Qi Jiguang is a well-known hero of the Ming Dynasty
There have been more than eighty large and small battles with the Wokou
There is a special snack in Penglai, Shandong
Qi Jiguang light cake is deeply loved by people
Don't you think the name is weird?
What does this "light cake" have to do with Qi Jiguang?
Let's tell the story of the light cake to everyone
Shandong is one of the birthplaces of ancient Chinese civilization, but also the earliest development of Food Culture in China, "Dawenkou Culture", "Longshan Culture" unearthed red pottery, black pottery, eggshell pottery and other food utensils, reflecting the Neolithic food civilization.
Shandong's noodles are also colorful, Pu Songling recited: "The upper plate is thin and crisp with manna, and the oil-permeable flying fruit has a ring." The oily bread cream is cooked and five colors, and the sugar shortbread is also many. "These snacks such as crispy, ring-sleeved, oily bread, shortbread and so on have greatly enriched people's dietary life."
Looking at Jiaodong noodles, bar head fire, Qiao cake, cake, noodle fish, sea vegetable buns, small noodles, Jiaodong big food...
Jiaodong's bar head fire has a long history, and the sixth chapter of Huang Song's "Qilu Culture" writes: "More folk food was turned into marching food for the Ming Dynasty's famous anti-Wu general Qi Jiguang to lead the army to fight - pole head fire." ”
In the Ming Dynasty, Qi Jiguang led his troops to go out to fight in order to reduce the cooking time and not miss the fighter, so he burned the bar head with thick edges and thin edges, very hard and little moisture as dry food for the march.
According to the "Fuzhou Chronicle", in the forty-second year of Jiajing, Qi Jiguang was ordered to lead troops to aid Fujian, because the rations of the army in the south during the rainy season were covered with mold, eating rice was a waste of time and not full of hunger and not easy to carry, Qi Jiguang proposed to bake dry pasta grain according to the method of making a bar head fire in his hometown in Shandong, and arranged two kinds of round cakes made of flour by charcoal fire in each battalion: one was small and dry; one was large and soft, and slightly sweet. The former is called light cake, and the latter people call it Zhengdong cake. A small hole was punched in the middle of each of the two kinds of round cakes, and soldiers were asked to string them up with hemp rope and hang them around their necks as temporary dry food, which was the prototype of the light cake.
Because the light cake is easy to carry when marching, it can be filled with hunger at any time, which greatly enhances the mobility of the team, Qi Jiguang often moves in the southeast coastal resistance, and the light cake is one of the staple foods of the Qi family army. Later, soldiers found that although scones could fill their hunger, they were often eaten with dryness, constipation, indigestion, and poor taste. So later in the production process to add salt to increase taste, add alkali to help digestion, add sesame seeds to moisten the stomach, to dry the fire. The improved scones became a necessary ration for the Qi family's army to fight.
After the news spread, the people in various places rushed to make light cakes for the army, and posterity remembered Qi Gong, so they called this small cake "light cake" and spread it throughout northern Fujian. Later, in order to suit local tastes, the production and form of light cakes were changed in various parts of Fujian, and there were many changes, such as Fuqing's sesame light cake, Jian'ou's green onion meat light cake, Yongtai's green onion cake, etc., but they were all called light cakes.
The light cake is not only named in honor of Qi Jiguang, but also has the connotation of recovering the lost land, with puns, and lays its cultural connotation and patriotic feelings by its own historical origin. Mention the light cake, people will think of the heroic deeds of Qi Jiguang leading the Qi family army to quell the plague, and the sense of pride and responsibility generated for this makes many Chinese Jie's blood boil, and he regards death as a homecoming.
As an important element of Penglai food culture, many places in Penglai have the habit of eating light cakes, and light cakes are now also brought to the table by Penglai people, and gradually become a business card of Penglai special snacks.
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