"Qingming" solar terms, spring back to the earth, refreshing, ancestor worship, recalling ancestors. The Intelligence Army also joined in the fun and went hiking with some close friends in the suburb of Yuan Ye. However, Zhi Lijun would like to remind everyone that you may have overlooked a problem. In fact, Tomb-Sweeping Day is also called the Cold Food Festival. There is a saying that Tomb-Sweeping Day does not set off fireworks, but only eats cold food. So, is there anything particular about food in the "Cold Food Festival" all over the country? Let's have a look!

Shuquxiang

The mousetrap, also known as the mousetrap Ciba, is made by finely processing the mousetrap with glutinous rice and white sugar. The main raw materials are glutinous rice and sage. Rodents, panicum miliaceum of Compositae, Rodents. Widely distributed in East China, South China, Central China, North China, Northwest China, Southwest China and Taiwan Province Province.

The mousetrap made of rat grass is not only tough and smooth, but also has a strong smell of wild wormwood, and has the effects of benefiting qi, strengthening lung and soothing spleen and stomach. White powder and mouse grass turn blue together. It is also because of the use of such raw materials that jiaozi's skin is chewy. Folklore, during the Qingming Festival, every household should make rat songs, not only for the ancestors to appreciate, but also for today's people to go out for an outing, which is convenient, delicious and enjoyable to carry.

Qingming fruit

Every time I go to Tomb-Sweeping Day, every household has to make a kind of food called Qingming fruit, which is used to sweep graves and worship ancestors. The shape of Qingming fruit is a bit like jiaozi, but its taste is quite different. Qingming fruit, also known as Qingtuan, is one of the special foods of Han nationality in south, middle and east China. The pericarp of Qingming fruit is green, made of wormwood or dogwood, which will soften and harden if left for a long time. The stuffing is divided into salty and sweet, and the shape is "ingot-shaped" and round.

According to different fillings, Qingming fruit can be divided into sweet taste and salty taste. Using Qingming grass, appropriate amount of glutinous rice flour and rice flour, adding white sugar water and good vegetable stuffing, kneading into cakes or processing into skins, filling sesame seeds, sweet-scented osmanthus sugar and bean paste, pressing into circular molds, and steaming to obtain sweet and clear fruits; It includes diced bacon, diced winter bamboo shoots, diced mushrooms, diced red peppers, dried bean curd, pickles and bean sprouts. And made into jiaozi-shaped salted fruit.

Qingming fruit was popular in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and it was also a traditional snack in Anhui, Fujian and Guangdong. Generally, it is made and eaten before and after Qingming. In modern times, more attention is paid to early adopters, and the ancestor worship function of Qingming fruit is gradually weakening, but it is more used as a seasonal snack in spring and can also be given to relatives and friends.

cruller

Tomb-Sweeping Day has the custom of eating prickly heat in both north and south of China. "Zanzi" is a kind of fried food, crisp and delicate, and was called "cold ware" in ancient times. The custom of forbidding fire and cold in the Cold Food Festival is not popular in most parts of China, but the prickly heat related to this festival is deeply loved by the world. The prickly heat that is popular in Han areas is different from the north and the south: the prickly heat in the north is generous and free, with wheat flour as the main material; The southern prickly heat is exquisitely made, mainly rice and flour. In ethnic minority areas, there are many kinds of prickly heat with different flavors, especially in Uygur, Dongxiang, Naxi and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Qingtuanzi

During his stay in Tomb-Sweeping Day, Jiangnan had the custom of eating green jiaozi. Green jiaozi is to mash a wild plant called "Pulp Wheat Straw" to squeeze out juice, then mix this juice with dry pure glutinous rice flour, and then wrap it in jiaozi. Jiaozi's stuffing is exquisite sugar bean paste, and a small piece of sugar lard is added when filling. Jiaozi cooked it and steamed it in a cage. When they come out, brush the cooked vegetable oil evenly on the surface of jiaozi, and you're done.

Aikui

Mourning is a traditional snack of Han nationality, which is usually eaten in Tomb-Sweeping Day. Wormwood can be regarded as a common ingredient on Hakka table. Every spring, clumps of wormwood grow by the water in the field, and the green leaves spiral up, which is as lovely as a pagoda. At this time, the Hakka mother will take the children to pick them, go home and steam glutinous rice, then mix them with mugwort leaves and mash them into rice paste, wrap some peanuts or sesame seeds in the middle and steam them in a pot, which becomes a very famous mugwort in Hakka cuisine.

Wheat cake

Wheat cake, the name of steamed bread in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, is a kind of local snacks with Han characteristics in Zhejiang, which is common in eastern Zhejiang (Ningbo, Taizhou) and other areas, among which wheat cake in Datang, Tangding Town, Xiangshan County is more famous. The shape and making method of wheat cake are similar to those of steamed bread. The difference between steamed bread and steamed bread is that steamed bread is "one yeast" and wheat cake is "two yeasts". The white wheat cake without accessories tastes similar to steamed bread. However, the green wheat cake of wormwood and the sugar wheat cake of brown sugar are sweeter and softer than steamed bread. The practices vary from place to place, and there are many colors. In the process of making wheat cakes, there are auxiliary materials such as milk, condensed milk and pumpkin, which are made into colorful wheat cakes.

Puziguo

It is the traditional dietary custom of Chaoshan people to make "Pu Guo Zi" in Tomb-Sweeping Day. Chaoshan folks who are far away in a foreign land and overseas will worship Pu when they return to their hometowns to sweep their graves. This is a unique way for Chaoshan people to remember their ancestors.

Park Zi Shu, also known as Park Ding Shu, is a deciduous tree of Ulmaceae, with oval leaves and sweet taste like mung beans. During the Qingming period, the climate is warmer, there is more rain, and the humid environment is easy to deteriorate food, which is the season with frequent intestinal diseases. Cyperus sedge leaves have the effects of resolving phlegm, relieving accumulated heat and eliminating diseases, so it is appropriate to eat Cyperus sedge this season. This shows that Chaoshan people also pay great attention to the health care function of seasonal diet. As the saying goes in Chaoshan, "Eat leaves on Qingming Day and go on a diet in May" refers to two products: Puguozi and Hovenia dulcis Thunb.

(Author: Kang Huo Nan, member of China Popular Science Writers Association, director of Fujian Popular Science Writers Association, original works, please indicate that knowledge is power)