The winter solstice, an important festival in the Chinese lunar calendar, begins to "enter the ninth" on this day, officially entering the severe cold. At this time, food is most needed to replenish energy and start the "great battle" to withstand the cold.
As the saying goes: "The winter solstice is the new year", on the day of the winter solstice, it is also particularly important to eat this matter. Looking at the diet of the north and the south, today it has roughly formed two major factions of "northern dumplings and southern tangyuan".
North | Dumplings
South | Tangyuan
For northerners: "no dumplings, but festivals", dumplings are the "standard" of the winter solstice. If "the winter solstice does not dishonor the dumpling bowl, and no one cares about the ears", it can be seen how important the position of dumplings in the north is.
Mackerel stuffed dumplings
How delicious are the seemingly unremarkable dumplings, just looking at the filling makes people panic, Northeast sauerkraut filling, Shandong mackerel filling, Beijing fennel filling, as well as home-style shiitake pork, leek eggs, corn shrimp... Just this stuffing can be eaten for a month without repetition.
On the day of the winter solstice, the whole family comes together, each with its own duties, a clear division of labor, making stuffing, noodles, rolling the skin, and making dumplings. Hot dumplings are served on the table, if there is snow outside the window, the atmosphere of the winter solstice is there, eating dumplings, the heart is beautiful!
While the northerners are happily eating dumplings, the southerners south of the Huai River in qinling are about to usher in the sweet blow of tangyuan.
The inner filling of the dumplings is no less than that of dumplings, the sesame filling and peanut filling are the most classic, as long as you gently bite it, the filling inside will overflow, fragrant and strong. In addition, there are rose fillings, strawberry fillings, orange fillings, pork, chicken fillings, etc., only you can't think of them, no tangyuan can't do it.
In terms of appearance, the colorful tangyuan is quite eye-catching, adding spinach juice, carrot puree, pumpkin puree, purple potato puree into the glutinous rice flour to rub into a skin embryo, the value of the face immediately soared!
Tangyuan in the way of eating is also eclectic, in addition to cooking, you can also fry tangyuan, steamed tangyuan, roasted tangyuan, sauerkraut fried tangyuan, sounds a little incredible, after eating you will be amazed, there is such a delicacy in the world.
After thousands of years of development of the winter solstice, in addition to the mainstream of "northern dumplings, southern tangyuan", there are many colorful food customs throughout China, which are interesting and delicious!
Chaoshan | Winter festival pills, falling soup money
Winter solstice, Chaoshan people called "winter festival", the winter solstice as a small New Year, winter festival must eat "winter festival pills", in fact, is the tangyuan, but there is no filling. The Winter Festival Pill is better to rub the large and small unevenness, which is called "Father and Son Gongsun Pill", which symbolizes the fullness of the family at the end of the year.
Winter festival pills are generally cooked before dawn, cook brown sugar soup, put the balls under the pot, cook, first worship the ancestors, and then call the whole family up to eat soup pills, commonly known as: "soup pills eat the sky and light".
In addition to the winter festival pills, there is another dim sum, because it resembles a copper coin and is named Luo Tang Qian, that is, sweet glutinous rice fins, similar to northern rice cakes, throw small glutinous rice balls into the boiling soup, cooked and dipped in sesame peanut flour, eat soft and sweet.
Hakka | Radish dumplings
In Heyuan, Guangdong, on the day of the winter solstice, the Hakka custom is the only indispensable radish dumpling in addition to the reunion dish. Radish dumplings are the most Hakka-style winter solstice delicacies.
Every household will make radish dumplings with glutinous rice flour and shredded radish, shiitake mushrooms, fungus, dried shrimp, lean meat, etc. After the radish is steamed, the aroma is very attractive, the radish shreds are very sweet, and there is also the aroma of bacon, take a bite, the skin is thin and thick, the mouth is fragrant, and the aftertaste is endless.
Minnan | Ginger duck, rub the pills
The winter solstice is a festival that minnan people attach great importance to, not only to worship the ancestors, every household must be supplemented, ginger hen duck is the first choice, the winter solstice day selling ginger hen duck stalls have long been lined up.
The aroma of ginger duck can drift from the street to the end of the street, simmer ginger and duck in sesame oil, add sorghum wine and cooking wine and simmer. Ginger dehumidification to warm up, duck meat is not greasy, cooked until dry and fragrant, a bite of duck meat a slice of ginger, after eating the whole body warm whirring!
In addition to eating ginger and duck, on the eve of the "winter solstice", every household in southern Fujian has to scoop rice and "rub the pills". The color of the balls is red and white, and it is necessary to pinch several small and exquisite toys, commonly known as "pinching chicken hen paparazzi". Such as making sheep's head, pig's foot, flower fish "three animals", as well as lychee, peach, pear, citrus, banana "five fruits"... Symbolize prosperity and auspiciousness!
Sichuan | Lamb broth
Every winter solstice, Sichuan ushers in the most difficult wet and cold, and people are trembling inside and outside the house. According to the old custom, Sichuan people do not eat dumplings on the winter solstice, and at night, everyone gathers in the shop to drink mutton soup. It is said that in the Chengdu area alone, millions of sheep can be eaten in the week around the winter solstice.
Among them, the Jianyang mutton soup is a unique branch, the fresh soup is milky and thick, and the lamb is soft and tender and delicious. The lamb and haggis sold in the pound were poured into the soup in one go, and with the heat rising from the grunt, drinking the mutton soup and eating the lamb, the whole body was warm.
Yinchuan | Lamb powder soup dumplings
On the day of the winter solstice, Yinchuan has a custom: eat lamb powder soup dumplings. The people of Yinchuan gave it a special name - "mind". It looks like black, yellow, red, green, and white are all available, and the first attempt is really a bit "scary". However, after tasting it, you will sigh, the taste is really superb!
Lamb powder soup is made of mushrooms and lamb, add salt, ginger, onion, garlic, pepper, soy sauce and other spices, the soup is rolled over and put in the cut powder, dumplings, and then add leeks, garlic seedlings, coriander, so that a pot of colorful mutton powder soup dumplings are ready, the soup is fresh and slightly spicy, the dumplings are rich in meat filling, and a bowl is full of transparency.
Hunan | Winter solstice meat, eight treasure sticky rice
Every time around the winter solstice, Hunan people are busy making bacon, chicken, duck and fish are salted for four or five days, hung in a ventilated place, and dried the meat, called winter solstice meat. There is a saying that "after eating winter solstice meat, the body race calves", so the treated meat, with a faint fragrance, can be stored until the next summer will not spoil, the meat becomes tight, eat fragrant, the more chewy the more fragrant.
In Changsha, Hunan and other places, the custom of the winter solstice is to eat Eight Treasures Glutinous Rice or Glutinous Rice Sticky Rice. Choose glutinous rice, cinnamon balls, dates, lotus seeds, berries, walnut kernels, pine nuts, yams and rock sugar. The ingredients are mixed with glutinous rice and steamed, soft and sweet, rich in filling, and eat a bite of sweetness.
Hangzhou | rice cake
Hangzhou people like to eat rice cakes on the winter solstice and ask for a good color head that is "higher than the year". Panning rice, rolling flour, steaming, beating, smoothing, when the snow white soft glutinous steaming on the stove, the sticky fragrance has already drifted out for thousands of miles.
Every winter solstice to eat rice cakes in a different way, in the morning, sesame flour mixed with sugar rice cakes leave a delicate black and white between the lips and teeth; at noon, the oil pier vegetables, winter shoots, and shredded meat have been in the wok and the rice cakes emit the aroma of "snorting"; in the evening, a bowl of soup rice cakes, snow and bamboo shoots mixed with gravy, each of the three meals has its own flavor!
Suzhou | Winter wine, brine, sheep cake
For Suzhou people: the winter solstice is as big as the year, the winter solstice night must drink winter wine, there is a saying: the winter solstice does not drink winter wine is to freeze overnight. Winter wine is brewed only once a year, and the sweet glutinous rice wine is made by adding golden osmanthus flowers, the taste is sweet, and you can faintly smell the fragrance of osmanthus flowers.
Suzhou people drink winter wine on the night of the winter solstice, and will also be accompanied by a variety of brine dishes and sheep cakes, such as brine lamb, brine chicken claw, fried fish, sauce duck... Hearty and delicious.
Winter limited sheep cake is also the protagonist of the winter solstice night, leg of lamb boiled for a full hour, broken into the plate, poured with rich sheep soup, after natural cooling condensation, sliced on the table, it will become a piece of clear sheep cake, tight and chewy, with it with winter wine is more suitable.
On the map of Chinese cuisine, these are just the tip of the iceberg, what else to eat on the winter solstice in your hometown!