Long summer is the seventh solar term in the whole year and the first solar term in summer. Every year on May 5th or 6th of the Gregorian calendar, when the sun reaches 45 degrees of the Yellow Meridian, it is the "Long Summer" solar term. "Summer" means "big". By this time of year, the plants sown in spring have grown up, so they are called "long summer". What are the dietary customs in Hangzhou on this day?

1, "Long Summer Dog"

In the long summer, Tangqi people have the custom of letting their children eat "long summer dogs". It is said that children will not suffer from summer (fatigue and lack of food) if they eat long summer dogs. This is also recorded in "Qi Tang Custom": "In the long summer, it is common to make a' long summer dog' in rural areas, and make it into the shape of a dog with glutinous rice flour, and eat it after steaming. It is said that children who eat' Long Summer Dog' will be as grateful (strong) as dogs, not in summer. " The villagers, led by the old chef of Lao Dao cake shop, followed the traditional custom, making rice noodles as "long summer dogs", steaming wild rice with earthen stoves and making "grey duck eggs" with plant ash, and welcoming the early summer with the unique folk customs of the water town.

2. Wild rice and black rice

Black rice cake is one of the traditional snacks in long summer. It is made by mashing black leaves and soaking them in water, soaking glutinous rice with black leaf juice to dye it black, then steaming the soaked black glutinous rice with sugar and pressing it into glutinous rice cake by hand, which has a faint black leaf flavor.

3. Gray duck eggs

In Hangzhou, there is a local custom of "pickling eggs in the long summer and eating eggs in the Dragon Boat Festival". Duck eggs are marinated in plant ash and yellow mud for about a month, and they become characteristic "grey duck eggs".