The Palace-style Cuisine and Governmental Cuisine in Beijing

The palace-style cuisine is the dishes which are exclusively provided to the imperial. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasty, the palace-style cuisine mainly refers to Beijing palace cuisine. Tingliguan Restaurant is a famous restaurant in Beijing specializing in the palace-style dishes. The menu of Tingliguan is based on the menu from Shoushanfang which was a royal kitchen in the Summer Palace exclusively for the empress dowager. Tingliguan is located in the Summer Palace Park and is one of the 13 main buildings in the Summer Palace.
The governmental cuisine used to be the dishes for bureaucrats to entertain their colleagues and their superiors in the Qing Dynasty. Tanjiacai is one of the most famous governmental dishes in China. Tanjiacai can date back to Tan Zongjun’s family feast. Tan Zongjun is a bureaucrat in the late Qing Dynasty, and won the second place, which is called Bangyan in Chinese, in the imperial examination in the Tongzhi period. Therefore, Tanjiacai is also called Bangyan Dishes. Tanjiacai combines the Cantonese cuisine with the Beijing cuisine, forming its own special dishes.