Rice cake, Hakka called sweet rice cake, Hokkien language called sweet rice, is popular in the East Asian New Year a traditional cuisine, popular in Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and other Chinese regions, Chinese rice cake and "Nian Gao" harmonic sound, there is the meaning of the year by year. In the early days, rice cakes were used in Chinese New Year's Eve to worship gods and ancestors, and gradually became a Lunar New Year food. Therefore, in the waxing moon, thousands of households prepared rice cakes early. Rice cakes are usually made of glutinous rice flour, and the rice cakes made in different regions of China are different; after the rice cakes are transmitted to neighboring countries, they also extend different preparation methods and flavors according to their eating habits.
history
The custom of eating rice cakes for the New Year is said to have begun in the Zhou Dynasty. Since the ripening of the grain is called one year at a time, the fact that future generations eat rice cakes for the New Year contains the meaning of congratulating the abundance of grains. Eating rice cakes also means "high age" longevity. It also means to grow old and tall. In Jiangsu and Zhejiang, there is a story of rice cakes. It is said that during the Spring and Autumn Period, Wu Zixu, the grand master of the State of Wu, was sent by Wu Wangfu to give him a sword and kill himself. Legend has it that before Wu Zixu died, he instructed his cronies: "After my death, if the country is in difficulty and the people are short of food, you can get food by digging three feet into the walls of Xiangmen City." After Wu Zixu's death, King Yue Gou jian heard about it, believing that Wu Guo had lost his reserve and defended Wu Guo xue shame. Fu Cha even won the victory, the capital city was trapped, the city's grain was exhausted, only to swallow, but there was no obstacle to the citizens starving to death, at this time, Wu Zixu's cronies went to the Elephant Gate to dig three feet of ground according to his instructions before his death, and dug up the "city bricks" that Wu Zixu had pressed after steaming with rice flour. From then on, every New Year's Day, local households would steam rice cakes like city bricks to honor Wu Zixu's exploits. Because it is a food made during the New Year, it is called rice cake, which has been passed down to this day.
China is rich in land and culture, so rice cakes are practiced differently in different regions!
Northern rice cake
Northern rice cakes can be steamed or fried, and are mainly sweet. Beijing rice cakes include red date rice cakes, baiguo rice cakes and white rice cakes made from rice or yellow rice. In Shanxi, it is customary to make rice cakes from yellow rice flour (called cake noodles in Jin), fried in oil, and can be stuffed with bean paste or date paste. Hebei used to steam rice cakes with small dates, small red beans and mung beans, and Shandong rice cakes were steamed with red dates and yellow rice. Tohoku rice cakes are mainly made from sticky sorghum rice and beans steamed.
Gangnam rice cake
The rice cakes in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River are white, their own light taste, and are made by mixing japonica rice with glutinous rice, with more glutinous rice and softer finished products, and more finished products of japonica rice being harder. Steamed, fried, sliced and sautéed or boiled soup. Common practices include snow vegetable meat soup rice cake, chinese cabbage fried rice cake and so on. Shanghai's rib rice cakes are also unique. Some rural areas in Jiangnan use the foot pedal method to make rice cakes, and are called "foot pedal cakes".
Fujian rice cake
Fuzhou, Ningde and Putian area of the white rice cake similar to Taiwan common rice cakes, in addition to taro, nine heavy rice, japonica rice, white eighty rice, sugar rice, etc., Fuzhou people only sweet sugar rice called rice cakes, and there are brown sugar rice, white sugar rice and other classifications. Fujian rice cake is a glutinous rice flour and rice flour with white sugar or brown sugar, there are peanuts, red dates, red beans, etc., and then combined into a dough, and then placed on the rice cake leaves steamed. Fujian rice cake in southern Fujian, also known as sticky cake, is a natural amber color, mainly for New Year sacrifices and gifts, made of glutinous rice, taro, usually sliced and fried, can also be wrapped in egg juice, or taibai powder or sweet potato powder fried.
Cantonese rice cake
Hong Kong-style coconut rice cake, fried in a pan on a slow heat, Guangdong and Hong Kong and Macao rice cake is orange-red sticky cake, which is sweet, made of corn, slice sugar, chicken fat, peanut butter, usually diced with slow heat to fry the rice cake soft before eating. You can also dip the fried hard rice cake with egg paste and fry it until golden brown, the taste is a little sour, and cakes, sugar cane cakes, radish cakes and other pastries are also considered rice cakes. Hong Kong also has a "milk rice cake", which replaces the flake sugar with milk and brown sugar, giving it a pink appearance.
Hunan rice cake
Also known as fin rice. Soak the glutinous rice in water for more than a day, drain the water and steam it. Place the steamed rice dumplings inside the stone mortar and use tools such as large mallets to rot until they are gelatinous. The gelatinous mass is then placed in a vessel sprinkled with glutinous rice flour and kneaded, in some areas by two people, one holding a mallet standing and beating, the other crouching and kneading the rice dumplings into a ball with his hands. Rub every time you hit. Molds are used to make various shapes or directly into cakes or balls, the size of which will vary depending on the specific use. Place in a ventilated, dry place to dry. When ready to eat, it can be fried, boiled or cooked directly over fire.
Dan family rice cake
The boat households of the Yuanjia (Southern Water Ethnic Minorities) also have the custom of eating rice cakes, called "nine-layer cake", with sticky rice paste, mixed with green onions, sesame seeds, peanut chips, pork grains, chicken cakes, seasoned with five-spice powder, and added a layer of flavor to each steamed layer, until the ninth layer, so it is called.
Taiwanese rice cake
More than 70% of the ancestral home of the Han people in Taiwan comes from southern Fujian, so Taiwan's traditional rice cakes are basically the same as minnan, Taiwanese commonly known as sweet rice cakes (that is, sticky cakes), Hakka commonly known as sweet rice cakes, Taiwanese rice cakes are mostly red, brown or amber, mainly for Chinese New Year's Eve ancestor worship and New Year sacrifices, receiving gods. The traditional rice cake in northern Taiwan is to grind glutinous rice into rice milk and put it into rice bags to dry, then slice it into the big ding and steam peanuts, brown sugar or red beans, etc., and then pull up the long bamboo slices and put it into the container after cooking, the taste is soft and delicate.
Taipei popular all kinds of rice cakes, influenced by Taiwan's post-war period to Taiwan's provincials, the style of rice cakes is more diverse, and even some merchants mainly "Village Rice Cake", or a variety of traditional rice cakes, such as peanut rice cakes, brown sugar rice cakes and red bean rice cakes. Fuzhou rice cakes made by fuzhou immigrants in eastern Fujian are also made of pork, taro and peanuts, which are natural amber color, usually sliced and fried, steamed and eaten, and can also be wrapped in egg juice, or fried with white powder or sweet potato powder. In central Taiwan and southern Taiwan, early Minnan style rice cakes are popular, boiling glutinous rice over low heat until they are paste-like and added sugar, letting it cool, and then frying and eating, which is more chewy. In some parts of Taiwan, giving away rice cakes means that the other party is serving a funeral. The recipient of the gift, as long as the gift of a one-dollar coin, can avoid this annoying gift-giving taboo.
Foreign rice cakes:
Japanese rice cake: Japanese rice cake is also known as mirror cake. It is also popular in Japan to eat rice cakes during the celebration of the New Year (the Meiji Restoration changed to the New Year's Day of the solar calendar) and eaten in rice cake soup on New Year's Eve. Japanese rice cakes are white and tasteless, and traditionally made by placing rice balls in large wooden barrels and constantly hitting them with a hammer.
Korean Rice Cake: Korean Rice Cake Soup With Korean Steamed Buns Korean rice cake is a kind of Korean rice cake, similar to Ningbo rice cake in China, but the cooking method is different, usually boiled rice cake soup, stir-fried kimchi food.
(Image from Baidu intrusion)