As the saying goes, a year's plan lies in spring, and the first solar term in spring is beginning of spring among the 24 solar terms. On this day, we celebrate the arrival of spring by eating and drinking. However, due to the cultural differences between the north and the south, the diet in the north has its own characteristics. So what exactly does the North eat to celebrate this day?

1, spring pancake

On this day in beginning of spring, an important custom is "biting the spring". The food eaten in the north is spring cakes, while spring rolls are very popular in the south. Eating spring cakes and spring rolls is a good blessing to "a year's plan lies in spring" Therefore, this custom has continued to this day.

The custom of eating spring cakes has a long history. "The History of Good Diet in Ming Palace" records: "The day before beginning of spring, on Shuntianfu Street outside Dongzhimen, all the dignitaries, ministers, dignitaries and warriors ... When they arrived in beginning of spring the next day, all the nobles chewed radishes, called' biting spring', gave banquets to each other and ate spring cakes and vegetables." This custom can be traced back to the Jin Dynasty and prevailed in the Tang Dynasty. Guan Zhongji said that the Tang people "made spring cakes in spring, wrapped them with Artemisia annua, leeks and Polygonum hydropiper buds" and gave each other gifts to welcome the spring.

Spring cakes are used to roll vegetables, including all kinds of cooked food and stir-fried dishes. Because of the combination of vegetarian diet and various foods, it is rich in various nutrients, including protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals such as calcium, potassium, magnesium and selenium. Because it is not often done at home, it is novel and unique, which makes people have an appetite. It can nourish stomach, promote fluid production, nourish yin and eliminate dryness, and is especially suitable for the elderly and children.

When eating spring cakes, it is best to put a clean flat plate in front of everyone, put spring cakes on it, put vegetables or other stir-fried dishes, and roll them up to eat. While eating spring cakes, you can also add some soup to moisten it. Spring cakes should be served with mung bean porridge or red bean millet porridge. But if there is a bowl of hot and sour soup, or other soup, it will not work.

2. Little carrots

On the day of spring, another food that China people "bite spring" is radish. Generally speaking, it can solve the spring sleep. It can also enhance women's reproductive function, and beginning of spring radish is also called "offspring radish". In the past, "biting the spring" was to buy a radish to eat, because radish tastes spicy, which means that the ancients "bitten the grass roots and could do anything."

Li Shizhen is full of praise for radish, thinking that it "can be eaten raw, cooked, sauced, fermented, vinegar, sugar, wax and rice, which is the most beneficial among vegetables." You see, Li Shizhen has made a radish recipe. Moreover, radish has great medicinal value, which can eliminate phlegm, ventilate, relieve cough, and even relieve alcoholism, detoxify, replenish spleen and stomach, and keep out the cold. It can be seen that eating radish is just a custom on the surface, but it is actually the experience of the ancients in nutrition, fitness and disease removal.

There is also a folk record that "radishes are on the market, but doctors are fine". Vitamin C in radish can help eliminate waste in the body and promote the metabolism of the body. Especially white radish or water radish, rich in enzymes, can promote digestion. Usually, enzymes can absorb starch in food, dissolve food accumulated in the stomach, have a good digestion effect and prevent stomach pain and gastric ulcer.