many years later, when they opened it, a bug must have eaten all the other insects. This winner is called "Method". When people are killed by food poisoning, you should say a spell and beat the bowl and basin at the same time, so that the method can work. Therefore, it is taboo to beat bowls and basins with chopsticks.

4. Don't "cross chopsticks" when you stop eating.

When you stop eating at a party, you can put chopsticks directly on the plate or spoon. If chopsticks are placed horizontally on the plate, it means that you are drunk and full, and you don't eat any more. This kind of horizontal chopsticks etiquette has existed in ancient China. The horizontal chopsticks ceremony is generally used between peers or close friends. In order to show respect for the elderly, the younger generation must wait for the elderly to cross chopsticks before they can follow suit. According to historical records, there was a Tang Su in the Song Dynasty who was sent to the border because he passed chopsticks first. Nowadays, even if people eat first, they don't immediately clean up the dishes and chopsticks, and then clean up together after the whole table is finished. This can be said to be a continuation of the ancient horizontal chopsticks etiquette, which means "people don't accompany you with chopsticks." In addition, it is also considered unlucky to put chopsticks on the table irregularly before or during meals. This is called "three long and two short", which stands for "death". Because the coffin used to play dead is two short boards in front and back, and three long boards at the bottom of both sides, which are just three long and two short.