There are also many food customs in winter.

As the saying goes: "Take supplements in winter and fight tigers next year."

Since it is the middle of winter, the food eaten in winter is mainly tonic, which has the symbolic meaning of nourishing the yang and supporting the yang. Food is used to keep warm and to treat diseases, which gradually forms a unique seasonal delicacy.

For example, in winter, you eat dumplings and wontons, glutinous rice balls, rice cakes, red bean porridge, winter solstice meat (mutton, dog meat, bacon), winter solstice dumplings, etc. These food customs also have many folklore and origins.

Eating dumplings and wontons during the Winter Solstice is popular in cold areas.

Dumplings and wontons are ancient delicacies that gradually evolved from stuffed "soup cakes". Although they are made in different ways in the north and south, they are both very popular.

The legend of eating dumplings during the Winter Solstice is related to Zhang Zhongjing, the medical sage of the Han Dynasty.

According to legend, Zhang Zhongjing, whose ancestral home is Nanyang, Henan, once served as an official in Changsha, Hunan. When he retired and returned to his hometown, it was the middle of winter with heavy snowfall and biting cold wind. He saw that the villagers were hungry and cold and had no clothes to cover their bodies. Many of them had their ears rotten by the cold.

Zhang Zhongjing and his disciples set up a medical tent to treat the villagers on the winter solstice.

He set up a pot and boiled mutton, chili peppers and some Chinese medicinal materials to dispel cold into a soup called "Quhan Jiao Er Soup". He took out the mutton medicinal materials and chopped them into pieces, and wrapped them in white dough to make them look like little ears.

The "Jiao Er" was cooked and distributed to the villagers seeking medical treatment.

After each person drank a large bowl of Jiao Er and soup, his body became warm and his ears felt warm. After eating several times, his frostbitten ears were cured.

Because this day coincides with the Winter Solstice Festival, people later inherited the tradition of eating dumplings, the flat food that looks like ears, during the Winter Solstice. There is also a saying that "If you don't bring dumpling bowls during the Winter Solstice, your ears will freeze off and no one will care."

Wonton, originally written as "chaos", has many legends.

Eating wontons during the Winter Solstice first became popular in the Southern Song Dynasty, and became popular among both the court and the people.

Legend has it that Zhao Gou, Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty, loved eating wontons made by the imperial chef. Once, someone wanted to send the chef to Dali Temple for punishment because he failed to cook the wontons. However, because the chef knew how to make wontons, Emperor Zhao Gou spared the punishment.

Later, the wonton making method was spread to the people, and there were many wonton shops in the streets. There were dozens of varieties of wontons with different flower-shaped fillings. At that time, they were called "hundred-flavor wontons."

In Beijing’s markets, in addition to shops, there are also many vendors selling wontons along the streets.

The most famous shop for manufacturing and selling wontons in old Beijing was "Zhimei Zhai" in the Qing Dynasty, and then "Wonton Hou". Its delicious wontons with various fine fillings and unique seasonings were very popular among literati, famous opera actors and students.

Every winter solstice, it is even more crowded with diners.

Yang Jingting of the Qing Dynasty wrote a poem in the book "Du Men Ji Lue" that said: "The wontons are packed with a long flavor, and the filling is melted with spring leeks, which makes chewing them fragrant. The soup is clear and moist, so you won't find it bland when you kiss it. After you swallow it, you will know that the taste is long." At the time of the winter solstice.

, eat a warm and delicious wonton, which became a very good delicacy and snack in the homes of people in old Beijing.

In winter, people in every household make wontons, first worship their ancestors and then eat wontons as a family.

During the Ming, Qing and Republic of China, wontons also became a must-eat food for Beijing folk during the winter solstice, and there was a saying that "Winter Solstice Wontons and Summer Solstice Noodles" became popular.

At that time, just like New Year's Eve, on the night before the Winter Solstice, each family would prepare food for the Winter Solstice Festival the next day, and be busy making wontons and steamed rice cakes. The scene was like staying up on New Year's Eve, so it was called "Winter Solstice Night".

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