Text/Lu Enjun (Word Deficit)
A delicacy that eats not only its delicacies, but also its auspiciousness. It is the southern people, especially in the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai regions, after the February Second Dragon Heads Festival, people have to eat the waist cake.
It is a pastry made of glutinous rice as the main ingredient, but it is called "support", a name with a sense of verb and a sense of strength. As the saying goes: "On the second of February, eat waist cake, and strengthen the waist of the dragon all year round." Qing Caiyun described this in the poem "Supporting Waist Cake": "On February 2, spring is rao, supporting each other to persuade the flower cake." Support firewood with good health, and spare no regrets all year round. "It means that on the second day of February, when spring is in full swing, everyone persuades each other to eat the next year's flower cake, so that the waist plate is tough, hard to work, and there will be no waist pain." The so-called "waist cake" is a flat, oval shape, slightly concave in the middle, like a human waist made of glutinous rice flour. The so-called "rice cake" refers to the rice cakes that people steamed in the past few years to make a spare meal cake, left until the second day of the second month of the lunar calendar, and then took out the collected rice cakes, cut them into slices, and fried them in a pan with oil. This custom has been passed down for a long time in the Jiangnan area.
The section of the ancient Qing Dynasty book "Wu Jun's Gorgeous Ji , February , Waist Cake" says, "Frying rice cakes in oil is called waist cakes." "February 2 is the day when the dragon looks up, and the ancients, out of reverence for the dragon, offer cake sacrifices and pray to bring good times to the world, and gradually formed the custom of eating cakes. Sun Simiao, a famous doctor in the Tang Dynasty, believed that the glutinous rice used in rice cakes was "the valley of the spleen, and the spleen disease should be eaten." "In the "Spleen and Stomach Theory" of Chinese medicine, it is mentioned that "it is better to supplement the kidney than to supplement the spleen", and the spleen can receive the effect of tonifying the kidney. And "the waist is the house of the kidneys", so the rice cake with the effect of tonifying the spleen can also be described as the "kidney cake". The southern waist cake, its raw material composition is more abundant in nutrients, the ancient poem said: "Slice cut rice cake as a short strip, fried in green oil to make tender yellow jiao, every year to support the wind is difficult to swing, no wonder Wu Niang less thin waist." "It can really play a role in tonifying the kidneys and strengthening the waist."
Suzhou's support cake is divided into jade-colored osmanthus lard cake and green mint lard cake, which are good in color and taste, and the fragrance is delicious. There is also a waist cake in the ancient town of Zhouzhuang, also called yellow pine cake, which has a strong Jiangnan characteristic flavor. And Wuxi's plum blossom cake and square cake should also be counted as the leader of Jiangnan's pork cake cuisine. Plum blossom cake is a unique specialty of Wuxi, golden yellow, shaped like a plum blossom, soft and delicious, suitable for all ages. In particular, Wuxi square cakes are made of special square wooden templates, sifted into cake powder, showing a concave shape, and filled with fresh meat, bean paste, vegetable lard and other fillings, which are steamed with a high fire cage. The cake is white, soft in powder, full in filling, delicious and fragrant, and the teeth and cheeks are fragrant after eating. It is just a modern version of the loin cake, its method of ingredients and its eating method is more health care, and its appearance characteristics are more artistic and cultural.
On the day when the dragon looks up, everything recovers, and it is time to steam the loin cake, people in the laziness of the New Year, eat a piece of "loin cake", prop up the "dragon waist", strengthen the bones, and should also be rejuvenated, invigorate the spirit, and start the busy new year.
Eat loin cake on the second of February. Yang Haishi/Photo
Zhouzhuang steamed waist cake, because the cake powder is yellow, also known as yellow pine cake.
Wuxi waist cake, because of its shape like a plum blossom, it is named "plum blossom cake"
Jiaxing waist cake
Suzhou waist cake