nian gao

What is Niangao?

nián-gāo, a traditional food of the Han nationality in China, belongs to the seasonal food of the Lunar New Year. Rice cakes are made of rice or glutinous rice, cooked into rice, beaten or ground into powder by water, and pressed. During the Spring Festival, many areas in China pay attention to eating rice cakes. There are three colors of rice cakes, red, yellow and white, which symbolize gold and silver. Rice cakes are also called "New Year's cakes", which is homophonic with "height every year", implying that children are getting taller every year.

the development of rice cakes

in the Han dynasty, rice cakes were called "rice cakes", "bait" and "glutinous rice cakes". In the book Dialect written by Yang Xiong in Han Dynasty, the title of "Gao" was already popular in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. The ancients also had a development process from rice cake to rice cake. In the 6th century AD, the cookbook Shiji contained the method of making rice cakes "white cocoon candy", which said, "If rice is cooked and cooked, and it is hotter than Chu Jiu's, it must be cooked extremely well, so as not to have rice grains ..." That is, after the glutinous rice is steamed, it is boiled into rice, and then cut into peach pit sizes. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, rice cakes have developed into a perennial snack on the market, and there are differences between northern and southern flavors. The rice cake is delicious, sweet and mellow, with a strong historical flavor.