What should Chongyang Cake look like? In the minds of most Shanghainese, traditional Chongyang pastries seem to look like this (see image below). However, in this year's Shanghai market, the variety of Chongyang pastries can be described as colorful, and merchants have launched a variety of Chongyang pastries, which are dazzling and difficult to choose for a while.
Traditional Chongyang Pastry in the Minds of Shanghainese (Illustration BY Dafugui)
The reporter saw four Chongyang cakes retailed by Qiaojiazha in Nanshi City in a restaurant on Wujiang Road, although the outer packaging was printed with the words "Chongyang Cake", but a closer look, "Chongyang Cake" was marked with the words "Coconut Dumplings" and "Strip Cake".
Four chongyang cakes, the outer packaging is printed with the words "Chongyang cake"
In a supermarket, the reporter saw the Chongyang cake produced by Wanshou Zhai, but if you look closely, the three words "Chongyang Cake" are marked with the words "Chongyang Cake".
The Chongyang cake of Wanshou Zhai
Located in the Nanshi Qiaojiazhai store in Yu Garden, the Chongyang cakes sold in the past few days are mainly muffins and square cakes, but the reporter did not see the chongyang cake in the memory.
Nanshi Qiaojiazhai's Chongyang cake - muffin cake
Nanshi Qiaojiazhai's Chongyang cake - square cake
Dafu Gui launched a new two-color Chongyang cake this year.
The two-color Chongyang Cake of The Great Rich (data map)
Shen Dacheng launched this year's classic Chongyang Cake, Shou Tao Chongyang Cake and Tricolor Chongyang Cake.
Shen Dacheng's classic Chongyang Cake (data map)
Shen Dacheng's Shou Tao Chongyang Cake (Data Map)
Shen Dacheng's three-color chongyang cake (data map)
So, for the shape and raw materials of Chongyang pastries, is there any regulation in the domestic food industry? Zhang Guisheng, vice president of the Shanghai Food Culture Research Association who has worked in the catering and food fields for 50 years, believes that there is no explanation.
Because on the day of the Chongyang Festival, there is a custom of ascending to the heights to ward off evil spirits, and because the words "cake" and "high" are harmonious, Chinese like to beg for the auspiciousness of the mouth, so the custom of sending cakes is extended in the Chongyang Festival. Because the pastries are different throughout the country, the hair and shape of Chongyang cakes are also different. Usually, the pastries that people like to eat from all over the world are given away on the day of the Chongyang Festival, and over time they become the Chongyang cakes of the local people.
In fact, Chongyang cake is a food that people eat all year round, and it is also used in other festive occasions, such as shou cakes at birthday banquets and cakes distributed when building houses. Now the merchants have taken a fancy to the commercial value of Chongyang cake, and it is not reprehensible to create some other types of pastries and carry out commercial packaging under the guise of the Chongyang Festival. I thought that people also like to hunt for curiosity, and there is a novel Chongyang Festival pastry that they can still accept.
Matcha flavored Chongyang cake in Apricot Blossom Building (data map)
Is the concept of Chongyang Cake generalized now? Jiang Haofeng, a senior media person, a food examiner and the chief writer of Xinmin Weekly, once wrote a book called "Cake Family", and has a certain understanding and research on traditional pastries in various parts of China.
Chinese pastries have changed, and they have existed since ancient times. In terms of Chongyang cake, the Song Dynasty Wu Zimu's "MengliangLu September" records that on this day in Chongyang, "the people of the capital shop, steamed cakes with sugar and noodles, with pigs, mutton, and ducks as silk clusters, planted small bunting flags, and Chongyang cakes on each day." In other words, the Chongyang cake in the Northern Song Dynasty is a bit like a pizza made of rice noodles. As for the practice of planting small bunting flags, it is said that Han Shizhong, a famous general of the Southern Song Dynasty, learned to make a dingsheng cake when he was training troops in Suzhou.
Nowadays, people's living conditions are improved and materials are abundant, and the "variety of tricks" of Chongyang cake is not a bad thing, and businesses should be encouraged to actively innovate while retaining traditional crafts.
<h4>Today, Nong ate Chongyang Cake? </h4>
Illustration by Luo Zhihua
Source: Thoughtful