How to eat during the Spring Festival in old Beijing: Beijing folk song: "Tanggua is offered as a sacrifice to the stove, and the New Year is coming." The first food to enter the festival is snacks such as sugarmelon and Guandong sugar, which are used to "sacrifice the stove". They are made of colloidal maltose and are sweet and slightly sour.

Son, in an era when life was not so rich, this was an excellent delicacy.

Moreover, the presence of Tanggua and Guandong sugar at home indicates that the Spring Festival is not far away.

Of course, the "Kitchen Lord" does not eat the fireworks of the world. This kind of "bribery" in the hope that the "Kitchen Lord" will "say good things to God and ensure peace in the lower world" has naturally become a favorite among children.

Old Beijingers are particularly particular about "Celebrating the New Year", so they have this saying: "Honey, don't be greedy, it's the New Year after Laba Festival. Drink Laba porridge for a few days. It's twenty-three, twenty-three, Tanggua Guan.

Twenty-four, clean the house, twenty-five, fried tofu, twenty-six, stew mutton, twenty-seven, kill the rooster, twenty-eight, make the dough, twenty-nine, steam the steamed buns, and stay up all night on the thirtieth night.

The ballad of "Twist, twist..." on New Year's Day.

Laba porridge, fried tofu, stewed mutton, etc. listed in the folk song are all delicacies of old Beijing during the Spring Festival.

Today, these are commonplace meals, but in the 1950s and 1960s, they could only be enjoyed during the Chinese New Year.

There are only the above types of food during the Spring Festival, which is certainly not rich. Pastries such as Mi Gong and Saqima, which were used to worship gods and ancestors in ancient times, are not only foods of Manchu and Mongolian ethnic minorities in Beijing, but also must-haves in Beijing people’s homes.

prepared food.

Some well-off Beijingers still had the custom of eating fish on New Year's Eve.

The fish must be carp. It was originally used as a sacrifice to the gods, but later it was associated with the auspicious saying of "good luck and good fortune". Fish is both a delicacy and an offering.

As for the dumplings on New Year's Eve, the dumplings with vegetarian fillings are used to worship the gods, while everyone eats the dumplings stuffed with meat. People who are not well-off use a mixture of meat and vegetables as fillings.

Even the poorest families have many "procedures" to eat dumplings during the Chinese New Year.

In addition to well-known delicacies such as dumplings and rice cakes, people in "Old Beijing" also make "douerjiang" - a cold dish made of pork skin, dried tofu, soybeans, green beans, water mustard, etc., with a color like

Amber, similar to "aspic".

There is also "mustard dumpling", which is a cold dish used to accompany wine and appetizers.

People eat a lot of greasy food during festivals, which tends to cause fire and phlegm. These cold dishes can make up for this shortcoming.

When all kinds of meat and vegetable dishes are prepared, Beijingers also prepare candies, dried fruits, melon seeds and "mixed fruits". The so-called "mixed fruits" are today's assorted preserved fruits.

In those days, these snacks were delicacies for people to sit around the fire and bid farewell to the New Year.

Today, almost all the offerings and traditional foods in the name of worshiping ancestors and gods have been preserved, but they are not so eye-catching.

As for today's Spring Festival, the dining table can only be summed up by the word "abundant". Sichuan and Shandong cuisine and fresh seafood will appear on ordinary people's New Year's Eve dining tables.

People who believe in "new style" will also go to big restaurants to "have a meal" to welcome the New Year!

Eating Laba porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month: The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is also considered a festival in old Beijing.

On this day, the most important thing for every household is of course making Laba porridge.

There are several different theories about the origin of Laba porridge: some say it is to worship Shennong, some say it is to commemorate Yue Fei, and some say it is passed down from Zhu Yuanzhang.

But the most widely spread is the saying in memory of Buddha.

According to the Buddhist "Pu Yao Sutra", after Sakyamuni escaped from the palace and became a monk in Mount Jiasi, he studied the classics and spent six full years in the mountains.

When he graduated from school, it happened to be the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month in China, which is also known as the "Day of Sakyamuni's Enlightenment" by ordinary Buddhists.

According to the "Cause and Effect Sutra", Sakyamuni had no time to take care of his personal food and clothing due to six years of asceticism. He only ate some wheat and wheat every day and was deprived of food and clothing all year round.

When he finished his studies and graduated, he was already in rags and emaciated.

Exhausted, he walked down Mount Jiatu, sat on the banks of the Nilian River, and begged the villagers.

The cowherd women in the village used bowls of milk to feed the milk, cooked it and gave it to Sakyamuni to eat, which restored Sakyamuni's health quickly.

After the rise of Buddhism, in order to commemorate this event, this day was designated as a day for the ancient Indian people to "fast monks" and provide food and drink to the poor.

After Buddhism was introduced to China, giving alms on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month gradually turned into the custom of cooking "Laba porridge".

"Tianzhong Ji" written by Chen Yaowen in the Ming Dynasty said: "On the eighth day of December in Tokyo in the Song Dynasty, all the major temples in the capital sent Qibao and five-flavor porridge." The "Qibao and five-flavor porridge" mentioned here refers to "Laba porridge".

Some Buddhist temples in my country cook "Laba porridge" to commemorate the story of the shepherd woman who rescued Sakyamuni by the Nilian River.

In addition to cooking Laba porridge to worship the Buddha, ordinary people also use it as a gift to relatives, friends and neighbors.

Laba porridge was cooked with red beans and glutinous rice in ancient times. Later, the ingredients gradually increased.

Zhou Mi of the Southern Song Dynasty wrote "Old Martial Arts": "Porridge made from walnuts, pine nuts, milk mushrooms, persimmon mushrooms, persimmon chestnuts, etc. is called 'Laba porridge'".

To this day, people in the vast areas south of the Yangtze River, northeast, and northwest of my country still retain the custom of eating Laba porridge.

There are many ingredients used in Laba porridge. It is usually made from kidney beans, peas, adzuki beans, cowpeas, mung beans, millet, rice, sorghum rice and other beans and rice, plus dried fruits such as dates and chestnuts. When you drink it,

, plus brown sugar, white sugar, rose, osmanthus and other seasonings.