On July 19, 2021, the "Dengta" Social Practice Team of the School of Food Science and Engineering of Lingnan Normal University carried out a hometown food research activity in order to gain a deeper understanding of the team's hometown cuisine, which has lasted for many days, and today let's learn about an ancient snack - macaroon.
The origin of almond cake can be said to be very ancient, it is a kind of snack made of mung bean flour, white sugar, water and marinated pork. There are two theories about its origin, one is in the late Yuan and early Qing dynasties, because the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty continued to collect all kinds of unwarranted taxes like people, resulting in the people being oppressed and plundered very seriously, so the uprisings across the country were endless, of course, the most representative is this rebel army led by Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Yuanzhang's wife Ma Shi was very clever, in the early stage of the uprising because of the chaos, so the grain was often insufficient, in order to facilitate the soldiers to carry dry food, Ma Shi came up with the use of wheat, mung beans, Soybeans and other things that can be eaten together, in the grinding into powder, made into a cake distributed to the soldiers, not only convenient to carry but also can be eaten at any time, which has played a great role in the marching war, but because the cake made in this way is more difficult to eat, so the smart people on the basis of this cake or reduce the raw materials, update the method, and finally people found that the cake made of mung bean powder, pork filling and other raw materials is the best, such a cake is sweet and pine, fat and not greasy, this is the ancestor of the almond cake.
Another theory is that during the last years of the Guangxu Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, this theory was widely recognized by everyone, and there was a book in Zhongshan City, which was added to the sunset and the economy declined. This is the birthday of his upright mother, who is worried about the beginning of entertaining relatives and friends, but his maid Pan Yanxiang, who has been learning and clever since childhood, and learned the good craft of making pastries with one hand, she uses mung bean flour, fatty pork slices marinated with sugar, surprises the production of mung bean sandwich meat cakes, respectfully given to the old woman, the cake is sweet and loose, the food is fat and not greasy, there is apricot fragrance, the birthday celebrations of the day eat together, all praise endlessly. Later, the eater wrote a picture with a pen: "Tooth and cheek left fragrant," since then this mung bean cake became famous and renamed "almond cake." After that, with the support of the book Xiang Mendi, in 1918 Pan Yanxiang created a brand "Chew Xiang Yuan," specializing in the sale and production of macaroons, to this day Tsui Xiang Yuan has become a century-old brand in Zhongshan, the most famous specialty in Zhongshan. As early as 1935, Tsui Xiang Yuan's almond cake has been shining internationally, in 1935 did not pass the Honolulu International Food Expo, almond cake won the Golden Rooster Award in one fell swoop, since then this authentic Zhongshan specialty has been completely famous at home and abroad, since then, Tsui Xiang Yuan's almond cake has won the "Zhongshan Top Ten Tourism Products," "Chinese Time-honored Brand" and other awards, this cuisine is spread to Hong Kong and Macao in the last century, and now in Macao is already a week of souvenir gifts, Many tourists will buy some to take home after traveling to Macau.
As a Zhongshan native, I am deeply proud that the specialties of my hometown can be famous at home and abroad, and even in the early last century, I crossed the ocean and shined on the other side of the distant Pacific Ocean. As a food person, I think any widely acclaimed and famous food, can not be separated from the founder's down-to-earth research and development, in a hundred years ago Pan Yanxiang is in the attempt to create this century-old cuisine, her story inspires food people to do things down-to-earth, she told us not to be afraid of failure, big deal to start over, only again and again to try to succeed.