Stunned with dishes in the feast of Cixi Thai Hau

Referring to Cixi Thai Hau, it must be mentioned that the Tet Lunar New Year party (1874) consumed nearly 400 taels of gold. In particular, the "terrible" dishes that she used to entertain guests made many people shudder frightfully.

Throughout the length of history, perhaps no sumptuous and expensive feast by the Lunar New Year party in 1874 organized by Cixi Thai Hau, China, in order to treat envoys and generals Western countries.

The guests received invitations from December 23 in the Year of the Rooster (1873), including 400 guests, of which 212 guests from 8 coalition countries beat China and 188 gods of the Manchu court. The menu has 140 dishes, feasting at 12:00 on New Year's Eve in 1874, lasting until the night of the 7th night of the Lunar New Year, consuming 98 million Chinese garden flowers, about 374 gold and needing 1750 service servants.

Portrait of Cixi Dowager.(Photo: Internet).

Right from the full moon in February of the Year of the Rooster (1873), each province in China was ordered to recommend 10 best chefs to enter the city for a menu, after two months of discussion, the chefs made a menu including 140 dishes, including 7 very special dishes, and 7 nights the party takes place, each night uses only one dish.

On the night of the 30th New Year, all guests of the party will gather at Duy An Cung, at the same time, Cixi Thai Hau attended the ceremony of exorcism in the temple of Ton Long. After three gongs of dragon drums, it was resounded as the beloved jewel of Thai Hau. Guests will stand up in the same direction towards the place where there are 8 muscular guards, Thai Hau will gently lift the curtain out to greet the guests.

After three gongs, Thai beast Ly Hong Chuong will speak on behalf of the meaning of this banquet aiming to tighten the friendship of the Qing court and Western countries. On behalf of the eight countries, the British ambassador responded. And the next three hours of announcing the banquet started, the guests would sit a meter apart, with two men and women standing behind the back.

At the end of each dish, the music will play a song, after using exactly 5 dishes, the guests will be given a cup of medicated wine with a true effect. Of course, wine for guests is also a precious wine and a great drink. The kitchen will serve up to 20 dishes a day, including the most special dish mentioned. Every time I use a new dish, the Empress Dowager will knock on the pearl, and one will give the name to the dish.

Let's look for 7 special dishes.

Ginseng test (ginseng rat)

Ginseng means rats fed with ginseng.

Ginseng means rats fed with ginseng. After birth, rats will be brought in glass cages, eat fine ginseng and drink spring water until the child is born, they will take those animals separately in the above manner to produce a new layer of mice, but The new mouse layer has not been used yet, just keep it like that until the third generation, then the mouse is really "Cross all over and over"

This special dish was served, everyone looked at each other, Thai Hau held a fork to scoop a stomach mouse (newborn pups that have not opened their eyes yet) to eat so that everyone could learn, if anyone would see. the mouse chirped and had a blood shot.

Empress Dowager enjoyed the delicacy of food as if to prolong the taste of this wonderful dish, can imbue the mind and body and say, "Please". But there was no one who choked and smiled, and said that the person who regretted not being able to imbue the European-American civilization of the messengers, but personally about the food, he saw that the envoys were slow and unaware. What is delicious, is complementary, about this dish, perhaps the messengers must also learn Eastern countries.

The brains (monkey brains)

Near the Thien Hoa Mountain in Shandong Province, there is a pear forest called Le Ngoc Can, which can treat orange, kidney, heat, and chronic coughs. But the pear forest was eaten by a herd of monkeys there, so the monkey meat here is fragrant, delicious, tonic, eating and treating the immortal disease.

It is said that in terms of medicinal properties, the brains of these monkeys are even more valuable. The Empress Dowager ordered to catch 200 young, un-haired monkeys, each with 110 gold. The number of monkeys Thien Hoa Son offers guests is 80, every 5 people eat a monkey brain. These 80 monkeys are laced daily.

Each monkey will be placed in a small cage, like a baby drum, can be closed and opened easily, one end will cut a hole enough for the monkey's head to rise; The cage is quite sure that the monkey cannot move. At the time of eating, the servant would hold a ivory pestle and descend on the monkey's head, this blow was of course practiced, enough for the ill-fated monkey to die immediately. Then, sprinkle hot ginseng water on the monkey's head to rinse a little. Guests will use the silver spoon to enjoy the dish.

Statues (elephant's essence)

First of all, choose really good and big bird nests taken from the islands off the Nam Hai coast, carefully washed and cooked with ginseng and Dau Cau Only sugar of Korea, mixed with Van Nam pear juice and Kiet Chau powder. Chalk, dry and then form an elephant shape, finally put in the furnace to make it really ripe and firm.

Statues of elephants are already available, when the elephant made of bird's nest has been heated, the chefs will cut the elephant's back with an empty hole just enough to put in a whale shadow that has been soaked in dried northern medicine and contains statues crystal in it. The dish is steamed away. To enjoy the food, diners will take a golden needle and stab the elephant's abdomen to allow the liquid to flow into the silver cup and drink.

Grass of the genus

Phuong Chi grass often grows on a stone in Thai Hang mountain. In particular, this grass only refers to the new leap years and grows only once on the Mid-Autumn Festival, and life is very short, only encountering the early north wind will wither immediately.

Grass Phuong Chi.(Photo: Internet).

Wanting to pick up this grass, one day before, one had to lead a mountain of pure white stallion. When the sun has just risen, lead the horse to the stone slab with grass, wait for the horse to finish eating, then "turn over the life" for the horse, then slaughter the stomach to bring the stomach to the drug, dry. Legend has it that this grass is cool, except for the sick.

Grass Phuong Chi will be able to cook with Long Tu, who will eat well and enjoy the spirit, not tired all month.

Public eggs

Public meat made rolls is precious, even more precious birds egg because it is very difficult to get the eggs (hard to get close to the eggs because the public will resist fiercely to protect eggs, even break the eggs to not let people take it.

The egg protection is very thorough.(Photo: Internet).

To cook this dish, it takes up to 100 monkeys to be trained to steal public eggs. The results obtained 500 eggs to welcome guests, but the number of monkeys "sacrificed" took a third.

Fuzhou milk pig

Phuc Chau area (China) has a precious pig breed, extremely delicious meat, specializing in eating a root (like Hoanh Tinh tuber) growing in Chauich Xuong hill.

The banquet for guests using 100 suckling pigs, are 2-month-old Phuc Chau breeding pigs. Pigs are pulled over to clean the pig coat. Next, people will have abdominal surgery to remove all intestinal liver and marinate complementary medicines within 3 days and bring the water way. At that time the pork was extremely delicious, the bones were very soft.

Positive paint

Ordered by Cixi, the hunters of the Hubei region after nearly a month of diving into the deep forest caught 6 mountain goats in a forest in Tianjin area. The herd is then cared for carefully, daily fed with grass in Yunnan and Guangxi.

This is an extremely precious ' Cordyceps ' grass, a kidney tonic. Goats eating grass this quarter, eating more leaves of other tonic plants, 6 mountain goats increasingly stout, laying off litters is also healthy, bigger than the same type.

The young goat was just 2 months old and was selected to take 14 children to the preliminary processing kitchen. Then, soak in a large wooden container containing ginger juice and precious wine. On the second day, goats were picked out and put into porcelain tanks containing fresh goat milk and velvet ginseng. After 2 days, people take white lotus flowers (which have been separated from the petals and gold pins pierced from the lotus incense to the flower stalks).

Soak up to the 10th day (right on the 7th day of the rabble), there are white and white insects full in the lotus. The kitchen will pick up this kind of serow to be processed into a dish, extremely nutritious, effective in treating tuberculosis, numbness, and dissatisfaction.