Their feasts were made in heaven, all right, but much of the food didn't get eaten and some of it wasn't fit to eat. Eunuchs carefully kept the stale dishes far from the ruler's reach
"Flowery without substance, showy without utility, elaborate without taste, no nutritional value ... " That's what the last emperor of China had to say of the meals served him in the imperial palace.
In his autobiography, Henry Pu Yi (the Emperor Hsuan T'ung) reproduces this menu for one of his breakfasts in March, 1912, the year he lost the throne:
Steamed whole chicken with mushrooms
Three Delight duck (with strips of ham, chicken and mushrooms)
Sliced chicken meat with vegetables
Steamed whole ham
Tripe simmered with lungs
Sliced beef with hearts of cabbage
Spiced braised mutton
Mutton with spinach, peas and mushrooms
Fresh cherries (shipped from the South) with potatoes
Meat and vegetables in broth, served in chafing dish
Beche-de-mer in chicken broth
Glazed spiced roast duck
Imperial rice with potatoes
Sauteed mushrooms
Pork cubes with broccoli
Sliced lamb with spiced vegetables
Egg rolls
Pork slices with scallions
Cold tripe marinated in spiced wine
Bean curd with spices and dried vegetables
Smoked dried bean curd with bean sprouts and spices
Sauteed out-of-season vegetables Spiced pickled cabbage
Spiced dried game meat
Pu Yi described the arrival of the meal in red lacquered boxes borne by scores of eunuchs wearing livery. Each course was served on fragile yellow porcelain with a design of longevity characters and dragons. In winter, food was kept warm in silver serving dishes placed atop porcelain bowls filled with hot water.
The last of the Manchu rulers forestalled any speculation about the endurance of the royal digestive system by stipulating that these and similarly elaborate meals were only for show. The food he actually ate was described as simple and the quantity as small. Pu Yi does not go into detail; but then his memory of life in the palace was probably faulty. He came to the throne in 1908 when he was two years old and lost it just four years later.
A complete record of the formal meals of the emperors of the Ch'ing dynasty (1644-1911) is in the archives of the National Palace Museum in Taipei. The records of the Imperial Kitchen (or Royal Viands Room) reveal detailed information for each meal - at what hour it was served; the menu; the names of the chef and assistants; how much was eaten; how much was left over; and to whom the leftovers were given. The details prove that the imperial reputation for culinary high living was much overrated.
It has been popularly believed that emperors ate 100-course meals every day. Pu Yi said most of his meals consisted of only 25 dishes. Ch'ien Lung, who reigned in the middle of the 18th century, was served 10-dish meals and only two meals a day.
Even in pre-Ch'ing times, 100-course feasts were rare. An official of the Southern Sung dynasty express ed thanks to the emperor for a promotion by giving him a 180-course banquet. But more than half the dishes were dried, honey-preserved or fresh fruits. Only 63 meat and vegetable dishes appeared on the table. Considering that a banquet given for Louis XIV under similar circumstances included 168 dishes, not counting desserts, the Chinese seem to have showed considerable gastronomic restraint.
One scholar suggests it would have been physically impossible for an emperor to eat a 100-course meal. The emperor usually dined alone; only rarely did he share his meal with a favorite consort or attend a banquet. What probably happened, the scholar said, was preparation of a few new dishes and the appearance of many old ones to give the appearance of a feast. Wily eunuchs were careful to keep the stale food well out of the emperor's reach.
Nor were the viands of imperial meals exotic or so extraordinary. A 180-course banquet given in 1141 during the Southern Sung dynasty included chicken, duck, fish, pork, pig's feet, quail, shrimp, eel, goose, clams, jellyfish, crabs and rabbit-all found on the Chinese menu of today.
There was no mention of the bear's paws that supposedly were such a delicacy in ancient times. The poet Ts'ao Chi (192-232), son of the great statesman Ts'ao Ts'ao, described a festive meal in this couplet: "Minced carp and soup flavored with fish roe/Baked turtle and the roasted paws of bears."
Nor was there mention of such special company foods as the shark's fins, swallow's nest and beche-de-mer of modern times.
Beche-de-mer-also known as trepane, sea urchins, sea cucumber or sea slugs - is a spiny mollusk about 4-12 inches long. As late as the 18th century, these were so rare and highly prized that when Ch'ien Lung received 200 kilos as a gift from Korea, they were not turned over to the imperial kitchen but saved for the emperor to bestow on favored courtiers.
Swallow's nest, a seaweed regurgitated from the crop of the sea swallow as a material to line its nest, came into its own during the Ch'ing dynasty. The Empress Dowager's birthday dinner in 1861 offered swallow's nest in a third of the dishes served. Kept simple because the Emperor had died not long before, the meal was served at a little past 3 p.m. in the Mind Nurture Palace of the imperial compound in Peking. There were:
2 chafing dish courses:
Julienne of pork with spinach
Salted vegetables
4 large platters:
Julienne of white duck meat with swallow's nest
Three Delicious chicken with swallow's nest
Eight Sublime duck with swallow's nest
Ten Flavor julienne of chicken with swallow's nest
4 medium platters:
Swallow's nest with julienne of pork
Fresh shrimp balls
Braised duck kidneys
Beche-de-mer
6 dishes:
Swallow's nest sauteed with julienned roast duck
Pureed chicken with mashed turnips
Julienne of pork sauteed with shark's fins
Duck with bean sauce
Salted vegetables
Julienne of pork with egg
On the four large platters, the swallow's nest was arranged on top of the meat to form the characters "Wan Nien Ju I", a birthday greeting.
The emperor Ch'ien Lung started his day with swallow's nest. He generally rose about 6 and ate a light breakfast of swallow's nest simmered with rock sugar. Sometimes he sat down to a heartier breakfast about 7. In the 19th year of his reign (1754), he had this breakfast on the 10th day of the 5th month:
Chicken braised with roasted duck and bean curd
Smoked duck with swallow's nest
Clear Broth a la Siertsan (Manchu place name)
Grilled chicken
Smoked chicken simmered with hearts of celery cabbage
Three Delicious Balls (made of three kinds of meat)
Deer tendons braised with pork
Clear steamed duck coated pork and served with Harmee (Manchu
place name) smoked meat
Imperial sauteed chicken
Baby steamed bread wrapped in bamboo
Fragrant cake
Assorted side dishes served in an enamelled box with a sunflower design
Honey cake
Assorted southern specialties
Aged pickled vegetables
Marinated cucumbers
Thyme-scented eggplant in oil
Assorted side dishes to go with glutinous rice
Pheasant soup
No lunch was served after this hearty breakfast. The emperor made do with a succession of snacks that featured such pastries as Lard Melt-in-the-Mouth Crisp Shortcakes and Sesame Oil Egg Crullers. As many as a dozen kinds of shortening-rich cakes and dumplings were served at teatime. One favorite of Ch'ien Lung 'was Eight Jewels Cake. The recipe, which calls for eight ingredients, is described in the Palace Museum archives:
2 chien powdered ginseng
2 ozs lentil flour
2 ozs ground Job's tears
2 ozs ground seeds of the chien shih (a water lily)
2 ozs ground Fukien lotus root
4 ozs rice flour
4 ozs glutinous rice flour
8 ozs granulated sugar
Mix all ingredients. Add enough liquid (probably water) to form a fine dough. Steam. Serve cold.
Bean curd, usually considered a plebeian food, had its place on the imperial table. Braised mutton with bean curd was a favorite of the Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi.
In the K'ang Hsi period of the Ch'ing dynasty, local officials listed the foods presented to their governor on one of his inspection tours. The list included: 4 live sheep, 8 preserved chickens, 8 deers' tails, 6 preserved deers' tongues, 24 strings of dried venison, 4 strings of dried sturgeon, 1 string of dried pheasant meat and bean curd. The last item apparently was not usually included among the gifts of food to high-ranking officials. On this occasion it was explained that the governor was elderly. No doubt, the considerate officials felt that soft bean curd would be easier on their governor's teeth than all that dried meat.
A report of an official banquet mentioned the appearance of bean curd in 20 different guises. "The bean curd had to be prepared several months in advance, starting with the purchase of the ingredients and the selection of the cooks," the report said.
Wang Chia-yu, a contemporary writer, recently did a series of articles for the Ta Hua (Great China) Evening News on the lives of the Chinese emperors from Han Kao Tsu (247-195 B.C.) to the last emperor. An accompanying chart indicated that none of the emperors died of overeating. In fact, one of them-Liang Wu Ti (464-549 )-is listed as having starved to death.