Chinese people like to eat, and in winter they must pay more attention to dietary supplements. You also have to pay attention to what you eat during the Xiaohan season. The north and the south, with a temperature difference of tens of degrees Celsius, each have their own tastes.
South·Nanjing
Warming chicken soup
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There is a saying in old Nanjing that it is eaten on "Nine" One chicken, one egg a day is a dietary custom. Chicken soup and eggs have been on the dining tables of Nanjing people since Xiaohan.
When eating chicken, pay attention to stewing the soup. The hen is stewed with red dates, lotus seeds, wolfberry, longan, cordyceps flowers and other tonics. Simmer over low heat for two or three hours. The meat stewed by the hen will be soft and smooth. You can eat it directly. The stewed chicken soup can not only be used as a staple food, but can also be used to cook noodles.
Of course, eating chicken soup in winter is not limited to Nanjing, but in the winter, those who love to cook chicken soup are often delicate southerners.
Gengnan·Guangzhou
Glutinous Rice
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Autumn is still going on in Guangzhou during the Xiaohan this year. The temperature of 15℃ to 20℃ makes Guangzhou people pay less attention to food supplements to keep warm. On the contrary, the imagery expressed in this eating ritual is more eye-catching.
There is a tradition in Guangzhou that Xiaohan eats glutinous rice in the morning. In order to prevent glutinous rice from being indigestible, 40% of the glutinous rice is usually fragrant rice, which is fried with chopped bacon and sausage, green onions and fried peanuts are added and mixed with the rice to eat together.
Since glutinous rice itself has a higher sugar content than rice, your whole body will feel warm after eating it, which means warmth. After eating glutinous rice, you will feel warm all year round.
North Tianjin
Yellow sprouts
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Eating yellow sprouts is a specialty in Tianjin area An old custom.
Yellow bean sprouts, a kind of Chinese cabbage, is a specialty of Tianjin. It is made from cabbage sprouts. After the winter solstice, the stems and leaves of the cabbage are cut off, leaving the heart, which is covered with manure about two inches above the ground. , isolate the air. Take it out and eat it after half a month. It will be crispy and tender.
But that was before. Without refrigerators, high-speed modern transportation networks and modern agriculture, vegetables in the north were barren in winter. Chinese cabbage is the cheapest and most common among the few vegetables found in the north.
Most of the north
Have a bowl of Laba porridge
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Eating "Laba porridge" is a traditional Chinese solar term in Xiaohan An important folk custom.
Especially in the north, the Laba porridge consumed in the twelfth lunar month is also consumed in Xiaohan, and the Laba porridge will be different in different regions.
Beijing’s Laba porridge is the most exquisite. The ingredients mixed into white rice include red dates, lotus seeds, almonds, pine nuts, grapes, roses... no less than 20 kinds. It takes a long time to cook porridge, usually with low heat in the middle of the night until early the next morning.
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The above is the common method of making Laba porridge.
In the rugged northwest, there are many varieties of Laba porridge.
Laba rice made in Ningxia usually uses lentils, soybeans, potatoes, etc. to cook porridge. Wheat noodles or small round eggs are added inside and outside the porridge, and chopped green onion oil is added before serving. Usually when eating Laba rice, people here don’t eat vegetables.
Wuwei in Gansu also pays attention to "vegetarian Laba", which is a way of eating in the era of poor resources, "vegetarian Laba in meat years". When eating rice thick rice or lentil rice, it is eaten with fried dumplings and twists made of wheat flour. Folks call this "lentil porridge soaked dumplings".
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In Xining, Laba porridge is no longer popular here, but wheat kernel rice is eaten. The wheat kernels are boiled with beef and mutton, with green salt, Ingredients such as ginger peel, chestnuts, and Sichuan peppercorns are simmered overnight to make wheat kernel rice with a fragrant aroma.
Solar terms are the wisdom of life passed down to us from our ancestors through the land. Today, modern life has long distanced people from the land and production, but rituals about solar terms have never disappeared from life. No need to linger, just let nature take its course.