In some places in China, it is customary to eat hairy crabs on the Double Ninth Festival. After the Mid-Autumn Festival, crabs in the north just gained weight. It has two meanings to say that Chongyang crab is the most beautiful. First, before and after the Double Ninth Festival, the crab fillet is delicious and the crab paste is fat. Second, the Double Ninth Festival is a festival of filial piety, and the weather is getting colder and colder. We should prepare a set of thermal underwear for our elderly parents in advance, send some fresh Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs, and then rush to a cup of warm ginger tea to keep the elderly warm in autumn and winter.
Double Ninth Festival respects the elderly and climbs high to avoid disaster. "Gao" and "Gao" are homophonic, and they also mean "thriving" and "longevity", so "Chongyang Flower Cake" has become a popular holiday food.
Chongyang cake is also called flower cake, chrysanthemum cake and five-color cake. There is no definite production method, which is more casual. There are coarse flower cakes, fine flower cakes and money flower cakes. Stick some marked coriander leaves, and put rough nuts such as Shouguo, Jujube and Walnut inside; Fine flower cake has three layers and two layers, and there are relatively fine preserved fruits in the middle of each layer, such as preserved apples, peaches, apricots and dates. Money flower cake is basically the same as fine flower cake, but it is relatively small. Like "money", most of them are imperial meals in top luxury houses.
It is said that in early years, people did not put dates and chestnuts on flour cakes, or steamed glutinous rice and yellow wheat into sticky cakes, which looked like flower cakes with "gold" and "silver".
Jiujiu has the same pronunciation as Jiujiu and Jiujiu, so Jiujiu should drink chrysanthemum wine. "Miscellanies of Xijing" records that during the reign of Emperor Gaozu, the palace "wore cornus on September 9th, ate lotus bait and drank chrysanthemum wine, which made people live longer". Xiao Liang Guan Jun wrote The Story of Continuation of Qi and Harmony, which said: "On the ninth day of September, chrysanthemum wine must be drunk on the Double Ninth Festival."
In ancient times, chrysanthemum wine was brewed during the Double Ninth Festival in the first year and dedicated during the Double Ninth Festival in the second year. On September 9, everyone picked the first batch of big chrysanthemums and a little green leaves, mixed them with the grains that began to make wine, and then used them together to make wine until September 9 next year. It is said that drinking this wine can prolong life. "The Chronology of Jingchu's Age" says: "On September 9th, Pei Pei ate lotus ears and drank chrysanthemum wine to make them live longer." In the Ming and Qing dynasties, many people added a variety of herbs to chrysanthemum wine, and the effect was better. The method is: use chrysanthemum to decoct juice, use distiller's yeast and rice to make wine, or add Chinese herbal medicines such as Radix Rehmanniae, Rhizoma Chuanxiong and Fructus Lycii. Here's how to treat chrysanthemum wine.
Before and after the Double Ninth Festival, in fact, when the wind is windy, crabs are also good. The females are just round, and the males are just fat. So how to identify Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs? It's still the mantra of those eight words: golden retriever with green back and white belly and full claws. Because the aquatic plants in Yangcheng Lake are particularly plump and have a stone bottom, the hairy crabs that climbed up in Yangcheng Lake have a white belly, golden hair on crab claws and strong hands and legs. The fleshy land is still sweet and delicious even if it is not dipped in crab vinegar.
There are two kinds of delicious food in Beijing, one is flower cake, and the other is chestnut cake. Chestnut cake is made of chestnut paste as the main raw material.
Its method is to peel raw chestnuts, steam them until they are soft and rotten, then pound them into mud, prepare Beijing cakes, cut them into large areas and fill them with sand. Divide 200 grams of chestnut paste into three parts, spread one part as the bottom layer, then spread a layer of Beijing cake slices, scrape the other part on the top of Beijing cake, then coat it with a layer of sand stuffing, and finally coat one part of chestnut paste on it, and spell out the pattern design on it with small angular Beijing cake slices and thin green plum fruit shreds. When eating, you can pour the sugar juice boiled with white sugar and sweet-scented osmanthus sugar on it.