When it comes to rice cakes, what do you think? It's hard to say fried rice cakes in Korean dramas. In fact, rice cakes are the traditional food in China. People will eat rice cakes during the new year's day, and there are many implications in them. In fact, in addition to eating during the Spring Festival, in old Beijing, people also eat rice cakes during the cold season. The old Beijingers think that eating rice cakes during the cold season can not only keep the cold away, but also have other good meanings. Let's have a look at it.
The custom of eating rice cake in the cold
Cold custom
The custom of eating "Xiaohan cake" has a long history in Beijing. Xiaohan cake is a kind of New Year cake. Not only because its glutinous rice contains more sugar than rice, it feels warm all over the body after eating, and has the effect of warming and dispersing the wind and cold, moistening the lungs and strengthening the spleen and stomach, but also because the common people choose to eat New Year cake on the day of "great cold", and the meaning of "new year high", with a good colorful head of auspiciousness, peace and progress every year.
Therefore, in the old Beijing custom, on the cold day, the whole family eat rice cake, which not only has a auspicious taste, but also can dispel the chill on the body, so it is called "Xiaohan cake".
New Year cake is red, yellow and white, which symbolizes gold and silver. It is also called "New Year cake". It is homophonic with "annual high", which means that people's work and life are improved year by year. Therefore, there is a poem called niangao by predecessors: 'niangao means a little cloud deep, white as silver yellow gold. When you are old, you look forward to the good times. When you are old, you look forward to the good fortune. '
As a kind of food, rice cake has a long history in China. In 1974, archaeologists found the seeds of rice with full grains and well preserved in Yuyao Hemudu site in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, more than 7000 years ago
Our ancestors have been planting rice. In the Han Dynasty, rice cakes were called "rice cakes", "baits" and "Ci". In Yangxiong's dialect of Han Dynasty, the appellation of "cake" was already in use, which was popular in the Wei, Jin, southern and Northern Dynasties. The ancient people also had a development process from rice cake to flour cake. In the sixth century A.D., the recipe "Shici" contains the method of making rice cake "white cocoon sugar". When the rice is cooked and the rice is heated to the pestle and mortar, the rice must be cooked very well. Do not let the rice grains & hellip; & hellip; 'that is, after the glutinous rice is steamed, the rice must be pounded into rice while it is hot, then cut into the size of peach kernel, dried and fried, and then rolled with sugar. As early as the Liao Dynasty, it is said that on the first day of the first month in Beijing, every family had the custom of eating rice cakes. By the time of Ming and Qing Dynasties, rice cake had developed into a kind of snacks that was always available in the market, and had different flavors from the north and the south. New Year cake is delicious, sweet and mellow, with a strong historical flavor.
Types of rice cakes in the cold
Yiyang rice cake
Also known as "Yiyang Dahe rice". It is a national geographical indication protection product. Yiyang New Year cake is made of Yiyang Dahe millet by the unique technology of "three steaming and two hundred hammers". It has the characteristics of "white as frost, transparent as jade, soft and smooth, tough but not sticky, long cooking and not paste". It can be steamed, fried and boiled. It is convenient to eat and unique in flavor. It is a traditional treasure. Yiyang New Year cake was made in Tang Dynasty and has a history of more than 1200 years. According to the existing ten year version of Tongzhi county annals of Yiyang County, "Dahe rice is white and grows up. It is used to make and process Dahe rice. It is hard to make many rice balls with Dahe rice. It needs three steams and two hundred feet. The rice in Yiyang city has plenty of water and is soft and palatable. The province is called Yiyang Tuanzi, the most famous foreign county. 'Jiangxi specialty (1982) and Jiangxi style specialty (1986) recorded in detail that' Yiyang rice is as white as frost, transparent as jade, shiny as oil, and tough as any other rice cake, which is undoubtedly better than any other rice cake '. Strong local tradition and characteristics, unique production technology, Yiyang County, the local unique Dahe Valley as raw materials. Dahugu is a glutinous late rice with stem. It is planted in the cold pulp field with low temperature, low water temperature, high humidity and short time of illumination. It has narrow planting surface, long growth period and low yield. Therefore, it sows in spring, sows in summer, raises in autumn and harvests in winter, absorbs the water of the four seasons, and gets the raise of heaven and earth. At the same time, it is convenient to eat, salty and sweet, and suitable for steaming, frying, boiling and baking.
Ningbo Cicheng rice cake
In 1974, archaeologists found the seeds of rice with full grains and well preserved in the prehistoric site of Hemudu, Yuyao, Ningbo, more than 7000 years ago, which shows that our ancestors began to plant rice as early as 7000 years ago. The production of New Year cake in Cicheng has a long history, with a history of thousands of years. It is said that Wu Zixu, the official of the state of Wu, fought in Cicheng, Ningbo in the late spring and Autumn period. Before he died, he said to his men: 'if the country is in trouble and the people are out of food, dig three feet under the wall to get food. After Wu Zixu's death, his subordinates were surrounded by the Yue army, and many people were starved to death. At this time, someone thought of Wu Zixu's words, he went to dig the city wall and dug more than three feet deep. As expected, he dug many edible 'City bricks', i.e. rice cakes, and won the battle. It turns out that when Wu Zixu supervised the construction of the city wall in Ci city, he was ready to store grain and prevent hunger. Since then, every family in New Year's day in Cicheng has made new year's cakes, and Ningbo New Year's Eve dinner will eat new year's cake soup to commemorate Wu Zixu.
Cicheng New Year cake is a famous special product in Zhejiang Province. It is famous for its exquisite material selection and precision production. It is washed with high-quality late japonica rice, soaked in water for 3-4 days or a week, ground into powder with water, pressed to remove water to the point where it is not dry or wet. It is smashed and then steamed through in a steamer, or pounded or rolled into a strip-shaped rice cake of uniform size.
Beijing rice cake
Niangao is also a sacrifice used by Manchu to worship gods. The name of Manchu is Fei Shi hei'a Feng. Shen ZHAOYOU wrote a poem in the Qing Dynasty: 'the name of the cake is Fei Shi hei'a Feng. The new year's cake in Beijing is the representative of the new year's cake in the north. It has two colors of yellow and white, symbolizing gold and silver, and the auspicious meaning of' high year by year '. Therefore, there is a poem called niangao by predecessors: 'niangao means a little cloud deep, white as silver yellow gold. When you are old, you look forward to the good times. When you are old, you look forward to the good fortune. 'in the notes to Guozha, the' meal with shame and bait 'is a kind of cake steamed with rice flour. The rice cake in Beijing snacks is steamed with yellow rice or jiangmi noodles and various auxiliary materials. There are many kinds of rice cakes, such as jujube rice cake, bean rice cake, rice cake lump, etc. Fine New Year cakes include ginkgo, assorted, crystal, Ruyi and so on. The cooking methods are mostly steaming. They are also fried and dipped in white sugar. They are sweet, sticky and glutinous. The taste is greasy like fat and the color is Cong. the fragrance is pure and the spirit is paid. The treasure is the same as the chrysanthemum and the lotus. 'self note said:' the offerings of Manchu tiaosheng include flying stone, black peak, sticky rice cake. The color is yellow like jade, the taste is greasy like fat, and the fake oil powder is soaked in honey, which is quite fragrant. After jumping, it feeds the neighbors and relatives. And Jinju, hibiscus, are cake names. 'it can be seen that niangao was a kind of Manchu snack at least in the Qing Dynasty.