It is said that a long time ago, several people in Menghua (now Weishan) burned lime on the mountain, and the burnt lime was piled up next to a small pond under a ridge. From time to time, lime fell into this small pond. There is a plant growing on the ridge above the pond, which is two or three feet high and blooms orchids. The fruit skin is like butterfly wings, and the fruit is covered with seeds like rapeseed. In autumn, the fruit of this plant will explode, and the seeds inside will fall into the small pond below the ridge. More and more seeds will fall. Under the action of the wind, the water in the pond will keep shaking, and a layer of things like "ice" will appear in the pond. People who burn lime are very surprised, so they collect the seeds of this plant and put them in a basin filled with cold water and knead them with their hands. As a result, some white bubbles and foam in the basin will not become "ice". They think that this thing can become "ice" in the pond outside, probably because there is lime in the pond, so they take some quicklime and put it in the basin. Sure enough, the white bubbles and foam in the basin have dispersed, and the water in the basin has thickened. So they collected a lot of these seeds, made them into "ice", and put some sugar to make drinks to relieve summer heat and quench thirst, so ice powder came out.
Making iced shrimp is very simple. To make cold shrimp, you must use Gu Mi or Guichao No.2 rice with hemp thread, grind the rice into flour, and then use a reed sieve to remove the coarse flour and leave fine flour. Put the rice flour into cold water to make thin flour paste, pour it into a pot filled with raw lime water, and cook while stirring. When the flour paste in the pot gradually thickens, scoop it up and leak it in a bucket filled with cold water, and the white and lubricated cold shrimp is made. It is easier to make ice powder. Just put the ice powder seeds in a cloth bag, tie the bag mouth tightly, put the cloth bag into a cold water basin with a certain amount of quicklime water, and slowly rub the cloth bag, and the water in the basin will become ice powder.
Originally, people only bought cold shrimp on the street. Since the advent of ice powder, cold shrimp and ice powder have become inseparable partners. Cool shrimp can help digestion and quench thirst, and cool shrimp can clear fire and relieve summer heat. In addition, the sugar juice boiled with red sand sugar or homemade rose sugar tastes very refreshing and fresh. Especially in the hot summer, looking at the white and bright cold shrimp in the basin, the crystal-bright, lubricated and brown ice powder makes people want to drool, and spending a few cents to eat a bowl of ice powder cold shrimp is simply cool. Compared with drinking tea and water, drinks are much more pleasant, cheap and healthy.
Tip: There are many breakfasts in Weishan, including glutinous rice, sugar, oak flowers, sugar fire, beef rolling (both in the morning and at noon), bait blocks, hot and thin bean powder, green bean cakes, green beans and glutinous rice, and some traditional breakfasts in other places: rice noodles, noodles and steamed buns.
Author: Master Ji
Source of information: Dali Tourism Development Management Committee
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