Excerpts from the history and culture of sea cucumber diet

There are more than 900 kinds of sea cucumber in the world, and 40 kinds are edible. In 1985, 13500 tons of sea cucumber were produced in the world, most of which went to China and a small part to Southeast Asia. Dubai in the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East is the transit place for sea cucumber in Central Africa, and Hong Kong is the transit place for Southeast Asia.

Among all edible seafood in China, sea cucumber may have the shortest history of consumption. The Chinese people's understanding of the edible value of sea cucumber began in the Ming Dynasty. Even as a traditional Chinese medicine, Li Shizhen, the master of traditional Chinese medicine in the Ming Dynasty, did not mention it in the Compendium of Materia Medica published in 1590. It was in the "Food Materia Medica" compiled by Yao Kecheng at the end of the Ming Dynasty that there was a detailed description of sea cucumber. The book said: "Sea cucumber, sitting in the East South China Sea, looks like an insect, is black, and has many puppets. A kind of person with a length of five or six inches is good at tonifying. The most precious food is also. It tastes sweet and salty, non-toxic, and mainly replenishes vital energy. It nourishes the five viscera and six viscera, and removes the three scorches." Zhao Xuemin's "Compendium of Materia Medica" also has more detailed records. It is also known as sea cucumber because of its medicinal value.

During the Song Dynasty, there was no record of human consumption of sea cucumber. In Wu Zimu's "Dream of Liang Lu", there are only records of scallops and bird's nests. The Taiping Guangji compiled by Song Li Li and others collected 500 volumes of unofficial history from the Han Dynasty to the early Song Dynasty. Among the 10 aquatic species in its volume, 61 kinds of aquatic foods were mentioned, and no sea cucumber was found. Only in the History of the Ming Palace did we see a detailed description of sea cucumber cooking. It is said that the Emperor Xizong of the Ming Dynasty likes to eat more than ten kinds of seafood, such as moxibustion clam, fresh shrimp, bird's nest, shark fin and sea cucumber. I think sea cucumber was only a kind of palace food at that time, because it came from the numerous recipes of "Plum in the Golden Vase", known as one of the five wonders of China during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. It is reasonable to say that the story took place in Xuzhou, which is not far from the sea and is located at the north-south intersection of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. In ancient times, it was a transportation hub and an important town of Shangfu. If the sea cucumber has been eaten, Ximen Qing, who has five concubines, such as Jin, Ping and Mei, will not be unable to afford it. I can't afford it.

The 8th chapter of "Mirror and Flower", which is as famous as "A Dream of Red Mansions" in the Qing Dynasty, tells the story that Lian Jinfeng, a young girl in Narcissus Village of the Overseas Scholar's Kingdom, went to sea to catch sea cucumber and was captured by pirates in order to cure her mother, and was saved by Tang Ao with 100 liang silver, including the use of sea cucumber as medicine. But it was abroad.

The introduction of sea cucumber was only gradually popular in the Qing Dynasty. Yuan Mei, who served as a county magistrate in Jiangsu and Zhejiang for seven years during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, described in detail the three methods of sea cucumber in his famous Suiyuan Food List. In addition, he highly praised mustard and shredded sea cucumber with chicken sauce. However, the recipe of Suiyuan Food List is only limited to Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions. In the early Qing Dynasty, sea cucumber had not really flourished. According to this, in Cao Xueqin's "Dream of Red Mansions", the description of bird's nest, which belongs to the eight delicacies of seafood, appeared more than 10 times, but there was no sea cucumber. This is probably related to the fact that Manchus are far away from the sea. It is said that Qianlong visited Nanjing in the south, and the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi arranged a feast. However, Qianlong did not show his eyebrows to the common camel's hoof, bear's paw, scarlet lip, turtledove, shad and purple abalone in the palace. Seeing this, the old cook made a bowl of stew temporarily, including sea cucumber, scallop, fish fillet, sea rice, shrimp, ham, magnolia, bamboo shoots, and prepared with chicken soup. The fresh flavor of scallops, the aged flavor of sea rice, the incense of ham, the fragrance of bamboo shoots, and the true flavor of sea cucumber mingle with all kinds of flavors, and slowly blend into the light chicken soup. Under the background of snow-white magnolia, the black and white are distinct, highlighting the unique smoothness and nobility of sea cucumber. Qianlong was a man of culture. He tasted the joy of the blending of Manchu and Han from this bowl of soups that had no reputation, and repeatedly called it "a blessing for the whole family". But later, it was not Huaiyang Cuisine cuisine, but Shandong cuisine that pushed the "family portrait" to a classic.