Study On Shandong Pastry Culture

Pastry is an important part of Chinese food. Chinese pastry has a long history, especially with abundant variety, exquisite material, excellent craftsmanship and has profound cultural connotation. The craftsmanship and its cultural connotation of traditional pastry is one of abundant cultural heritages in China. Chinese style pastry is divided into three schools as Beijing style, Suzhou style and Guangdong style. Shandong pastry belongs to Beijing style. Shandong pastry has a long history and many varieties. It is based on wheaten food with exquisite craftsmanship, beautiful shape, varied tastes and fillings. It forms unique local flavor and enjoys great reputation at home and abroad. Many local special pastries are influenced by Shandong pastry, or are come from Shandong pastry.Shandong pastry culture is the component element of Shandong food culture, and a distinctive and relatively independent subsystem in the diversified Chinese food cultural circle. Shandong is called Qilu in ancient time. Qilu culture makes many contributions and far-reaching impacts to the formation and development of Chinese culture. For the past few years, Shandong becomes one of the best economic developed provinces in China. By use of its intelligent and industrious people, Shandong has formed a specific regional food culture based on its given natural environment and human environment.Shandong pastry mainly has the following notable features: First, Shandong pastry products is based on the flour products; Second, Shandong pastry is finely made; Third, Shandong pastry is rich at variety; Fourth, making methods are diverse; Fifth, pastry fillings is with north special flavor; Sixth, it is derived from folk and is related with production, local customs at traditional Chinese festival and local products. Experienced with long development course, variety of Shandong pastry has reached more than one hundred. And it increases with cakes and snacks. Shandong pastry culture is the product of intelligence and wisdom of people who were engaging in cooking. It is the component element of glitter Chinese civilization.A side water and soil raises a side people. While the Shandong pastry with rich Beijing style changing and developing in the long river of history, it is also bringing special character and personality to Shandong people. The grand, delicate, and elegant manner of Shandong pastry has generated the integrity, benevolent and conservative traits of Shandong people.As the representative of Beijing style pastry, Shandong pastry is always most distinctive in above aspects. But it is easy to see that, with development of the society, the influx of pastry and snack of other places has intensified the market competition, Shandong pastry is gradually revealing some weakness under the pressure. For example, compared to the fine sculpt and fresh and tender filling of Suzhou style, delicacy and fresh taste of Guangdong style, versatility and spicy hot of Chongqing snack, Shandong pastry seems that shape is rough and simplex with salty and fresh filling and lack of changes. Moreover, due to reasons such as simplistic and arbitrary choices of dish containers, insufficient public advertisement and promotion, Shandong pastry is in a disadvantaged position in the food market competition today. Therefore, how to save Shandong pastry out of the present situation, and how to stimulate life and vigor between the maintenance of tradition and creation of new fashion is also important topics for this paper to discuss.