Ma Tang Changzhou Ma Tang has a long history and unique flavor. According to legend, as early as the Tang Dynasty, the local people began to mix sugar and sesame seeds in caramelization to make a kind of hemp candy, called hemp candy. By the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a huge spread of smoke, and the nomads from the army invaded the south on a large scale. Zhao Gou, the King of Kang, fled from the capital city of Bianliang to the south and was partial to the south of the Yangtze River. He always compromised and made peace, not wanting to recover the lost land in the north. The people are very dissatisfied with this. At that time, someone wrote a poem saying, "When will the West Lake stop singing and dancing?" Warm wind makes tourists drunk and makes Hangzhou a Bianzhou! "To vent their dissatisfaction. The people in Changwu area expressed their desire to resist gold and recover lost land in another form. They changed the spherical sesame candy into a cylindrical shape like a vessel and gave it to Kang Wang to inspire his courage to resist and rejuvenate the country. People don't know whether Zhao Gou, King Kang, was encouraged or not. However, Changzhou sesame sugar has been made into a cylinder since then and continues to this day. Changzhou sesame sugar is finely selected and beautifully made. Sesame requires no skin cover and no stuffing at both ends. The hole in the sugar layer is not hard, the taste is sweet and crisp, and it does not stick to teeth. The color is white and bright, and the thickness is generally uniform, just 20 pieces per catty. It is really a good gift for a family trip and a friend.

Anyone who has been to Changzhou with dried radish will say, "There is a strange thing in Changzhou. Dried radish is used as an appetizer. " Authentic Changzhou dried radish is really different from dried radish in other places. It is made of sweet and tender solid carrots produced by the new gate outside the west gate of Changzhou, washed and cut into strips, moderately dried, and then added with appropriate amount of salt, sugar and various auxiliary materials, and carefully pickled. Due to the excellent selection of materials, a unique pickling process and a unique flavor seasoning are adopted. Therefore, Changzhou dried radish is yellow and red in color, salty but not salty, slightly sweet in salty, crisp but not spicy, and very delicious. Besides, it is cheap and easy to carry. It is not only a side dish for people to eat, but also a pastime food after drinking and eating. If you buy authentic Changzhou products, customers will be satisfied.

According to legend, during the Song Dynasty, Lv Mengzheng, the prime minister, was born in a poor family and lived with his mother in Yonghe County, northeast of Zhang Defu, which is now the "Hongyuan Temple" in the middle of Caoma Village in Anyang County. The elders in the temple are all classics. He has a unique skill in making flavored snacks. He used yellow rice, wheat and sesame as raw materials to make sweet and crisp sesame candy. Lv Mengzheng comes from a poor family, but he is smart and studious, so he is highly valued by his elders. The elders not only teach him to read, write poems and write poems every day, but also often reward him with some sesame candy for his mother and son to taste.

On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month in 976, people were busy sending the "chef" to heaven. When Lv Mengzheng came back begging, his mother said to him, "Son, the' kitchen owner' has been starving with us all the year round. He went to heaven, what shall we give him to eat? "

Lv Mengzheng suddenly remembered the sesame candy that the elder gave his mother a few days ago, and quickly presented it to the "Kitchen God" statue. The "Kitchen God" saw this sweet and crisp sesame candy and ate it greedily, accidentally touching his mouth. Back in the Heavenly Palace, when the emperor asked him, he wanted to speak but didn't speak, just nodded blindly. The emperor thought that "Kitchen God" repeatedly praised Lv Mengzheng's character, so he issued a decree to bless him and gave him an official position in Lv Mengzheng.

The following year, Lv Mengzheng really ranked first among the hundred candidates in the world and won the first prize. In return for the education and help of his elders, he expanded the temple, and allocated 500 liang of yellow rice, 500 liang of wheat and 100 liang of sesame seeds, so that the elders could widely teach the sesame candy making skills as the basis for the local people to make a living. For a time, sesame sugar workshops were all over the village. On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, people will follow Lv Mengzheng's example and offer sesame candy to "Kitchen God" to pray for the emperor's blessing. In this way, generation after generation, spread to this day.