Eating wheat cakes during the Dragon Boat Festival

When asked about Wenling people’s impressions of the Dragon Boat Festival, I believe most people will talk about eating wheat cakes. It seems that people in Wenling have to eat wheat cakes during the Dragon Boat Festival. The Dragon Boat Festival can be said to be the Wheat Cake Festival in Wenling.

For example, the 1992 edition of "Wenling County Chronicles: Customs of the Year" records: "During the Dragon Boat Festival, every family eats wheat cakes and drinks realgar wine... A few families eat rice dumplings every day."

The "Wenling County Continuation Chronicle? Customs" compiled by the Wenling Association of Taipei City wrote this when recording the Dragon Boat Festival customs: "Eating wheat cakes: Double Day, new wheat has already appeared, the weather is warm, and it is a festival food, wheat cakes It is most suitable to be paired with realgar shochu and is easy to digest, so it is eaten at home, and wheat cakes are also served when entertaining guests. The Dragon Boat Festival can also be called wheat cake festival, and few people eat rice dumplings. ”

< p> Zhao Limin, a famous modern doctor in Wenling, vividly recorded the grand occasion of every family making wheat cakes during the Dragon Boat Festival in Wenling in the old days in the phrase "Good things come soon": "The Dragon Boat Festival is coming again, and joy permeates the countryside. The stoves are fragrant and the wheat cakes are rising. "However, nowadays people mostly burn liquefied gas, and the scene of "smoke and rafters" is hard to see; now many people are still accustomed to buying wheat cakes on the street and making their own "stove-flavored wheat cakes." "There are not many scenes left.

After making the wheat cakes, you still need to prepare the stuffing. The wheat cake fillings eaten by Wenling people depend on their family background and personal preference. Pork, pork liver, mung bean sprouts, scrambled eggs, dried tofu, potatoes, radishes, shrimp, pomfret, and oyster cakes (Aohuan people Special stuffings), eels, wild rice, cuttlefish, mudskippers, pickles, fried noodles, onions... People in Shitang have a saying about this stuffing, which is called "It's not fresh without fish, it's not oily without meat, it's not fragrant without eggs." , no mung bean sprouts will not loosen", it can be said that it is a deep appreciation of the three flavors.

When eating wheat cakes, each person spreads a baked wheat cake flat on the table, and then each person chooses the combination of fillings according to his or her own preference, and places the fillings on the wheat cakes. , then roll it into a wheat cake tube and eat it.

Some people also choose to eat wiping cakes on the Dragon Boat Festival. The making of wiping cakes is simpler than wheat cakes. There is no need to pick ramie leaves or "ground berries". Just mix the wheat flour into a paste and the housewives can use it. Grab a piece of dough with your hands and spread it on a flat-bottomed frying pan into a round cake shape. Bake both sides before stuffing it.

The traditional friendship in the custom of eating wheat cakes

As a local delicacy, wheat cakes are so delicious that, in addition to daily family consumption, they are sold in many hotels in Wenling , wheat cakes are also served as a standing snack, usually wrapped and cut into two pieces for guests to eat.

In the Neighbors’ Festival held in Wenling in recent years, eating wheat cakes is often one of the important activities of the Neighbors’ Festival in various communities. Community residents gather together to make wheat cakes, and then the neighbors eat them together. The delicious Wenling wheat cake is also enjoyable.

This reminds people of an anecdote: Mr. Huang Huzhou, a Jinshi of Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty (now a native of Shiqiaotou Town, Wenling, and once served as the first chief of the Hengfeng Zongwen Academy) wrote in his collection of poems "Listening to "Song Xiaoyin's Poetry Notes" wrote about wheat cakes: "The beautiful days in spring and autumn are solid and unrestrained, and it is not good to stay in Ningfei during the summer. The neighbor gives a small gift of cakes and rolled wheat, and the family rushes to send Panden salmon." Although this poem does not explicitly say It is not clear whether the wheat cakes are for the Dragon Boat Festival, but it can be seen that Wenling people also pay attention to neighborliness when eating wheat cakes. It turns out that this tradition has long existed.