Secrets of the Palace: Empress Dowager Cixi was fascinated by a 'creepy' dish that must be included in her meals

The mysterious stories behind the red walls of the Forbidden City are always the most interesting topics. Revolving around the story of the most tyrannical Empress Dowager in the history of the Qing Dynasty, the mystery of her fishy meals makes everyone shudder.

"It was the most lavish period in the Qing Dynasty. Their daily meals increased from 18 to 23 dishes to 25 to 28 dishes," said historian Zhao Rongguang, one of the few people who had access to the subject of Chinese aristocratic cuisine before the documents were sealed.

Empress Dowager Cixi was a party-loving woman. She frequently hosted ceremonial banquets. Over the centuries, many royal banquets were held in the Forbidden City.

The most popular form of this is the "Zeng An Yan" (Zeng An Banquet), which combines Manchu-style feasts with many grilled meats and Han-style feasts with bird's nest soup and seafood.

"The banquets include many rare seafood such as shark fin, sea cucumber, dried scallops and fish lips. The grilled meat is usually roast pork and roast duck," said Mr. Zhao Rongguang.

During the late Qing Dynasty, wealthy patrons entered China and began to create their own imperial banquets, inspired by Zeng Anyan. They called them Manchu-Han banquets.

The lavish Manchu Han Dynasty banquet is often cited as an example of how the imperial family ate. This is considered one of the biggest misconceptions about Chinese cuisine.

Historian Zhao Rongguang said: "In 1957, at the China Import and Export Fair held in Guangzhou, a supplier held a lavish banquet. Among the attendees, Japanese businessmen were interested. They wanted to learn about this lavish banquet and asked the staff about what kind of banquet it was. The staff did not know anything, so they consulted the boss. The boss also did not know the information, so he asked the chef. The chef, although not sure, gave the answer that this was a Manchu-Han banquet and affirmed that it originated from the emperor."

Japanese businessmen were said to have been fascinated. Since then, the Manchu banquet became a term to refer to the emperor's meal. In addition, many people mistakenly believed that the emperor's banquet had to have 108 dishes, spread over 2 days.

After the information spread widely, Mr. Zhao Rongguang was inspired and motivated to find out the truth about the meals of the nobles as well as the cuisine in the Forbidden City.

According to historian Zhao Rongguang, Cixi was very persistent in her eating habits, and her favorite dishes were braised duck fat, roasted pork skin, and cherry meat, these three dishes were the most famous. Among them, braised duck fat was the most laborious dish, in addition to removing all the duck's organs, putting them in a clay pot filled with many spices and marinating them for several hours, the duck also had to be put in a large iron pot and cooked for 3 hours, the process was quite complicated.

In addition, the favorite dish of Empress Dowager Cixi was pork with skin. The reason why Empress Dowager Cixi loved this dish was because it had the effect of nourishing and beautifying the skin, but the preparation method was very cruel. First, the pork selection stage would select piglets of about 40kg. Before slaughtering, a eunuch would chase and continuously whip the pig's butt, causing it to scream loudly. After that, the pig was restrained and not allowed to die.

The purpose of this is to whip the pig's butt, so that the pig's blood is "invigorated", so that the whole body's blood flows through the butt, so that the pig's butt will become "fresh red raw meat", then hand it over to the royal chef to cook this piece of meat, it is said that the taste of this piece of meat is different from ordinary pork, very tender and delicious.

In addition, ginseng was one of the famous dishes that Empress Dowager Cixi used to entertain guests. Field mice were caught and raised, fed with all kinds of tonics, rice mixed with chicken eggs, and ginseng and pear juice. The mice were bathed twice a day with high-quality aromatic oils and agarwood water.

Fresh monkey brains are considered the most inhumane food in the world and are strongly opposed. To date, there is no evidence to show whether fresh monkey brains are nutritious or not, but eating them raw can easily lead to death due to bacterial infection.

Baby mice are taken from the offspring of the above mice. The chefs will wrap the mice in a layer of dough like a dumpling. When diners put the dumpling in their mouths, they will hear the squeaking of the live baby mice inside. This dish helps to nourish the spleen and eyes.

However, many envoys did not dare to eat this dish and refused it or ate it to please the queen mother. A typical example was the Portuguese envoy who, upon seeing the mouse's tail wriggling in the mouth of the envoy of another country, was impolite and refused.

Monkey brain, also known as monkey brain, is the second dish that many diners refuse. Near Thien Hoa mountain in Shandong, there is a group of monkeys that eats an entire forest of pears. The pears here can cure diseases such as jaundice, kidney disease, heat stagnation and cough, so eating monkey meat is very fragrant and can cure diseases. Monkey brain was considered the most nutritious at that time, although to this day there is no evidence to show whether fresh monkey brain is nutritious or not. 80 young monkeys that have not yet changed their fur were caught and brought to serve guests. Before serving guests, each monkey was placed in a small cage with a hole just big enough for the monkey's head to appear. The monkeys could not move because of the shackles. When eating, the waiter would "transform" the monkeys. This haunting act was severely condemned by later generations.

Why did Qianlong spend money to build the most lavish palace in the Forbidden City and not stay? Bình Minh1 year agoQianlong spent a mountain of money to build Can Trai in the 37th year of his reign so that after retirement he would come to live. However, he has never set foot in posterity, which makes posterity feel extremely confused.