Foreign friends taste Chengdu hot pot. This newspaper information picture
The beauty of harmony and soup lies in the similarities and differences. From May 15th to 22nd, Chengdu Panda Asian Food Festival, with the theme of "Eating Beauty, Seeking Fragrance, Being Beautiful, Being Beautiful Together", promoted the dialogue among civilizations of Asian countries with food as the medium.
A delicious food implies the code of cultural exchange and cultural integration, and a city often transcends geographical limitations because of a delicious food and becomes the reason why people all over the world "flock to it". Under the framework of the Conference on Dialogue among Asian Civilizations, Beijing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Chengdu jointly hosted the Asian Food Festival, taking food as a link between Asian civilizations and promoting the exchange and mutual learning among Asian civilizations.
MengMeng’s panda is chubby, with red pepper on his head, wearing a "face-changing" robe, honoring the world’s diners and coming to Rong’s first meal from the guests — — Tianfu family banquet, to the opening ceremony that kicked off in the song … … During the eight days of Chengdu Panda Asian Food Festival, 45 splendid food cultural activities were staged intensively in Chengdu, which also aroused people’s deep resonance — — The "International Food Capital" belongs to both Chengdu and the world.
Food is the medium.
45 activities in 5 major sections are endorsed by food.
There are 45 activities in five sections: cultural special exhibition, celebrity chef exchange, fragrance-seeking trip, theme day and food forum. During the food festival, Chengdu spoke for itself with food and welcomed guests from all over the world with open arms. The passionate Sichuan cuisine and hot pot have given friends from far away the feeling of "going home".
As the welcome dinner of Chengdu Panda Asian Food Festival, Tianfu Family Banquet made guests feel "at home" in the cultural experience of Sichuan cuisine from the first meal. In an immersive dining experience, 16 Sichuan dishes, such as fish fillets with light shadow, Sichuan style pork and Mapo tofu, were put on the table, and the guests were honored with a sense of culture and interaction with local characteristics. As Claremont from Paris praised, "The most delicious food in the world comes from China, and the most delicious food is in Chengdu."
Chengdu people prefer Sichuan cuisine and hot pot, but they never reject the food from outside. In this city, local cuisines can take this as their home, sublime and finally present a different flavor. Thailand on the tip of the tongue, Israel on the tip of the tongue, and Korea on the tip of the tongue … … During the food festival, Thailand, Israel, Singapore, Pakistan, Japan, South Korea and other countries and regions competed to show their special food and culture in Chengdu, which made the guests start a wonderful journey of tasting the taste of "hometown", "mother" and "Asia" again and again.
At the "Celebrity Chef’s Club" event, 18 famous chefs from China, Singapore, Japan, Israel, South Korea, India and other countries and regions gathered together to show off their specialty dishes, such as coconut milk rice, curry crab, Indian-style pomegranate roast chicken skewers, bird’s nest chicken wings, seafood miso soup, Tianfu Sichuan style pork, etc., which are full of delicious and mouth-watering.
In the Cooking Skills Competition of the 2nd International Young Students Cooking Art Festival, culinary students from China, Hubei, Henan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Sichuan, South Korea, Thailand and other countries and regions displayed their skills on the spot and had a "color, fragrance" competition.
Not only that, well-known specialty restaurants in the United States, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and other countries, such as Beverly Hills, Arcadia, Irvine, Universal Studios and Baldwin Park, also joined the event to "cook" a different flavor for Chengdu Panda Asian Food Festival.
Fusion innovation
Chengdu has always been a pioneer in the exchange of food culture.
Since ancient times, the rich and in-depth exchanges and dialogues between Asian civilizations have left many brilliant highlights: the Silk Road witnessed the commercial exchanges between Asian civilizations, and the sound of camel bells still echoes in my ears; The history, culture and system construction of East Asia were deeply influenced by Chinese civilization, and the systems of rites and music, imperial examinations and laws were widely used … … In these high-light moments, the most important thing is food exchange, which is a typical epitome of Asian civilization exchanges and dialogues. Its beautiful experience can touch both taste buds and hearts.
At the 2019 China (Chengdu) International Food Culture Summit Forum held on May 15th, Liu Chengcheng, an associate researcher of Peking University Cultural Industry Research Institute, believed that food is an important carrier of cultural exchange and city image display, and plays an important role in international communication. "Nowadays, with the promotion of technology and industry, food and tourism, cultural creativity, art, science and technology, marketing and communication and other industries show a trend of integrated development."
City is the advanced form of human civilization, and it is also the main participant in the communication and dialogue between civilizations. For the city, food is both a symbol and a deep memory, which constitutes the city’s unique cultural character. As the "soul" of Sichuan cuisine, pepper is imported, but Chengdu people use it to the extreme in catering, which shows that the city is tolerant and open. In an interview with a reporter, Professor Yanwei Keshi of the Japanese Chefs Association told the reporter, "I feel the enthusiasm and generosity of Sichuanese from Mapo tofu."
In fact, as the first "gourmet capital" in Asia, Chengdu has always been a pioneer in the exchange and integration of food civilization. Being a pioneer has something to do with the city’s rich food heritage. Sichuan cuisine pays attention to the sum of sex and taste, and eclecticism, integration and innovation have always been the core of Chengdu food culture.
According to research, Sichuan cuisine originated in the ancient Bashu civilization 4000 years ago. In the process of evolution, Sichuan cuisine has continuously absorbed foreign ingredients and cooking methods through the Southern Silk Road and nine immigration waves in Chengdu’s history, learned from others, and continued to integrate and innovate to lay its present situation — — "One dish, one grid, one hundred dishes and one hundred flavors", the flavor type is ever-changing.
Shejian signboard
The unique expression of Chengdu’s charm on the world stage
In the process of translating "food" into "gourmet", it has not only carried the local spiritual outlook, but also been endowed with more innovative, social and cultural attributes, and has assumed the supporting function of regional economic development, and even become a "tongue-tip signboard" for city image marketing.
Today, Chengdu is building an international food capital with a global vision. According to the "2019 Chinese mainland City Shopping Index List" released during the Food Festival, the number of catering enterprises in Chengdu ranks third in the country, and the shopping index ranks fourth in the country. In terms of the number of catering enterprises in Chinese mainland in 2019, Chengdu ranked third in the country with nearly 200,000.
At the same time, Chengdu is also the city with the largest number of domestic and foreign catering brands in the western region of China. The "eight major cuisines" of China and catering brands of most countries in the world have blossomed and developed in Chengdu. On May 9, Meituan commented on the data of a group of Asian cuisines in Chengdu: from the end of 2014 to the end of 2018, the number of Asian restaurants in Chengdu increased by 8.3 times.
"When we talk about a city, we are always inseparable from the local community and culture, and these authentic foods are indispensable for understanding the city." Carolina&ensp, Director of Creative Economy Department of UNCTAD; Quintana said in an interview that food is the expression of urban competitiveness.
Chengdu has long planned to turn food into the competitiveness and brand identity of the city. As early as the life service industry development conference held at the beginning of last year, Chengdu proposed that by 2022, the catering industry should become one of the five billion-level consumer markets. In September last year, Chengdu held a conference on the construction of a world famous cultural city, which once again proposed that we should condense the spirit of the urban times, follow the laws of urban development, and shape the international signs of a world famous cultural and creative city, a famous tourist city, a famous event city, an international food city, a music city city and an exhibition city, so as to enhance urban cultural communication and global communication.
Thousands of years of cultural infiltration have nurtured the profound connotation of Chengdu’s leisure capital and shaped the distinctive characteristics of "living city". This unique cultural beauty has been deeply infiltrated into every food in Chengdu, which is not only a unique expression of Chengdu’s charm on the world stage, but also a brand of the city’s cross-border and language exchange and display.
Our reporter   Meng Hao   Li Yanling   Liu jinchen
Original title: Chengdu, the international food capital, the world’s
