What do Cantonese people usually eat on the winter solstice?
Tangyuan is popular in Guangdong on the winter solstice. Eating glutinous rice balls on the winter solstice is a traditional custom in China, especially in Guangdong. There is a folk saying that "eating glutinous rice balls is one year older". Eating dumplings on the winter solstice in Guangzhou is also called dumplings, and eating dumplings on the winter solstice is also called "winter solstice dumplings".
Inventory of Winter Solstice Food in Guangdong
Guangzhou: Glutinous Rice
Many old people can't remember the winter solstice when they were young without a reunion dinner. Usually, their mother cooks, kills chickens and geese in advance, buys roast meat, preserves shad, and makes nine vegetarian dishes with vermicelli, dried shrimps, fish eggs, mushrooms and radishes. Some families also make them specially. It is necessary to buy bacon, peanuts, coriander, onion and other materials in advance, treat the ingredients in advance, and then confuse them with glutinous rice for cooking. In the eyes of elders, eating waxy glutinous rice in winter can warm the stomach and keep healthy, while children also like to eat it.
Shunde: edge-burning stove
In Shunde, there is also a folk custom of "sitting around edge-burning stove to spend the winter solstice", which means that the whole group is round, warm and have a good winter, and the whole family is safe, healthy and welcome the Spring Festival. The edge-beating furnace is actually a retort furnace, which is a famous dish of Han nationality with good color and flavor and belongs to Cantonese cuisine. Cantonese hotpot. The main ingredients are sashimi, squid slices and raw shrimp slices. The main cooking technique is boiling. "Edge furnace" is different from the general so-called "hot pot". Hot pot is to sit down and eat, while "edge furnace" is to stand and eat; Hot pot uses metal utensils, burning charcoal in the middle, and the "edge furnace" is made of tile.
Meizhou: Boiled mutton with wine
Before and after the winter solstice, Hakka people in Meizhou like to eat mutton and boil wine. People commonly say that it is good for their health to warm mutton and eat it during the winter solstice, so boiled mutton with wine has become a seasonal food of Hakka people in the winter solstice.
On this day, brewing Niangjiu is one of the most important customs in Meizhou, a Hakka area in eastern Guangdong. This custom has been passed down for thousands of years and still prevails today. In the early morning of the winter solstice, in Meixi Town, Meixian County, smoke curled up in front of and behind the village house, and many villagers were busy brewing Hakka Niang wine at home. Hakkas believe that the water tastes the most mellow at the winter solstice, and the wine brewed with it can be stored for a long time, and it will be sweet and produce saliva.
Chaoshan: Eating Sweet Pills
On the winter solstice in Chaoshan, everyone will eat a bowl of winter solstice pills. The winter solstice pills in Chaoshan are different from glutinous rice balls. They are divided into two colors, one is pink and the other is white, and they are very chewy. When the winter solstice is coming, women at home will go to the market to buy the ingredients needed to make winter solstice pills. When they come back, they will all call for help.
Zhongshan: Shuilan
Xiaolan has the custom of eating Shuilan on the winter solstice. The "dumpling" of Xiaolan is not round, like an olive, so it is called Shuilan. In fact, it is a glutinous rice dumpling filled with chrysanthemum meat. The stuffing is usually lotus seed paste or mung bean paste, and a little chrysanthemum meat is added.
In addition to the general customs, Dongsheng people also like to cook a dish called "Wei Dong" with mustard, sweet potatoes and pork granules to worship their ancestors, which means to welcome the coming of winter. In Tanzhou, local villagers also like to eat tea and fruit to celebrate the festival.
Foshan: Steamed muffins and ancestor worship
When the Winter Solstice Festival is coming, the common folk custom in Foshan is "ancestor worship", which is called "winter sacrifice". On this day, it is a must for every family. Chicken, at the same time, prepare roast meat, cakes, oranges, apples, etc. Take the kindness of "vigorous life, red skin, high hair growth, full of gold and silver, safe and sound". In addition to worshipping ancestors, there is also the custom of eating winter solstice meals among the people. After worshipping ancestors, the family eats winter solstice meals.
Is it cold water or hot water to cook dumplings
Cook dumplings with warm water. Because the temperature of cold water is too low, the dumplings will stick to the pot when they are cooked, while the temperature of hot water is too high, and the dumplings will swell and reveal their stuffing when they are cooked. When boiled in warm water, the water temperature is neither too high nor too low. After the dumplings are put into the pot, the starch on the surface will coagulate, and when the water temperature rises slowly, the starch in the dumplings will slowly soften, so that the dumplings will not stick to the pot and will not reveal the stuffing.
Tangyuan, also known as "Tangtuan" and "Floating Yuanzi", is one of the representatives of traditional snacks of Han nationality. At the same time, it is also the most distinctive food in the traditional Lantern Festival in China, and it also expresses the yearning and expectation of the ancient people for a happy life.
it is said that glutinous rice balls originated in the song dynasty. At that time, a novel food emerged in Mingzhou (now Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province), that is, black sesame seeds and pork suet were used as stuffing, a little sugar was added, and glutinous rice flour was rubbed into a circle outside. After cooking, it tasted sweet and soft, with endless aftertaste. At the same time, dumplings symbolize family reunion, and eating dumplings also means family happiness and reunion in the new year, so it is a must-have food for the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first month.
Sweet dumplings are sweet, so there is no need to add sugar to the soup to reduce calorie intake; If it is a small dumpling without stuffing, the soup can be replaced by sweet osmanthus, liqueur, scented tea or longan red date soup and longan ginger soup. When cooking salty dumplings, some vegetables can be added to increase cellulose.