At first, the editor was attracted to the drama because of "Fairy Sister" Liu Yifei, but soon I was convinced by the Song Dynasty aesthetics displayed in the drama, especially the pastries and meals that appeared in it were so tempting!

(This article is reprinted from Collectible Auction Magazine)

The most popular drama recently is undoubtedly the catering entrepreneurship story of "Bankrupt Sisters" in the Song Dynasty " Meng Hua Lu "!

Three sisters discussing things

At first, the editor followed the drama because of the "fairy sister" Liu Yifei , but soon I was convinced by the Song Dynasty aesthetics shown in the drama, especially the pastries and meals that appeared in it. The food is so tempting!

Liu Yifei plays Zhao Pan'er in the play, looking forward to the glory, just like a classical beauty stepping out of a painting.

The editor who didn't even want to let go of the end of the film, discovered that the TV series invited two teachers, Xu Li and Lu Ran, the authors of "Song Banquet", to serve as historical consultants on tea art and dishes. No wonder it is full of details.

You can see the names of the two authors from the end of the film

Every cake that appears in the drama has a historical origin, and it is beautiful and delicious.

Picture source: Internet

Let’s take a look at the exquisite snacks in the drama and the delicacies of the Song Dynasty reproduced in the book "Feast of the Song Dynasty". At the end of the article, we also provide you with some simple and easy-to-cook Song Dynasty food to cool off the summer heat at home. You can recall the romance of and Song Dynasty and recreate the delicious taste of ancient methods.

01

The exquisite snacks in "Menghualu"

As a TV series with the historical background of the Song Dynasty, the title of the drama is taken from " Tokyo Menghualu" by Meng Yuanlao (named Youlan Jushi) (this book is also Named "Youlan Jushi Tokyo Menghua Lu"). The book records the living customs of everyone from the royal family to the citizens. It can be said to be Dianping + Baidu Encyclopedia of the Song Dynasty.

The cover of the full-color illustrated version of "Tokyo Dreams" published by Sanqin Publishing House in 2021. This edition specially uses the detailed picture of " Along the River During the Qingming Festival " for illustration, and is accompanied by the full picture of "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" There are 56 handed down Song Dynasty paintings, full-color illustrations, and a combination of pictures and texts, in order to open up a window for future generations to imagine the style of that time as much as possible. This book is also known as the "text version of "Along the River During Qingming Festival".

Picture source: Internet

Looking through "Orchid Master Tokyo Menghualu", the content of the chapters on Zhouqiao Night Market, Dietary Fruits, etc. is comparable to the names of dishes, and the various dishes are exciting.

For example, it is written in "Food and Drink":

The so-called tea and rice are Baiwei soup, first soup, new method quail soup, three crisp soup... put into the furnace, add lotus duck sticks, roast the belly with wine, Sheep head with silken juice, lamb in the oven, sheep head sticks, goose and duck sticks, chicken sticks, plated rabbit, stir-fried rabbit, green onion-splashed rabbit, fake wild fox, golden belly soup, stone belly soup, fake roasted deer, fried Quail seeds, raw and fried lungs, fried clams, fried crabs, thrush crabs, hand-washing crabs, etc...

Chapter "Food and Drink" in "Orchid Layman Tokyo Menghualu"

Source: National Museum of Classical Books

Refreshments It was an indispensable part of tea drinking in the Song Dynasty. The sweetness of the fruit neutralized the astringency of the tea, making tea drinking more fun and richer.

In the play, the "fruits" sold in the Zhao's teahouse opened by Zhao Pan'er, Sun Sanniang, and Song Yinzhang are actually "cakes". Traditional Chinese pastries usually refer to steamed cakes , which occupied a mainstream position in the Song Dynasty: most of them used glutinous rice flour and sticky rice. Rice noodles are divided into two types: fermented and unfermented. They are steamed in water. The texture is generally hard and has many flavors.

The table full of fruits was so tempting.

At that time, the dim sum shops had dozens of products: sugar cake, honey cake, , chestnut cake, wheat cake, , bean cake, flower cake, glutinous rice cake, , and ice cream. , small retort cake, steamed sugar cake, raw sugar cake, honey cake, mirror cake...

The snacks in the drama are quite literati and elegant from taste to shape and name

If it is simple to make, is usually only divided into Square or diamond-shaped, when making it carefully, we will use a mold made of pear wood or jujube wood that is one inch thick to carve out auspicious patterns such as flower-shaped, peach-shaped, wishful-looking, fish-shaped, etc.

The prototype of the carved candied fruit in the drama is Jingzhou carved candied fruit

"Song Banquet" contains two delicious and easy-to-make fruits. The last part of the article will introduce the recipes to you.

02

"Song Yan": This book is so delicious!

, a book published in 2018, became popular again with the popularity of the TV series "Menghualu".

The three authors of the book "Song Banquet"

Picture source: Fashion COSMO

It is both a recipe and an essay, and it is also a performance of Song people's aesthetics extended by "eating". In order to better present the allusions of these delicacies to the public, the book also includes pictures of Song paintings, calligraphy, and Tang and Song utensils to restore the situation at that time. As the title of the book indicates, this is a feast of Song Dynasty culture, which will lead you to rediscover the charm of traditional culture with all the colors, flavors and tastes.

Cover of the book "Song Banquet"

Picture source: Internet

Lu Ran and his team collected the information from "Wu Family's Records" written by the cook in the Song Dynasty, "Shan Jia Qing Gong " and " Lin Guang Ji" written by the cook in the Song Dynasty. " and other Song cookbooks, and sorted out practical dishes among them, and excerpted from the notes of Song people who were passionate about food, such as "Tokyo Menghua Lu", "Old Martial Arts", "The Prosperity of the Old Man in West Lake", etc. Name all the dishes.

The production story behind this book was also presented in the first episode of the documentary "Ancient Books Across Time and Space" "Feast in Ancient Books"

Youlan Jushi Tokyo Menghua Lu Ten Volumes

(Song Dynasty) Yuan Dynasty Blocked Edition Written by Meng Yue

National Library Collection Directory 00566

"Exhibition Exhibition of Traditional Chinese Cultural Classics" in the exhibition

The three dishes introduced in the documentary "Ancient Books Across Time and Space" all appear in "Shanjia Qinggong", ordinary food is given elegant and elegant dish names . Among them, "Full Mountain Fragrance" and "Passing Xia Offering" are included in the "Winter Food" chapter of "Song Banquet".

Then, compare the recipes of the previous and previous dynasties, such as " Drinking and Dining Zhengyao" and " Suiyuan Food List " (Qing Dynasty), which recorded royal cuisine, to find out the precise recipe corresponding to the name of the dish as a reference. Choose dishes that still reflect the Song style cooking style. spent five years replicating more than 300 Song Dynasty delicacies such as "Crab Stuffed Orange" and "Vegetarian Steamed Duck". compiled these eight types of dishes and 75 delicacies into recipes according to the season, named "Song Banquet".

The book is divided into five chapters: "Spring Food", "Summer Food", "Autumn Food", "Winter Food" and "Ancient Food"

Picture source: Internet

The famous "Dongpo Pork" and the ham, hot pot, Bean sprouts, glutinous rice balls... all originated from this time. During the Two Song Dynasties, the variety of food became increasingly rich, and eating habits also changed from two meals to three meals. Therefore, the Two Song Dynasties was a turning period in the history of Chinese food.

A major breakthrough in the diet of the Song Dynasty (excerpted from the documentary "Ancient Books Through Time")

The documentary "China" once praised the food culture of the Song Dynasty: frying, frying, deep-frying, roasting, steaming, everything. In 1998, the American "Life Magazine" selected the 100 major events that have had the most profound impact on human life in this millennium. The restaurants and snacks of the Song Dynasty were among the list.

Due to the development of cast iron technology in the Song Dynasty, the cooking method added "fried" cooking method to the original frying, boiling, frying and stewing.

In the Song Dynasty, there was already a food delivery service!

Sometimes it is inconvenient for some dignitaries to entertain guests in restaurants, so the service of sending foreign chefs to their homes to prepare private banquets was born.

"Along the River During the Qingming Festival" (detail)

Northern Song Dynasty Zhang Zeduan

Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing

An interesting point in the food culture of the Song Dynasty is that people like to imitate meat with meat, which is called "fake cuisine". For example, pig belly heads are used to imitate Jiang Yaozhu , and pig and sheep heads are used to imitate bear paws. The emergence of such fake dishes in was mainly caused by the difficulty of logistics and transportation at that time.

The first thing Lu Ran and his team tried was a dish called "Fake Fish and Clam", which once appeared in the banquet hosted by Prince Qinghe Zhang Jun Emperor Gaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty. This dish may have originated from the fact that when southerners went to the north to serve as officials and could not eat seafood, they used mandarin fish (ie mandarin fish ) to make dishes to imitate the taste of seafood. Lu Ran marinated the mandarin fish meat cut into small slices and blanched it in shrimp soup. The dish he made is almost fake.(Excerpted from the documentary "Ancient Books Across Time and Space")

The red lines in the picture are the "fake pufferfish ", "fake yuanyu", "fake clam" and "fake wild fox" that appeared in "Orchid Master Tokyo Dreams" ""Fake Roasted Deer"

Picture source: National Museum of Classical Books

The richness of ingredients and seasonings in the Song Dynasty was far less than what it is now, but the importance lies in cherishing the season and handling it carefully. Take the chili peppers that were only introduced to China in the Ming Dynasty as an example. The emperors of the Qing Dynasty could eat chili peppers directly, but in the Song Dynasty, people found ways to replace the taste of chili peppers with dogwood , Sichuan pepper and other media. 's thinking and innovative thinking are worth learning from us modern people.

03

The same tea drink from "Meng Hua Lu"

and other ancient methods of relieving summer heat in the Song Dynasty

Action is worse than action. Next, let the editor introduce you to several dishes that can be made at home, and even novices can quickly get started!

Perilla Drinker

The tea product "Perilla Drinker" that first appears in the play is a unique drink homemade by Zhao Pan'er, the owner of Zhao's Tea House. "Yinzi", also known as "cooked water", is a herbal tea with both health care effects and taste.

There were countless beverage shops in the capital of the Song Dynasty. In "Along the River During Qingming Festival" you can see that beverage shops like "Yinzi" and "Shu Yinzi" were everywhere.

"A Picture Along the River During the Qingming Festival" (Part)

Zhang Zeduan of the Northern Song Dynasty

Collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing Collection

Several pharmacopoeias and life guides published in the Song and Yuan Dynasties have included a large number of daily primer recipes, and the precise dosage of each ingredient is given, which is convenient People prepare it according to the recipe.

Hong's collection of prescriptions in five volumes (Song Dynasty) compiled by Hong Zun in the sixth year of the Song Dynasty Qiandao (1170) Gushu County Zhai engravings Huang Pilie Gu Guangqi Postscripts on traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions National Library Collection

This book is based on the Southern Song Dynasty It was printed on official paper during the 3rd year of Chunxi html. It is considered an early printing and extremely rare. Die Jing Wen Zhengming , Ji Zhenyi , Huang Pilie, Wang Shizhong , Qu Shi Tieqin Tongjianlou collection. It was exhibited in "EMI Rue" at the "Exhibition on the Protection and Inheritance of Traditional Chinese Cultural Classics".

This "perilla drink" that attracts everyone's attention is also included in the book "Song Banquet".

Page 155 of "Song Banquet"

As mentioned above, the two fruits recorded in the book are chestnut cake, a dessert that relieves cravings, and five-spice cake, which has both health and medicinal properties.

Liquor cake

Liquor cake is as its name suggests. Mash ripe chestnuts into puree, add honey and knead into a ball. Pat it with a cake mold to make small cakes. Neatly stack them in a shallow dish with a flower mouth and serve it on the table. It is a good treat. Desserts for guests.

Picture source: Xinxing Publishing House

Five-spice cake

Gorgon fruit , ginseng, Atractylodes, Poria , Amomum villosum , constitute the taste base of the five-spice cake. Grind them into powder and mix them in proportion. Add one part glutinous rice flour and three parts sticky rice flour. Melt white sugar into thick sugar water to adjust the sweetness. Mix it into a cake base and steam it. The production basically follows the traditional steamed cake method. law.

Source: Xinxing Publishing House

Crab Stuffed Orange

Crab Stuffed Orange was also one of the most surprising dishes during Lu Ran's recovery. Cut off the top of the orange, scoop out the pulp and make it into a hollow orange vat. Then pour the steamed crab meat and crab roe into rice wine, vinegar, orange juice and a little water, mix well, then stuff it into the orange vat and steam it in a pot. The orange not only tempers the greasiness of the crab, but also enhances the fragrance of the crab.

One of the "summer food" dishes

Two of the "spring food" dishes

Picture source: Fashion COSMO

I heard that there is also a story about the three sisters of Pan'er opening a restaurant. "Tokyo Menghualu" describes the story of the capital city. The restaurant is very exciting. I wonder if there will be scenes that are close to historical materials?

(This article is reproduced from Collection Auction Magazine)