The Beginning of Spring is not only the first of the twenty-four solar terms in the lunar calendar, but also has its own food at the Beginning of Spring, mainly spring cakes, radishes, spring dishes, etc. In the south, it is popular to eat spring rolls, which are sold in street markets. There are many vendors selling spring rolls. Let’s take a look at the traditional foods eaten at the beginning of spring!
Spring Rolls
In addition to spring cakes, spring rolls are also a festive delicacy often eaten by people on the Beginning of Spring. Spring rolls evolved from the ancient custom of eating spring dishes on the first day of spring. There was a kind of "rolled pancake" in the Song Dynasty, which was a transitional type between spring pancakes and spring rolls. In the Yuan Dynasty's "Complete Works of Household Necessities", there is a record of rolling spring pancakes wrapped in fillings and deep-fried before being eaten. By the Qing Dynasty, the name spring rolls had appeared. Spring rolls are made by wrapping a pan-fried round thin dough with fillings, growing it into a strip, and then frying it in oil until golden brown and floating. The filling can be meat or vegetarian, salty or sweet.
Spring Plate
Spring Plate, also known as "Five Spicy Plate", is a plate of finely chopped lettuce with five kinds of spiciness. "Compendium of Materia Medica" says: "Five pungent vegetables" are a mixture of onions, garlic, leeks, Polygonum, mustard and pungent and tender vegetables that are eaten on New Year's Day and the beginning of spring to welcome the new year. ?This custom spread to the Tang, Song, Jin, and Yuan Dynasties.
For example, Yelu Chucai of the Yuan Dynasty wrote a poem called "Making a Poor Spring Plate in the Station on the Beginning of Spring", which mentioned using lotus root, peas, green onions, wormwood, leeks and vermicelli to make a spring plate. In the Ningjin area, onions, garlic, peppers, ginger, and mustard are cut into pieces and cooked, which is called the five-spice dish. It can be eaten with wine or as a gift to each other. Some also give green leeks and yellow mandarin oranges.
Spring Pancakes
The Tang Dynasty's "Four Seasons Treasure Mirror" records: "At the beginning of spring, eat reeds, spring pancakes, and lettuce, called "vegetable plates". ?It can be seen that people in the Tang Dynasty had already begun to try spring dishes and eat spring cakes. The so-called spring cake, also called lotus leaf cake, is actually a kind of hot noodle pancake - use two small pieces of water, grease the middle with oil, roll it into a pancake, and peel it into two pieces after it is cooked. Spring pancakes are used to wrap vegetables, including cooked and stir-fried vegetables.
The method of making spring pancakes was recorded in the Qing Dynasty's "Tiao Ding Ji": Roll out the dough and wrap it with ham, chicken, etc., or seasonal cabbage sum, and fry it for guests. Crush bacon loin, garlic flakes, black dates, walnut kernels, foreign sugar, and white sugar to make rolls and cut spring pancakes into sections. ?This is the way to eat it in the Qing Dynasty. Today's spring cakes are still made using the ancient baking or steaming methods. The size depends on personal preference. When eating, some people like to spread sweet sauce and roll croissant with green onions. Some places also pay attention to using sauce belly. Shredded chicken and other cooked meats are eaten in spring cakes.
Radish
According to Cui Shi's "Four People's Monthly Orders" of the Han Dynasty, my country has long had a dietary custom of "eating lettuce at the beginning of spring" to mean welcoming the new year. After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the so-called "biting spring" mainly refers to eating radishes on the first day of spring. For example, Liu Ruoyu's "Zui Zhong Zhi? A Good Food and Shang Jilue" in the Ming Dynasty states: "On the next day at the beginning of spring, everyone, regardless of high or low, chews radish." , named "biting spring". Fucha Dunchong of the Qing Dynasty also recorded in "Yanjing Sui Shi Ji": "Spring is the beginning of spring. On this day, rich families eat more spring cakes, and women buy more radishes and eat them, saying "biting spring", which means they can relieve spring sleepiness. ?
Why should we eat radishes? The more common saying is that it can relieve spring sleepiness. After the beginning of spring, the temperature gradually rises, and people's yang energy rises step by step. The Chinese people who pay attention to food supplements choose foods with pungent and sweet properties to allow the body to adapt to the weather. There is a poem by Su Dongpo that says: The roots of the reeds still contain the morning dew. When autumn comes, the east garden is filled with frost and snow. The reeds will bear children and grandchildren. Li Shizhen praised radish even more, thinking that its roots and leaves can be used raw, cooked, sauced, blackened, vinegared, sugared, cured, and rice, making it the most beneficial vegetable. ?Radish also has medicinal properties such as expectorant, ventilation, and cough relieving. This may be the original intention of the ancients who advocated eating radishes at the beginning of spring.
Nowadays, the custom of eating spring pancakes and spring dishes is rare. People usually eat dumplings and noodles, which is called "Spring Festival Dumplings and Spring Noodles". There are many customs on the Beginning of Spring. In northern Shandong and western Shandong, on the first day of spring, mothers will sew small toys such as "spring roosters" and "spring dolls" out of colorful rags and give them to their children as holiday gifts. In places such as Tengzhou and Huimin, all children who have not been vaccinated against cowpox will have a bunch of soybeans in their mouths in the spring. How many grains will be held in their mouths according to their age, which means that the chicken eats beans, which can eat smallpox, measles and other diseases.