Ningbo, a city with ancient memories, has developed rapidly and has transformed into a modern metropolis, and everything is so modern and fashionable.
However, once upon a time, those traditional snacks in old Ningbo gradually disappeared with the rapid discovery of the city, and it was even difficult to find them...
This is the case with Dili Cake, which was once on a par with the Dragon and Phoenix Golden Ball and the Crystal Oil Bag, and was once listed as one of the "Top Ten Traditional Snacks in Ningbo", but later faded from people's sight. Today, presumably only people over half a hundred years old still vaguely remember that distant era, it was once a delicious taste that made people swallow straight, and there was a coolness from the inside out.
Regarding the origin of "dili cake", probably no one has said clearly, in some written records, it is often written as "ground chestnut cake", whether it is "ground force" or "ground chestnut", it is estimated that most Ningbo people also can not understand.
In Ningbo, water chestnut is also called "ground force", is the origin of ground force cake related to water chestnut? However, the whole production process and raw materials of Dili Cake do not seem to have anything to do with Water Chestnut, and this hot summer day is not the season of harvesting Water Chestnut, but the old bottom Ningbo people have called this small snack for cooling off as "Dili Cake" for generations, which has been used for many years.
The memory left by Dili Cake to the people of Ningbo at the old bottom cannot be erased. In that era of material scarcity, if you could eat a few pieces of ground cake and drink two mouthfuls of Mulian jelly on this hot summer day, it would be a thing that could make people happy for a day.
In the summer of old Ningbo, there are grandparents and grandmothers with tea stalls in the streets and alleys, who sell tea and dili cakes at the same time. In such a hot day, as long as you spend four or five cents, you can buy a piece of cool silky ground cake, and people who can't wait often swallow it in large mouthfuls, and the jelly-like taste, mixed with a strong penetrating mint flavor, is enough to make the children of the year feast.
Calm down, find a shade under the tree to sit still, the rest of the ground cake slowly taste, the entrance is smooth, with the tongue after a press seems to be able to immediately dissolve, between the mouth, mixed in the powdery small particles, immediately can remind everyone, it and the important difference between it and the wood lotus jelly, bite a few times, the soft powdery small particles also melted, down the throat silk slid down.
After a few pieces of ground cake fell into the stomach, unconsciously drove away a bit of summer irritability, from the inside out of this cool, is really a rare comfort in the heat.
Today's Young People in Ningbo, even if they have heard of the existence of Dili Cake, may not be able to distinguish the difference between Mulian Jelly and it, the same transparent color, the same mint flavor, both of which are summer snacks.
In fact, the biggest difference between the two is that the raw materials are very different. The raw material of mulian jelly is mulian, and the raw material of dili cake is the most common and common sweet potato flour, which is also called "mountain flour" in Ningbo.
Mountain flour is obtained from fresh sweet potatoes through the process of "planing, washing, drying, grinding" and so on, and it is also a necessity for "Ningbo Rice" to be pulped to make soup. In the old days, sweet potato production was not high, and it was not easy to get goblet, because it was more precious, so it became rare to eat a ground cake made of gono.
In fact, in addition to mountain flour, you can also use lotus flour and yam powder to make dili cake. At that time, if you used lotus flour to make ground cakes, it must be the style of a large household, and its taste was even worse. Later, the materials were slightly enriched, and the Ningbo people used yam powder to make dili cake, which became commonplace, and its production process was the same as that of using yam flour to make dili cake, but the taste would be softer.
There is also an important raw material for making dili cake is mint, unlike today's ready-made mint water can be purchased, the old bottom Ningbo people also make mint water by themselves. First buy back dried mint from the Chinese medicine store, or grab a handful of fresh mint stems and leaves in front of the house, simmer the mint water over low heat, and keep it for later when it cools.
In fact, when it comes to actually making dili cakes, the process is quite simple. First take an appropriate amount of mountain flour in the container with cold boiling water to boil, mix with mint water to stir well, at the same time, add a small amount of water in the pot, add white sugar or brown sugar, sugar osmanthus after boiling, and then slowly put a bowl of mountain flour paste mixed with mint water, pour into boiling water, quickly use bamboo chopsticks clockwise stirring, soon, the mountain flour paste in the pot will change color, when it is thick and sticky, you can turn off the heat.
After leaving the stove, pour the mountain flour paste into a flat-bottomed porcelain basin and wait quietly, and in the process of cooling, the mountain flour paste will further solidify. In the era when there were no refrigerators, only well water could be brought in to help cool, but now, just leave the cooled mountain flour paste in the refrigerator compartment for a few hours.
After removing from the refrigerator, cut this plate of solidified mountain flour paste into a diamond shape with a knife. And people who are more exquisite will also use mint water and honey to make a brine and pour it on it to add flavor. At this time, as long as you sniff the ground cake, a cold mint smell will go straight to the brain.
Lo and behold, the cooled dili cake, piece by piece crystal clear, embedded in the sugar osmanthus flowers, blossoming, pleasing to the eye, eating, delightful.
In ningbo now, all kinds of delicacies emerge in an endless stream, and many people have long been unaware of the existence of such a cool snack as dili cake, but in the old bottom of Ningbo, dili cake can be included in the "taste of the four hours on yong". The old Ningbo people who are over 50 years old have almost all seen the "glory" of Dili Cake.
In the memory of Ningbo people, sitting under the shade of trees, holding a bowl of ground cakes, accompanied by the "straight head wind of the alley", while cooling down, while listening to the adults talk about the road, is the most beautiful moment in summer.
Spring and summer are long, autumn harvest is winter, Ningbo people's diet rules, well versed in the timing, conform to the seasons. Dili cake can be ranked with the "taste of the four hours", which naturally has its charm.
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