The rice cake is also called "rice cake", which is homophonic with "getting taller every year", indicating that people's work and life are getting better every year. Sticky rice cakes also indicate that the relationship between family members is getting more and more harmonious. Rice cake is a traditional food of Han nationality. It is steamed with glutinous rice or rice flour, which is a seasonal food for the Lunar New Year in China.
In the Han Dynasty, rice cakes were called "rice cakes", "bait" and "glutinous rice", but in the book Dialect written by Yang Xiong in the Han Dynasty, the name "cake" was popular in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. The ancient people also had a development process from rice cake to rice cake. In the 6th century A.D., the cookbook "Historical Records" contained the method of making the rice cake "white cocoon sugar", saying that "if rice is cooked and cooked, it will be regarded as a rice cake if it is hot in Chu Jiu, so it must be extremely cooked, and there should be no rice grains".
Related legends
According to legend, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, after Fu Cha, the king of Wu, established Suzhou as his capital, he indulged in debauchery all day long. General Wu Zixu had a premonition that there would be future trouble. So when Wu Zixu built the wall of Suzhou, it was made of glutinous rice and buried underground. Before the king of Wu gave him a sword and forced him to commit suicide, he said to his relatives, "If there is a famine, I can dig three feet under the city to satisfy my hunger."
After Wu Zixu's death, war broke out again in wuyue, and there was no food in the city. At this time, it's time for a new year. When the villagers thought of Wu Zixu's words, they rushed to dig three feet, so they got glutinous rice bricks to satisfy their hunger. Since then, Suzhou people have made rice cakes to commemorate Wu Zixu every New Year. Gradually, the custom of eating rice cakes on New Year's Day gradually became popular all over the country.