Suzhou snacks are also cultural heritage
Everyone should be very familiar with what there is to see in Suzhou. I have read about it in textbooks since I was a child, so I won’t make a fool of myself^_ ^
What I want to say now is that you need to have a good time while traveling and eat well, especially local specialties. But I would like to remind everyone that when we taste the food, we should also pay attention to the origin of the food. I went to Suzhou during the Chinese New Year and tasted a rich Suzhou snack and a delicious cultural feast ^_^
I learned about a cheap and good-quality snack bar from the Internet, so I made a special trip to visit it during the Chinese New Year. The result is a feast for the mouth and ears. Because when I was having lunch, I saw some people in the store who were very interested in the introduction of snacks. I also chatted with the local diners in the store and said that the food in this store was authentic and cheap, so I had lunch there and ate again. dinner. In the evening, the shop owner heard that we were very interested in the stories of Suzhou snacks and came to the shop to tell us stories. I was really flattered. She collected the following stories from the people and planned to publish a book to pass them on to future generations.
Our ancestors have been cultivating rice on our land for more than 8,000 years and wheat for 4,000 years. Our ancestors thrived on this and it is one of the important elements that constitute thousands of years of culture and civilization. What a rich legacy this is, and snacks are the jewels in this legacy that will always shine.
When you swallow a wonton, you are swallowing the "chaotic world" before Pangu opened the world; when you pick up a bowl of noodles, you are wishing for eternal life and endless human existence (noodles) ) and the flow is long; picking up a green dumpling brings up the story of Dayu's flood control more than 4,000 years ago; holding up a piece of Dingsheng cake brings up the dry food of Han Shizhong and Liang Hongyu; peeling off a Zongzi reveals Wu Zixu’s strategy for promoting the Wu; making a rice cake is a contribution to the construction of the ancient city of Suzhou; tasting winter wine, tasting the nectar of Wu culture brewed by Tai Bo and Zhong Yong; making clever fruits one by one , is to rejoice that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl met at the Magpie Bridge, and ask the Weaver Girl not to forget the fathers and fellow villagers in Suzhou, and beg for the wisdom of weaving in anger; to get a Su-style mooncake, and to get the news of Zhang Shicheng's uprising in the late Yuan Dynasty; to hate the treacherous minister Qin Hui, and make him look like Deep-fry them in the same pan as fried dough sticks, and the fried dough sticks are called fried cypress; hold out a can of osmanthus wine, which is the wine Wu Gang left in his hometown before going to the Moon Palace to cut osmanthus; spoon a spoonful of taro, and what he scoops up is the lesson of Wang Mang's usurpation of power; taste it A mouthful of eight-treasure porridge, it was the porridge that Kangxi drank while visiting Suzhou in disguise; the large square cake as white as jade was originally ordered by the Fang family in the "Pearl Tower"; the black rice and the eight-treasure porridge were eaten to commemorate the meal of Sakyamuni who attained the Tao; And the fairy cake and the Double Ninth Cake are the immortal products of the Taoist temple... Have a bite of Suzhou snacks and read a volume of Wudi culture.
The origin of eating "Jiu Niang Cake" (Jiu Niang Cake) during the Cold Food Festival
Suzhou people eat Jiu Niang Cake. Legend has it that it started in the late Yuan Dynasty.
At that time, there was Zhang Shicheng (1321-1367) in Suzhou. Because he accidentally injured a person, he took his mother to escape. It was the Cold Food Festival and there was nowhere to beg. He had not eaten for several days. His old mother fainted from hunger, and Zhang Shicheng burst into tears when he saw that he was about to starve to death. An old man saw that Zhang Shicheng was very filial and his mother and son were very pitiful, so he used the few distiller's grains he had in the house to make cakes and gave them to him. Zhang Shicheng's mother was finally saved.
A few years later, Zhang Shicheng rebelled and became king in the Soviet Union. Thinking of his savior at that time, in order not to forget the incident, Zhang Shicheng ordered that wine grain cakes be eaten during the Cold Food Festival, which was called "Save the Mother Cake". Later, Zhang Shicheng was captured alive by Zhu Yuanzhang and committed suicide on the way to Yingtian Mansion. At that time, no one dared to call the cake "Save Mother Cake" anymore, but Suzhou people still had great affection for Zhang Shicheng, so they secretly changed the name of "Save Mother Cake" to "Jiuniang Cake". Suzhou people still have the custom of eating "wine rice cake" in spring.
The origin of eating rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival
Wen Xiu, a poet in the late Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem called "Dragon Boat Festival", "Eternally rumored to be Qu Yuan (about 340 BC - 278 BC)" It’s about eating rice dumplings on the Dragon Boat Festival to commemorate Qu Yuan. However, it is true that the Dragon Boat Festival custom originated from Wu Zixu in the ancient land of Wuyue. It is said that when Wu Zixu first fled to Wu from Chu, Wu was still a small country in a remote southeast. He helped the King of Wu formulate a strategy to revitalize Wu. He "tasteed the earth, tasted the water, and acted like the sky and the earth." He built the famous ancient city of Suzhou in 514 BC, laying the foundation for the prosperity of the Wu state. After Fu Chai ascended the throne, Wu Zixu assisted him in achieving the great cause of dominating the southeast and dominating the Central Plains. Such a meritorious official died due to his loyalty, was forced to commit suicide, and his body was "filled with barbarian weapons and thrown into the river." In the end, as Wu Zixu expected, Wu was destroyed by Yue, but the people of Wu missed him very much. Every May during the Dragon Boat Festival, water sports and dragon boat races to "welcome Wu Xu" are held in Xujiang and other places, and the Dragon Boat Festival custom of throwing rice dumplings and other sacrifices into the rivers and lakes is held to commemorate Wu Zixu. Two thousand and five hundred years have passed, and people in Suzhou today still feel the gospel of their ancestors and should never forget this hero of Suzhou.
The origin of eating salted duck eggs and weighing people (that is, weighing people) at the beginning of summer
In addition to the custom of tasting three delicacies and eating fermented rice wine, Suzhou people also eat salted duck eggs and The custom of addressing people, etc.
This custom is said to be related to the Three Kingdoms period when Liu Bei of the Shu Kingdom found Sun Shangxiang, the sister of Sun Quan of the Wu Kingdom, as his wife. In order to restrain Liu Bei, Sun Quan deceived his sister into returning to the Kingdom of Wu, and never allowed his sister to return to the Kingdom of Shu.
Liu Bei and Mrs. Sun missed each other in two places. Liu Bei sent an envoy to deliver a message. Zhuge Liang instructed the messenger to go to Suzhou and ask Mrs. Sun and her son to weigh themselves, and then bring back a letter to know how well Mrs. Sun and her son were living in Soochow. . The messenger didn't know until he arrived at Soochow that people in Soochow never addressed people. They only called pigs and sheep when selling livestock. Of course it is inappropriate to treat Mrs. Sun as an animal. How can we make Mrs. Sun willing to weigh herself without any doubts? He saw that people in Soochow were busy celebrating the New Year, and there were a lot of salted duck eggs on the streets, so on the day of the Beginning of Summer, he placed large scales everywhere in the streets and alleys of Suzhou to weigh people, and small nets with colorful silk threads after weighing. There is a bag with salted duck eggs in it. Rumor has it: "When children are weighed in the Beginning of Summer, they are hooked tightly with a scale hook, and they eat eggs and eggs tightly, which means they will not die prematurely; adults are weighed and weighed to whet their appetites, so that they can eat for a whole summer without losing weight." Such adults Come and weigh your kids. The messenger did an excellent job.
Since then, Suzhou people have had the custom of greeting people and eating salted duck eggs at the beginning of summer, and hanging colorful silk egg net bags on the chests of children.
The origin of eating green dumplings during Qingming Festival
Yu the Great (22nd century BC) controlled floods for thirteen years and passed through his house without anyone else. He used the method of channeling to make the three rivers flow into the sea. , the water level of Taihu Lake dropped, and the flooding subsided, creating conditions for planting winter wheat, which won the love of Suzhou people. To this day, there are still many stories about Dayu's flood control circulating in the Taihu Lake Basin.
It is said that there was a young man in Suzhou who saw that people made exquisite offerings to Dayu during the Qingming Festival. He thought that this was not worthy of Dayu's thrifty character during his lifetime, and thought that Dayu must not feel at ease under the nine springs. During the Qingming Festival, when the winter wheat turned green, he discussed with everyone to make green dumplings with wheat leaf juice and glutinous rice flour, and offered the dumplings in front of Dayu's tombstone for flood control, so that scholars would not forget Dayu's kindness in controlling floods. Over time, it became a custom. Suzhou people still use qingtuanzi as offerings when visiting their graves during the Qingming Festival.
If the green dumplings are made with wild oat leaf juice and glutinous rice flour, they will be even more fragrant.
The origin of eating black rice on April 8
Wu rice is a rice made by soaking glutinous rice in the leaf juice of a wild plant called black onion. The black oil has a special smell. The fragrance. According to folklore, not long after Pangu opened the world, the loofah vines planted in the mortal world grew all the way to the Heavenly Palace. When the Jade Emperor learned about it, he was furious and ordered King Li Tianwang to cut off the loofah vines with his sword and raise the Heavenly Palace to the sky. Star took the seeds of herbs and scattered them into the world. As a result, the world became a world of grass, crops withered, people starved, and cried endlessly. Tianniu Xingwensheng felt guilty. The eighth day of April is the birth day of Buddha. All the gods in the sky go to a birthday celebration gathering, and the beetle star also has to go to pray for his birthday. On its way to pay birthdays, it quietly carried the plow from heaven and descended into the world.
When it comes to the human world, it devours weeds, feeds children and patients with its own milk, and plows the fields. From then on, crops grew again on the earth. This incident alarmed the Jade Emperor, and in order to punish Tianniu for his ignorance of heaven and disrespect for the Buddha, Tiannius was allowed to stay in the mortal world forever, living a life of eating grass and cultivating land and drinking human milk. And people think that the Tianniu star saves mankind and is a great mercy to the Buddha. On this day, people give "black rice" to cows (the word "wu rice" in Wuyin is a homophone for "Ami") and let it chew it, which means that the cow is also chanting "Amitabha". It cannot be said that there is no Buddha in its heart. Every year on the eighth day of April, the cow is allowed to have a good rest for a day, and people eat "black rice" with it. Reciting "Amitabha" also means that people will not forget its kindness and share the joys and sorrows with the beetle.