Practice of Sichuan Laba porridge: There are many people in Sichuan, and Laba porridge is varied, sweet, salty and spicy, while rural people eat more salty, mainly made of soybeans, peanuts, diced meat, white radish and carrots. Strangers come here to taste, although do as the Romans do, but it is difficult to get used to it. Nowadays, there are many people in cities who eat sweet porridge, which can be called different flavors. Laba is closely related to porridge, and porridge is drunk in Laba, which can be regarded as a fancy and a level.
Practice of Tianjin Laba porridge: Tianjin people cook Laba porridge, which is similar to that in Beijing, and add lotus seeds, lilies, pearl rice, Yirenmi, barley kernels, sticky glutinous rice, sticky yellow rice, kidney beans, mung beans, longan meat, longan meat, ginkgo, red dates and sweet-scented osmanthus in syrup, etc., which are all good in color, fragrance and taste. In recent years, black rice has been added. This Laba porridge can be used for dietotherapy, and has the effects of invigorating spleen, stimulating appetite, invigorating qi, calming the nerves, clearing away heart fire and nourishing blood.
Practice of Zhejiang Laba porridge: Zhejiang people usually cook Laba porridge with walnut kernel, pine nuts, Euryale ferox, lotus seeds, red dates, longan meat, lychee meat, etc., which is sweet and delicious, and prays for a long life. It is said that this porridge cooking method is spread from Nanjing, which contains some legends.
Practice of Laba porridge in Shanxi: Laba porridge in Shanxi, also known as Babao porridge, is mainly made of millet, with cowpea, adzuki bean, mung bean, jujube, sticky yellow rice, rice and glutinous rice. In southeastern Shanxi, it is also one of the food customs to cook porridge with water, which is called sweet rice, that is, adzuki beans, red beans, cowpeas, sweet potatoes, peanuts, glutinous rice and persimmon on the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month.
The practice of Jiangsu Laba porridge: Eating Laba porridge in Jiangsu is divided into sweet and salty, and the cooking method is the same. It's just that salty porridge is served with vegetables and salty steak. Suzhou people should add arrowheads, water chestnuts, walnuts, pine nuts, Gordon Euryale seeds, red dates, chestnuts, fungus, vegetables, Flammulina velutipes and so on when cooking Laba porridge. Li Fu, a scholar in Suzhou in the Qing Dynasty, once wrote a poem: "The porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month was spread from the kingdom of Brahma, and the seven treasures were beautifully blended and the five flavors were mixed."
Practice of Laba porridge in northern Shaanxi Plateau: On Laba day, porridge is cooked with a variety of dried fruits, tofu and meat in addition to rice and beans. Usually cooked in the morning, sweet or salty, depending on people's taste. If it's lunch, we should cook some noodles in the porridge and have a family reunion dinner. After eating, you should also put porridge on the door, the stove and the trees outside the door to ward off evil spirits and avoid disasters and welcome the bumper agricultural harvest in the coming year. According to folk legend, Laba avoids eating vegetables on this day, saying that eating vegetables will lead to many weeds in the crops. Laba people in southern Shaanxi want to eat mixed porridge, which is divided into "five flavors" and "eight flavors". The former is cooked with rice, glutinous rice, peanuts, ginkgo and beans. The latter uses the above five raw materials to increase diced meat, tofu and radish, and also adds seasonings. On Laba Day, people not only eat Laba porridge, but also worship ancestors and granaries with porridge.
The practice of Henan Laba porridge: People in Henan eat laba rice, which is cooked with eight kinds of raw materials, such as millet, mung bean, cowpea, wheat kernel, peanut, red date and corn. When cooked, add some brown sugar and walnut kernel to make the porridge thick and fragrant, which means a bumper harvest in the coming year.
Practice of Gansu Laba porridge: Gansu people traditionally cook Laba porridge with grains and vegetables. After cooking, they are not only eaten by their families, but also distributed to neighbors and used to feed livestock. In the urban areas of Lanzhou and Baiyin, Laba porridge is cooked with rice, beans, red dates, ginkgo, lotus seeds, raisins, dried apricots, dried melons, walnuts, shredded green beans, sugar and diced meat. After cooking, it is first used to worship the door god, kitchen god, earth god and god of wealth, and pray for good weather and good harvests in the coming year; Then give it to the neighbors and enjoy it for the last family. Wuwei, Gansu pays attention to "Su Laba", eating rice thick rice, lentil rice or thick rice, and eating it with fried seeds and twist after cooking. Folklore calls it "bean porridge soaked".
The practice of Laba porridge in Ningxia: People in Ningxia usually cook porridge with lentils, soybeans, red beans, broad beans, black beans, rice and potatoes, plus "wheat ears" cut into rhombic willow leaves with wheat flour or buckwheat flour, or "sparrow heads" made into small round eggs, and then add chopped green onion oil before cooking. On this day, the whole family only ate laba rice, not vegetables.
Practice of Shandong Laba porridge: In the "Confucius Food System" in Shandong Province, it is stipulated that "Laba porridge" can be divided into two types, one is made of rice kernels, longan, lotus seeds, lilies, chestnuts, red dates, japonica rice, etc., and some "porridge fruits" are added to the bowl, mainly carved into fruits of various shapes for ornament. This kind of porridge is specially for the master of Confucius and the master of the Twelve Houses. The other is cooked with rice, sliced meat, cabbage, tofu, etc., which is for the servants in Confucius' house to drink.
The practice of Qinghai Laba porridge: Although Xining people in Qinghai are mostly Han people, Laba does not eat porridge, but eats wheat kernel rice. Boil the freshly ground wheat kernels with beef and mutton, add green salt, ginger skin, pepper, tsaoko, Miao Xiang and other condiments, and after a night of slow fire, the meat and wheat blend into a milky shape. When the pot is uncovered in the morning, it smells delicious.