"Wrap the glutinous rice with wild rice leaves and cook it with pure thick ash juice until it is thoroughly cooked."

Zongzi, also known as "corner millet" and "corner rice dumpling", is made of glutinous rice wrapped in rice dumpling leaves. Steamed rice dumplings are one of the oldest traditional foods in China. According to folklore, rice dumplings are eaten in memory of Qu Yuan. Zongzi is not uncommon no matter north or south of the country.

However, there is a kind of rice dumpling that is very unique, but also has a long history. It is the gray soup rice dumpling.

The so-called "gray soup rice dumplings" are recorded in "Fengtu Ji" written in the Western Jin and Zhou Dynasties, "Wrap millet in wild rice leaves, cook it with pure thick gray juice, and make it thoroughly cooked." The fragrant white glutinous rice is soaked in straw gray water and then wrapped into rice dumplings. The rice dumplings are bright and tender yellow, with a fragrant fragrance and a unique taste.

On the south bank of the Fuchun River in Tonglu, Zhejiang, there is an ancient village called Shen'ao Ancient Village. Here, the craftsmanship of making gray soup rice dumplings is completely preserved and passed down.

Shen'ao Ancient Village is the blood village of the Shentu family. It is known as a famous historical and cultural village in China because of its profound historical and cultural accumulation, unique geographical environment, and long-standing cultural relics.

During the Southern Song Dynasty, the Shentu family moved to Shenzhen and settled in Shenzhen, where they became a prominent family. They have inherited the ancient skill of hand-making gray soup rice dumplings, making this traditional delicacy popular in thousands of households from the ancient city.

The biggest difference between Shen'ao's gray soup rice dumplings and ordinary rice dumplings is that the glutinous rice needs to be soaked in straw ash for about 10 hours. The gray soup rice dumplings made have three major characteristics: first, strong aroma, second, light golden color, and third, weak alkalinity. Alkaline has the effect of relieving greasiness and aiding digestion.

To make gray soup rice dumplings, you must first select high-quality straw. The characteristics of this kind of straw are that it does not rot, does not ferment, has hard stems, and is bright and green in color. After selecting the straw, burn it into ash, then put the ash into a container and pour boiling water to dissolve it. After letting it stand for 4 hours, filter out impurities and drain out the gray water to soak the glutinous rice.

Then choose the rice dumpling leaves and wash them with mountain spring. When the glutinous rice has been soaked in the gray soup water for more than 10 hours, the glutinous rice can be taken out to make rice dumplings. Wrap the rice with the front side of the rice dumpling leaves, and then tie them tightly. It is worth mentioning that the binding rope is made from ancient villages and is made from palm leaves drawn into silk and soaked in water.

After the rice dumplings are wrapped, the cooking process is also very particular. When putting the rice dumplings into the iron pot, you need to add a certain amount of gray soup water to submerge them. The next step is to make a fire, and the fuel needs to be straw. Then it is put into the stove and burned slowly, and the rice dumplings are simmered by the residual heat of the ashes and the heat in the pot without adding straw handles.

In Shen'ao Ancient Village, rice dumplings are usually cooked at night and simmered until the next morning. The freshly cooked gray soup rice dumplings are fragrant, bright yellow in color, and very attractive in appearance.

Gray soup rice dumplings are a great contribution of our ancestors. They cleverly turned the potassium carbonate contained in the "grey soup" into the coloring agent, flavoring agent, quality improver, preservative and nutritional fortifier of the rice dumplings. The white rice was originally weakly acidic and was soaked in the gray soup. , becomes weakly alkaline.

It has effects such as rejuvenating the skin and prolonging life. Sun Simiao, the "King of Medicines", also recorded that gray soup rice dumplings can "benefit the hair, nourish the body, and cure all wind diseases. Long-term use can lighten the body and improve eyesight, and black hair can be restored."

It has a long history and craftsmanship. Unique, attractive in color and fragrance, healthy and nutritious. Gray soup rice dumplings, a delicacy that embodies the wisdom of ancestors, has come from history and is stationed in the ancient village of Shen'ao. Its fragrance spreads thousands of miles and brings blessings to thousands of families.