Anhui Cuisine

中國徽菜

英文版

Anhui cuisine, or simply Hui Cuisine, one of the eight Chinese cuisines, is originated over 1,000 years ago from Huizhou, the current Shexian County at the foot of Yellow Mountain in Anhui Province. The representative dishes include Stinky Mandarin Fish, Fried Hairy Tofu, Stewed Bamboo Shoots of Wenzheng Mountain, Huangshan Stewed Pigeon, Li Hongzhang Chop Suey, etc.

Hui Cuisine dates back to the Song Dynasty. Hui is the short name for Huizhou, thus the name of Hui Cuisine. The development of Hui cuisine is closely related to the Huizhou Merchants. At that time, Huizhou Merchants would place a table of hometown dishes when talking about business, entertaining or gathering with friends to show their respect for distinguished guests. As the merchants did business everywhere, Hui Cuisine was introduced all over China. Where there were Hui Merchants there were Hui Cuisine restaurants. And, it reached its peak in the Qing Dynasty. What’s more, ancient Huizhou's various customs, rituals and seasonal activities have also effectively promoted the formation and development of Hui Cuisine.

Traditional Hui Cuisine dishes are cooked with more oil and chefs pay more attention to color and heating skills. Oil used is generally local colza oil, which well matches local ingredients, generating unequal flavors. Hams are extremely popular in Anhui. Using hams as a condiment is the unique way of cooking Hui dishes. More importantly, Hui Cuisine dishes have inherited the traditional Chinese philosophy that health food benefits us as well as medical treatments, which is a major feature of Hui Cuisine.

The lush hills, numerous rivers and lakes, and pleasant climate in Huizhou provide Hui food recipes a variety of wild ingredients, such as partridges, fishes, turtles, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, chestnuts, Chinese yams and so on. Even Chinese medicine herbs are used to cook food by Hui Cuisine chefs. Those natural materials are all from the wild, which is a key to ensure Hui Cuisine dishes have unique and tasty flavores.

The most frequently used cooking techniques of Hui cuisine include braising, stewing and steaming. Frying and flash-frying are less used. Chinese braising is called “Hong Shao”. Hong means the dish’s color is red, which is from heated white sugar or brown sugar. To get the beautiful red, strict control of heat is important. According to different features of varied ingredients and the wanted tastes of diverse dishes, different durations and different degrees of heating are applied.

漢語版

安徽菜，簡稱徽菜，中國八大菜系之一，起源于1000多年前的古徽州，即現(xiàn)在安徽省黃山腳下的歙縣。代表菜有臭鱖魚、毛豆腐、問政山筍、黃山燉鴿、李鴻章大雜燴等。

徽菜的歷史可以追溯到宋代?！盎铡笔腔罩莸暮喎Q，“徽菜”因此而得名?；詹说陌l(fā)展與徽商有著密切的關(guān)系。那是，徽商洽談生意、消遣娛樂或是朋友聚會(huì)，都會(huì)擺上一桌家鄉(xiāng)菜，以示對(duì)賓客的尊重。徽菜伴隨著徽商的發(fā)展，逐漸聲名遠(yuǎn)揚(yáng)。哪里有徽商，哪里就有徽菜館。清代時(shí)，徽菜達(dá)到頂峰。而且，古徽州豐富多彩的風(fēng)俗禮儀、時(shí)節(jié)活動(dòng)，也極大地促進(jìn)了徽菜的形成和發(fā)展。

傳統(tǒng)徽菜重油、重色、重火功。當(dāng)?shù)禺a(chǎn)菜子油，完美搭配當(dāng)?shù)厥巢模ぐl(fā)出獨(dú)特地徽菜風(fēng)味。安徽人喜歡吃火腿，火腿入菜是徽菜一大特點(diǎn)。最重要的是，徽菜繼承了祖國醫(yī)食同源的傳統(tǒng)，講究食補(bǔ)，這是徽菜最大的特色。

徽州山巒疊嶂，綠樹叢蔭、河湖密布、氣候宜人，這為徽菜提供了豐富的野生食材，如石雞、魚、龜、蘑菇、竹筍、栗子、山藥等。甚至草藥也是安徽廚師的食材。這些天然野生食材，確保了徽菜的獨(dú)特美味。

徽菜多用燒、燉、蒸，而爆、炒菜品較少。“紅燒”的“紅”，表現(xiàn)為糖色，由白糖或紅糖高溫加熱上色，對(duì)火候要求極為苛刻。徽菜廚師根據(jù)食材的不同特點(diǎn)和菜品的不同口味，會(huì)精準(zhǔn)把控火候。