Ancient people first made the winter solstice a solar term, and at the same time gave it the meaning of the winter solstice holiday. After all, it is the shortest day in a year, which is very memorable. "The Book of the Later Han Dynasty" records that around the winter solstice, a gentleman lived quietly, refused to listen to politics, chose auspicious days and then saved trouble. 1600 years ago, the ancients had the consciousness of legal holidays, which was about the winter solstice.
Nowadays, the importance of the winter solstice has declined slightly. Surrounded by fast-food culture, it is often at the top of the topic list, and the discussion about it is always inseparable from "whether to eat jiaozi or glutinous rice balls on the winter solstice". The old-fashioned topic should be stirred up every year.
As a "foodie" country, "eating" is inevitable, and the winter solstice is no exception. Whether it is jiaozi, wonton or glutinous rice balls, they are all part of cultural customs. What's more, there are far more seasonal foods on the winter solstice than you think.
1 winter brewing
"If you don't drink winter wine on the winter solstice, you will be frozen all night", and the winter solstice in Suzhou is deeply branded with the imprint of winter wine making.
"I don't eat from time to time", and the elegant Suzhou people always eat timely meals according to the season. After the season, meals will fall out of favor. A week before the winter solstice, the winter wine brewed in two months finally went on the market, and the time-honored brand instantly became a online celebrity store, and there was an endless stream of old Suzhou queuing to buy wine. A year's waiting, and only ten days' sale, is enough to make Suzhou people itch, unable to restrain their excitement, and frequently probe on tiptoe. When will this long queue be the end?
Gu Lu, a Qing Dynasty man, recorded in Qing Jia Lu: People in rural areas make wine with herbs, which is called winter wine making, and they are known as "autumn dew white", "Du Maochai", "leaning against the wall" and "bamboo leaves clear". October creator, named "October White". It is named "Sanjiu Liquor" to make koji with white flour and soak white rice in spring water.
The names of "Autumn Dew White" and "Bamboo Leaf Green" are beautiful, and the ancient people's love for winter brewing is all in this name.
Whether it is "autumn dew", "Du Maochai" or "Zhu Yeqing", the ancients always described colors with different imaginations. In fact, winter wine is golden yellow, and there are still little osmanthus grains floating between Huang Che.
Old people are still used to homemade winter wine. In late autumn, the osmanthus tree in front of the door and behind the house has already been decorated with full goose yellow "pearls", and the warm and elegant aroma is unstoppable. Cut a few branches covered with osmanthus flowers, gently stroke down the goose yellow flower grains, spread them flat and air-dry, and add them to the rice wine fermented by glutinous rice and distiller's yeast. Osmanthus flowers attract fragrance and Gardenia colors.
The sweet-scented osmanthus that overflowed the alley in memory was made into winter wine. Take a sniff and you'll remember it all your life.
Snow gradually covered the roof of the grass, and it became a mist in one breath. In the small stove made of red mud, there is a faint charcoal fire red, "Tonight's fermented glutinous rice is brewed with thick black rice". It is also a rare comfort to warm a pot of winter brewing, take a sip, and bring in a catty of pot-stewed flavor, and sit around the stove with two or three friends to pour wine and eat meat, and chat at home.
/kloc-after 0/000 years, there is no more lotte in Shantang Street. Sitting by the water, Gui Xiang's nose is wet, and the little girl fish walks and laughs across the water, which warms the cold sunset.
This day, just like this winter's wine making, is not strong and in a hurry, just like Suzhou little Niang fish looking back at the water, flat and light, warm and cool, with flowing water.
2 Fu Ping persimmon: Sweet glutinous rice has lost its teeth.
Speaking of dried persimmons, the earliest memory of dried persimmons is that they are round and flat, with "white spots" and sweet and astringent little snacks placed on grandma's bedside.
The appearance of Fu Ping persimmon completely subverted my imagination of persimmon, which turned out to be so soft and sweet.
Of course, people who like sweets like it to death, and people who don't like it think it is too sweet.
Willow shadows are sparse, leaves are everywhere, and first frost comes at the right time. The golden persimmon covered with branches begins its transformation from ordinary fruit to beautiful dessert.
From first frost to the winter solstice, the growth of Fu Ping persimmon has to go through 12 rigorous ancient procedures: picking, folding hooks, peeling, hanging on the shelf, pinching the heart, taking off the shelf, discharging water, and damp frost ... The frost hanging time of 48-60 days is strictly controlled.
Fu Ping persimmon is very cute, which is different from the flat persimmon in the market. Because of the traditional natural hanging technique, the fruit concentrated from 200g to 40g turned into a chubby little peach in the process of being fully bathed by the sun, which really reflected the good meaning of "persimmon is as good as you like".
Tear the persimmon gently, leaving the white frosting naturally formed on the surface of the persimmon on your fingers, revealing the red heart pulp, which is as crystal clear as jelly.
Take a bite, it is silky and refreshing, and the plump pulp seems to be eager to overflow from the teeth. What remains between the lips and teeth is full of traces of sunshine and the fragrance of the pulp.
The child next door has been crying.
3 Dongjie Pills
Carrying a heavy bag, I pushed open the mottled wooden door, and there was a "squeak". The old woman followed the sound and chanted "Come back!" "Hurry in and take the Winter Festival Pill."
"After eating the Winter Festival Pill, you will be one year older." In Chaoshan area, the winter solstice solar term is one of the most important festivals in a year. The winter solstice, also known as the "Winter Festival", is the last festival in a year, so it is also the "small year" in Chaoshan area. After eating the unique "Winter Festival Pill" on the winter solstice, the child will grow up to be one year old. The so-called "Winter Festival Pill" is actually the "Tangyuan" in the dispute between the North and the South.
The night before the winter solstice, housewives began to plan. The women put a big bamboo pole, that is, a shallow basket, on the table and sat together in a "SO round" (dialect, pronunciation).
Traditional winter festival pills have two colors, one is made directly from glutinous rice flour, white; The other is added with red rice powder water, which is pink purple.
Women deliberately rub the winter festival pills in different sizes and uneven shapes, calling them "father and son gongsun pills", which means that the whole family is full at the end of the year.
Early the next morning, the women boiled the soup with brown sugar, sprinkled with ginger slices, and then put the meatballs in the pot and cooked them. The meatballs that have just come out of the pot should be offered to the ancestors first, and then offered to the landlord, parents-in-law, Si Mingjun and Jing Shen in turn.
When the ancestors and gods are arranged, it is the turn of a family. The eternal rules are the awe of family traditions inherited from generation to generation in Chaoshan. After the ancestor worship ceremony, the tense nerves relaxed, and I ate a bowl of winter festival pills to welcome the new year in the sweet glutinous rice.
4 "mind"
In Yinchuan, Ningxia, 2300 kilometers away from the northwest of Guangdong, people must eat their brains on the winter solstice. At first glance, this name sounds a little scary, and in an instant, the brain fills up the scene of a rough and unrestrained northwest man gulping meat and drinking.
In fact, the "brain" here is just another name for mutton powder soup.
On the winter solstice, at three or four o'clock in the morning, the family members have already got up early to prepare for the winter solstice.
The production of a bowl of mutton powder soup, Songshan purple mushroom is definitely the essence. Wash the prepared Songshan purple mushrooms and boil the soup. After the soup becomes thick, the fresh and fragrant soup base of the powder soup is formed.
Dice mutton, fry in the pan until the steam is dry, then add ginger, onion, garlic and Chili noodles, stir-fry the chopped mushrooms with diced meat, pour some vinegar and add some other seasonings. After the meat is rotten, throw it into the fungus and day lily to stir fry, then add the clear mushroom soup. After the soup boils, put it into the cut pieces and soaked vermicelli, cook it well, and finally add leeks, garlic sprouts and coriander to make it fragrant. A pot of hot and delicious mutton powder soup will be served.
The mutton powder soup in Yinchuan is like a pot of stew, with all kinds of colors, including red peppers, yellow daylily, green garlic sprouts and coriander, and chewy white powder blocks, vermicelli, black mushrooms and fungus ... all kinds of game are brought together to enrich the umami value of mutton.
In many places, the winter solstice is a big day to worship ancestors, and Yinchuan also has such a custom. Jiaozi, who made the noodle soup first, must serve a bowl in front of the memorial tablet of his ancestors, and he will also serve a bowl to his neighbors with enthusiasm. Finally, the whole family will sit together and drink mutton powder soup, accompanied by jiaozi with yellow radish stuffing or a few cakes with three tips and fennel in the furnace, which is also unique.
5 mutton soup
In addition to Yinchuan, Ningxia, there is also Chengdu, the land of abundance, which is 1300 kilometers away.
If you have to argue with Chengdu colleagues about the right and wrong of eating on the winter solstice, he will give you a sincere look: eating a shovel of jiaozi and glutinous rice balls will definitely cut the mutton soup!
As soon as winter comes, mutton soup kitchens on the streets of Chengdu are popping up. On the winter solstice, the number of people who go to drink mutton soup reaches its peak.
In order to eat mutton and drink mutton soup on the winter solstice, people can queue up for an hour or two in the cold, order a few pounds of mutton offal and mutton, and enjoy the warmth of mutton soup sliding into the stomach with family and friends in the night market.
Among them, dipping in water is the key to a delicious mutton soup. When instant white mutton soup is served, you must put a piece of bean curd on it, sprinkle two spoonfuls of millet and spicy, and add three pinch of chives and coriander, so that the freshness, fragrance and spicy of mutton soup can be completely released.
Chengdu people are very particular about eating mutton soup. First, kill the mutton offal in the soup, then burn the soul mate peas and dip them in the bean curd rice spicy coriander dish. Then rinse the good mutton in clear water for a few seconds, and the entrance is full of the delicious flavor of mutton.
After eating a mutton soup, this winter solstice is complete.