There are many kinds of Laba porridge in China. Among them, Beiping is the most exquisite, and there are many items mixed in white rice, such as red dates, lotus seeds, walnuts, chestnuts, almonds, pine nuts, longan, hazelnuts, grapes, ginkgo, water chestnut, moss, roses, red beans and peanuts. , a total of not less than twenty kinds. On the night of the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, people began to get busy, washing rice, soaking fruit, peeling, coring and selecting carefully. Then start cooking in the middle of the night, then simmer until the next morning, and Laba porridge will be cooked. More sophisticated people should first carve fruits into human shapes, animals and patterns, and then cook them in a pot. What is more distinctive is that fruit lions are put in Laba porridge. Fruit lion is a lion made of several kinds of fruits, with peeled and dried crisp dates as the lion's body, half walnut kernel as the lion's head, peach kernel as the lion's foot and sweet almond as the lion's tail. Then stick them together with sugar and put them in a porridge bowl, just like a little lion. If the bowl is bigger, you can put two lions or four little lions on it. More exquisite, it is made of jujube paste, red bean paste, yam, hawthorn cake and other foods in various colors, and kneaded into statues of the Eight Immortals, the birthday girl, Luohan and so on. This decorative Laba porridge can only be seen on the altar of a big temple in the past. After laba porridge is cooked, you should sacrifice to God and ancestors first. After that, give it to relatives and friends, and be sure to send it out before noon. Finally, the whole family eats together. It is a good sign that the leftover Laba porridge will be preserved after eating for a few days, indicating that there is more than one year. If you give porridge to the poor, it will be better for you. Laba porridge also has the function of witchcraft in the folk. If there are flowers and fruit trees in the yard, put some Laba porridge on the branches. I believe it will bear more fruits next year. On the day of Laba, in addition to offering sacrifices to ancestors and worshipping God, there are also mourning and mourning for national subjugation.
Laba porridge was cooked with adzuki beans and glutinous rice in ancient times, and then the materials were gradually increased. Up to now, people in Jiangnan, Northeast and Northwest China still have the custom of eating Laba porridge, which is rare in Guangdong. With different materials, glutinous rice, red beans, jujube, chestnuts, peanuts, ginkgo, lotus seeds, lilies and so on are commonly used to cook sweet porridge. Longan, longan and candied fruit are all ripe. Eating a steaming bowl of Laba porridge in winter is delicious and nutritious, which can really increase happiness and prolong life.
Tianjin people cook Laba porridge, which is similar to Beijing's, including lotus seeds, lilies, pearl rice, Italian glutinous rice, barley kernels, sticky glutinous rice, sticky yellow rice, kidney beans, mung beans, longan meat, ginkgo, red dates, sweet-scented osmanthus in syrup and so on. They are all good in color, smell and taste. In recent years, black rice has been added. The Laba porridge can be used for dietotherapy, and has the effects of invigorating spleen, stimulating appetite, invigorating qi, calming nerves, clearing away heart fire and nourishing blood.
Laba porridge in Shanxi, also known as eight-treasure porridge, is mainly millet, with cowpea, adzuki bean, mung bean, jujube, sticky yellow rice, rice and glutinous rice. In southeastern Shanxi, cooking porridge with water is also one of the eating customs. This kind of porridge is called fragrant rice, which means adzuki beans, red beans, cowpeas, sweet potatoes, peanuts, glutinous rice and persimmons on the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month.