↑ "March 3rd" laid out with five-color glutinous rice.
Spring vegetable cake.
Tamales.
Artemisia leaf cake that has just been steamed out of the pot.
The third day of the third lunar month, also known as "March 3rd" or "March Songwei", is a traditional festival of Guangxi Zhuang, Han, Yao, Dong, Miao and other ethnic groups, and is also an important day for the Zhuang people to worship their ancestors, Pangu and Buluotuo ancestors. According to records, the festival has a history of thousands of years. During the song festival, you can not only enjoy the beautiful folk songs of Guangxi, visit the beautiful scenery of Guangxi, but also taste the food of Guangxi.
◆ Five-color glutinous rice
Every "March 3rd", the indispensable thing on the table is five-color glutinous rice. Legend has it that during the Shennong period, there was a severe famine in the area. In order to solve the famine, Shennong taught people to grow rice.
In order to enrich the varieties of rice, he stole the multicolored sacred stone from the sky and soaked the rice with the juice it grinded, thus obtaining five colors of glutinous rice. These five colors of glutinous rice are black, red, yellow, purple, and white, symbolizing heaven, earth, water, fire, and wind, and representing the five elements of the universe. Over time, five-color glutinous rice gradually spread to various ethnic groups in southern China and became an important local food culture.
On the third day of the third lunar month, the Zhuang, Dong, Yao and other ethnic minorities have made five-color glutinous rice, and people use the juice of pure plants red and blue grass, turmeric, maple leaves, and purple rice leaves to soak glutinous rice respectively, and make red, yellow, black, purple, and white (glutinous rice primary color) five-color glutinous rice, which is used to drive the song and eat, or to worship the ancestors and worship the gods.
Shi Zhishun, who sells Dong glutinous rice on Shijiayuan Road, is a member of the Dong ethnic group. Shi Zhishun said that five-color glutinous rice is the traditional food of some ethnic minority people, because the glutinous rice presents five very beautiful colors and gets its name, it is a symbol of auspiciousness and good harvest, and also represents the people's yearning and wishes for a better life. These plant-dyed sticky rice looks bright, crystal clear, moist and soft, rich in plant fragrance and slightly sweet, and has an endless aftertaste.
◆ Haruna mochi
In addition to the five-color glutinous rice, there is also a widely circulated delicacy - "spring vegetable cake", and its circulation can even be traced back to the Yuan Dynasty.
In the Yuan Dynasty poet Chen Riyan's seven-word quatrain "Giving Angel Zhang Xianqing Spring Cakes", he wrote: "Zhezhi Dance to try the spring shirt, the situation is on the third day of March today." Red snow carving plate spring vegetable cake, has always been the custom of old Annam. The poem has been handed down to this day, and it also records the customs and habits of the people eating spring vegetable cakes and giving spring vegetable cakes to each other at the time node of "March 3".
It is understood that the so-called "spring cake" and "spring vegetable cake" are the use of wild vegetables grown in spring, including shepherd's cabbage, bracken, toon, wild onion, water celery, dandelion, etc., according to personal taste and eating habits, the spring vegetables are mixed into glutinous rice flour and flour, and then made after cooking by steaming and frying.
The reporter found that such a spring vegetable cake practice, in fact, and traditional Chinese medicine four seasons conditioning, health care is quite related, with "shepherd's cabbage" as an example, it grows in spring, is one of the earliest wild vegetables in spring, is often said to be the "messenger of spring". When the field is still a withered yellow, shepherd's cabbage is the first to grow green shoots, and the best time to pick shepherd's cabbage is around "March 3rd", and there is a folk saying that "to March 3rd, shepherd's cabbage is the elixir." ”
Such a "seasonal" and "seasonal" diet method of selecting ingredients is also integrated into a variety of daily snacks, spring cakes, spring vegetable cakes are one of them, and the record of giving "spring vegetable cakes" to friends in the poetry of the Yuan Dynasty poets also contains the meaning of Chinese people in the middle of human affection, sending people healthy and happy.
In addition to spring cakes, in Guangxi, Hunan, Guizhou and other places, spring vegetables are also used to cook "Easter eggs" customs, in the process of boiling eggs, shepherd's cabbage as one of the main raw materials, will also add colorful herbs pure natural dyes, give full play to the liver, spleen, kidney meridian of the medical and health care effects, with the way of food therapy to treat the common spring fire, rheumatism and waist and leg pain diseases. Because of the bright color of the boiled red eggs, they are often used in various festivals on March 3.
◆ Tamales
There is also a "protagonist" in the various celebrations of "March 3", that is, tamales. Although the tamales may seem simple, each step needs to be strictly controlled if they want to be authentic and delicious.
Sister Chen, a citizen, lives in Diecai Jiuhua Community and is a well-known Guilin cuisine expert in the community. She told reporters that the most traditional tamales are not simple from the beginning of making rice noodles, and it is necessary to put rice and star anise, cinnamon and other spices into a pot and stir-fry them slowly over low heat. The whole process requires extremely precise control of the heat, and once the mushy flavor is achieved, the flour production is considered a failure. Only when these ingredients are all crispy and fragrant can be stir-fried. After that, you should take out the spices such as star anise and cinnamon inside, and put the fried rice into a bowl and beat it into rice noodles for later use.
After the powder part is processed, the "meat" part on the other side is processed. Before adding rice noodles, choose the pork belly, which is best with a mixture of fat and lean. First, add edible salt, light soy sauce and other marinated to taste, but also put in an appropriate amount of sesame oil, then wrap it with rice noodles, put it in a pot over low heat and simply fry it to get the fat and fragrance. Finally, the fried pork belly is steamed in a steamer.
Sister Chen said that the tamales made in this way are more authentic, not only fat but not greasy, but also the rice noodles are oily, the pork is crispy and refreshing, full of fragrance, and the salty and fragrant rice is very delicious.
It is understood that tamales are a traditional food with a long history, its origin can be traced back to the Song Dynasty, and it is a dish suitable for both the north and the south, and the practices are not the same across the country, from which we can see the changes in Chinese cuisine.
The practice of tamales uses many techniques such as steaming, stir-frying, and frying in Chinese food, and thus carries more food culture. In addition, eating tamales on the third day of March means that life is rich, and life is thriving, and the better it is. In fact, it is not only Guangxi "March 3rd" that has the custom of eating tamales, but also in Jiangxi, Hunan, Guizhou and other places.
◆ Artemisia leaf cake
Mugwort leaf cake is made of fresh and tender mugwort leaves and glutinous rice flour that grows before and after the Qingming Festival, and it is also the traditional food of Qingming and "March 3rd" in Guangxi. During this time, there were many shop stalls selling mugwort baba on the streets of Guilin, and many citizens tried to make this delicacy by themselves.
The history of mugwort can be traced back to ancient times, when people believed that eating mugwort leaf cake could ward off evil spirits and avoid plagues. Over time, this traditional food has evolved into a local delicacy and becomes a must-have dish on the third day of the third lunar month every year. On the day of March 3, people also pray for good fortune by eating mugwort leaf cakes. They believe that eating mugwort can bring good luck and happiness to themselves and their families. Therefore, on this day, it has become a good way for relatives and friends to give each other mugwort leaf cakes.
Artemisia leaf cake is simple to make, fragrant and glutinous, smooth and sweet, and is deeply loved by everyone. At the same time, the mugwort leaves of Artemisia Artemisia also have antibacterial and antiviral effects, and have very significant effects on antitussive, asthmatic and expectorant, hemostasis and anticoagulation, sedation and anti-allergic, liver protection and gallbladder reliever. It also has a variety of effects such as warming the meridians, regulating qi and blood, relieving cold and pain, chasing cold and dampness, etc., which is a good medicine for gynecology.
In the vegetable garden of Qingfeng Community, Yang Xiaoyun, who sells mugwort leaf cake in the market, has been learning to make mugwort leaf cake with the elders of the family since he was a child. She said that in the "March 3rd" cuisine, mugwort occupies a very important position. During the period of "March 3rd", she has to make hundreds of mugwort leaves every day, the amount of mugwort leaves she makes is very strong, the color of the steamed is dark green and looks very oily, a bite down, the sesame peanut filling inside is sweet and fragrant, very delicious.