When you hide in an air-conditioned room to eat popsicles and drink cold drinks to cool off, do you wonder what the people in the Qing Dynasty court ate and drank in the hot summer?I'm here to answer that question for you today.
The food Xi in the Qing Dynasty court was different from ours today, with breakfast and dinner every day, the time for breakfast was 6 to 8 o'clock, and dinner was not eaten until the evening, but between 12 noon and 2 pm. Of course, the specific meal time also depends on the emperor's own intentions, and the emperor gives an order, and the meal will soon be delivered to him, that is, "passing the meal". You may ask, what if you eat dinner in the afternoon, what if you are hungry in the evening?In fact, there is also a "snack time" around 6 p.m. The Qing Dynasty court's arrangement of meal times in this way is related to the fishing and hunting culture of the Manchu ancestors.
In summer, the weather is hot, and the palace diet will also make some adjustments accordingly, for example, the vegetables eaten are mainly cold foods such as green bamboo shoots, winter melon, and loofah;Mung beans and barley are also on the summer menu, not only for porridge, but also for all kinds of snacksFruits are also indispensable, and the common summer fruits of the Qing Dynasty court include watermelon, grapes, etc., which can not only be eaten directly, but also squeezed into juice to make drinks to drink.
As for meat, the palace will often use duck, chicken and other mild ingredients in the summer, and make them into steamed duck, lotus seeds and eight treasure ducks, eight fairy ducks stewed lotus root, minced bamboo shoots and chicken ......These dishes are light and delicious, which is conducive to human digestion, is it already drooling just by listening to it?
In addition, in the summer, the palace will also drink the "Mengding Fairy Tea" produced in Sichuan, with spring water from Yuquan Mountain in the western suburbs of Beijing, take a sip, which makes people feel as if they have seen the gurgling stream in the mountains, which is clear and pleasant. Of course, Yuquan mountain spring water is not only used to make tea, the Qing Dynasty court also used spring water as a raw material to make a kind of liquor - Yuquan wine, which has a good taste and is deeply loved by the emperor. It is said that Emperor Jiaqing drank some every day. Gyokusen sake was also given as a gift to the minister, so it was consumed in large quantities every year.
It is worth mentioning that the summer court diet companion - lotus, lotus flower, lotus leaf, lotus seed and lotus root are all recorded in the court to eat. The lotus petals can be wrapped in egg batter, and then fried, and a fragrant palace snack is made. Lotus leaves can be used to cook porridge, which has the effect of clearing heat and relieving heat. Lotus seeds can be stewed and boiled, and can also be eaten raw. There are also many ways to eat lotus root, such as the eighth day of the fifth month of the 54th year of Qianlong (1789), Emperor Qianlong's breakfast has Jiang rice root and sugar mixed with lotus root. The imperial poems of Emperor Qianlong and Emperor Jiaqing both mentioned the consumption of lotus root in summer. Fresh lotus root was also eaten raw in the Qing Dynasty court. Lotus root can also be made into lotus root powder, which is also a good summer product.
The lotus is full of treasures, so where does the lotus in the palace come from?Part of it comes from the lotus planted in the moat and garden pond - in the sixteenth year of Kangxi (1677), the Kangxi Emperor ordered the planting of lotus roots in the moat of the Forbidden City to meet the needs of the palace. Of course, some local provinces will also pay tribute to lotus seeds and lotus root powder.
Seeing this, you may have to ask again, there were no refrigerators in ancient times, how to preserve some summer fruits and cold dishes just mentioned?The wise ancients would store ice cubes in the winter for use in the summer. There are 5 ice cellars in the Forbidden City, which can store 250,000 pieces of ice!
There are so many ice cubes, you have to make good use of them, such as making summer snacks. According to the memories of the Empress Dowager Cixi's personal palace maid, in the summer, the palace would eat chilled "sweet bowls", and there were many types of sweet bowls, such as almond tofu, longan noodles, Huai yam, etc. It is also a good way to soak raisins in honey and then chill them, and the chilled sour plum soup is also very popular, and it was a must-have summer food for the people of Beijing at that time.
Although there are many unique flavors of summer food in the palace in the hot summer, it is not enough to meet all the needs of the palace people to cool off, and they will also prepare some medicines to prevent heat stroke, such as lozenge medicine.
Tablet medicine is a special kind of medicine, which is made of cinnabar, realgar, borneol and other traditional Chinese medicines, plus honey, glutinous rice flour and other fusion, put into the mold to shape it, it can be used externally or internally. The lozenge medicine is usually made before the Dragon Boat Festival every year, and some will be made into shapes with auspicious meanings, such as Taijitu, gourd, arhat, heavenly master, etc., which basically have the effect of dispelling heat and preventing diseases. Emperors also often rewarded hard-working ministers or soldiers on the march as a commendation and condolence.
Summer incense beads are the most distinctive in the tablet medicine, it is made into a beautiful bead style, can also play the effect of summer heat, can be described as both beautiful and practical, is widely praised in the court heatstroke medicine.
How about it, is the food and drink in the summer palace the same as you think?