"Like glutinous rice balls, they are smooth and round, and they are very busy." These jingles are about the traditional food "rice noodle pills" made by Hakka people to satisfy their appetite.

Rice noodle pill

The invention of rice noodle pills is closely related to the hard living conditions in Hakka areas in the past and the virtues of Hakka people's own diligence and thrift.

We know that dried rice noodles are easily broken, and usually a bag of rice noodles will leave some "rice noodle residue" at the end. In the era of lack of materials, Hakka people are reluctant to waste these "rice noodle dregs", but it is difficult to arouse their appetite if they eat them directly.

What shall we do? The clever Hakkas have come up with a clever trick: collect these "rice noodle dregs" and make meatballs.

However, rice flour does not stick to hands and cannot be kneaded into dough. So the Hakka people thought of adding some leftovers or potato powder, so that the rice powder residue can stick together and be easily made into meatballs. This is the earliest method of making rice noodle pills.

rice noodles

Later, with the improvement of people's living standards, rice noodle meatballs became a kind of meatballs with rice flour as the main material, supplemented by potato powder, mushrooms, pork, squid and shrimp, which were salty and delicious.

Its production method is more and more exquisite and mature, and gradually evolved into the following process:

First, soak the rice flour and the ingredients such as mushrooms, squid and shrimp skin in clear water, cut the rice flour into pieces after it is relaxed, and then pour it into an oil pan for frying. It should be noted that the firepower of the fried powder should not be too strong, otherwise the rice noodles will be easily cooked.

In order to remove odor, ingredients such as mushrooms, squid and shrimp skin should also be fried.

Then chop the pork belly, fry it in a pot, add ingredients such as cassava powder, pepper, fried mushrooms, squid, shrimp, and add seasonings such as chicken essence, monosodium glutamate and soy sauce. Then put them into the wet powder, add the fried dry rice flour, stir them evenly and knead them into balls.

Knead into a ball

It is said that if you want to make good rice flour pills, you must use peanut oil and avoid salt particles, because salt particles are difficult to dissolve. Finally, I need to remind you that when making meatballs by hand, it must be hot, because it is not easy to knead them into meatballs after cooling.

To ask where there are delicious rice noodle balls, the White House is the first thing that most Hakkas think of. Don't be surprised, it is not the White House in Washington, USA, but the White House town in Meizhou, Guangdong. However, now it is not a town, but a Baijia community in Meijiang District of Meizhou City, but its reputation as "the hometown of rice noodles and pills" remains the same. Rice noodles and pills are sold in the vegetable market here every day.

The White House in Meizhou, Guangdong Province

In fact, there are many interesting place names in Meizhou. For example, you can study in Cambridge (Jianying Memorial Bridge) in the morning, shop in Xinmatai (Ma Shixia Xinzhongyuan on Taikang Road) during the day, and eat rice noodle pills at the White House at night, so that you can cross several "worlds" in one day and fully enjoy the slow life.

Night view of Jianying Memorial Bridge in Meizhou

Rice noodle pill

Baijia rice noodle pill enjoys a high status in the eyes of Hakkas. Since its birth, it has been welcomed by diners, and it has spread all over the country, even exported to Southeast Asia where Chinese are relatively concentrated, such as Singapore and Malaysia.