1. Tangyuan

Eating glutinous rice balls on the solstice in winter is a traditional custom in China, especially in the south of the Yangtze River. When it comes to what Ningbo people eat on the solstice in winter, we must mention Ningbo glutinous rice balls. There is a folk saying that "eating glutinous rice balls is one year older". Tangyuan is also called jiaozi, and eating jiaozi on the solstice in winter is also called "jiaozi on the solstice in winter". According to the records of Qing Dynasty, Jiangnan people used glutinous rice flour to make noodles with essence, meat, apples, bean paste, shredded radish and so on. The winter solstice group can be used to worship ancestors or give gifts to relatives and friends.

Tangyuan is one of the famous snacks in Ningbo and one of the representative snacks in China with a long history. According to legend, Tangyuan originated in the Song Dynasty. At that time, a novel food was popular all over the country, which was made of various fruit baits and kneaded into balls with glutinous rice flour outside. After cooking, it tastes sweet and delicious, which is very interesting. Because this kind of dumplings cooked in a pot will float and sink, it was originally called "floating Zi Yuan", and later it was renamed Yuanxiao in some areas. Different from northerners, Ningbo people have the traditional custom of getting together to eat jiaozi in the morning of the Spring Festival.

2. turnip rice cake

On the day before the winter solstice, Ningbo people generally don't go out. On the morning of winter solstice, the whole family has the custom of eating radish and baking rice cakes. The smell of kohlrabi has become a unique rural food in Ningbo during the winter solstice, which is unforgettable. On the eve of winter solstice, every family bakes kohlrabi, and the fire in the big stove is very prosperous. Wash kohlrabi, peel and cut into pieces, and don't waste leaves. Cut off the potholes on the surface and put them in a wok. Cut the slices thicker, otherwise they will be easy to cook and chopsticks will not hold them. First put the kohlrabi in, then enlarge the rice cake, turn it over, put some soy sauce, then cover the burning sawdust with grass ash, burn it overnight, cook it with slow fire, and stew the kohlrabi in an iron pot overnight. The next morning, when the water will boil dry, add sugar and salt, and then pour a layer of vegetable oil into the wok, and the delicious radish baked rice cake will be ready!

Kohlrabi is durable and will not deform. A wok of square kohlrabi, dipped in soy sauce and vegetable oil, has a clear texture and looks like braised pork. When you put a chopstick in your mouth, the food is delicious, the meat is soft and tender, and the fresh and salty taste has the natural sweetness of kohlrabi. You can enjoy the original taste of kohlrabi without too much seasoning.

The key to baking rice cakes with kohlrabi on the solstice in winter is that on the night of the solstice in winter, the stove fire will not go out, and every family will burn it and pass it on from generation to generation. A prosperous life is the most real and basic expectation of the people, and the rice cake means "high every year."

3. Tang Guo

"I am one year older after eating soup." Ningbo has a "winter solstice worship". According to the custom of old Ningbo, it is necessary to cook a solstice soup rice in winter. On the morning of the solstice in winter, I must eat a bowl of sweet potato soup, which means "turning over" all the bad luck before.

Ningbo Tangyuan is very famous, but what is more important to Ningbo people is a glutinous rice food called "Tang Guo". Tang Guo is also made of glutinous rice, and its shape can be as big as glutinous rice balls, as small as beads, or even smaller. People in Ningbo want to eat "wine-fermented jiaozi" on the solstice of winter, that is, the distiller's grains brewed by late rice are boiled together with small grains of soup fruit, sprinkled with starch, put some red and green silk, or make some eggs, and some can cut some apples. The practice is similar, but the soup fruit is essential.

4. Red bean porridge

Ningbo nursery rhymes: "Hey, sell sugar porridge. Three catties of walnuts and four catties of shells. Uncle Zhang asked Nong for a kitten and yellow dog. " Many people in Ningbo should have heard this nursery rhyme, but few people know that this "sugar porridge" is red bean porridge. This kind of red bean porridge is particularly delicate, because red beans and porridge are made separately. Red beans are ground into bean paste and poured on rice porridge, like red clouds covered with snow, with good color, fragrance and taste. In the past, there was a device for selling sugar porridge in Ningbo called "camel shoulder", which could put all the cookers, dishes and food on the burden. The peddler knocked on the bamboo pole while picking things, making a "Benedict" sound. When the children heard the sound, they knew that the "sugar porridge seller" was coming.

Eating red bean porridge is sweet but not greasy, thin but not thin, and extremely refreshing. In Ningbo, the custom of the whole family getting together to eat red bean porridge from winter to Sunday night has been passed down to this day.