Rooftop Food 1. Five-flavor porridge Spring Festival breakfast, the customs vary from place to place.

In Tiantai urban and rural areas, people all eat five-flavor porridge.

The so-called "five-flavor porridge" is a porridge cooked with five kinds of foods: white rice, red dates, tofu, beans, and taro.

According to speculation, it originated from monks in Buddhist temples who cooked this soup to pray for the "five blessings" to come to the world during the New Year.

Tiantai is known as the "Buddha Land". Many local people believe in Buddhism, so this custom has spread. They use it to pray for good weather, peace and prosperity for the country and the people, so that people can live and work in peace and contentment all year round.

2. Tiantai sweetfish Tiantai sweetfish is mainly produced in the swimming stream at the east foot of Cangshan Mountain, only more than 40 miles away from the East China Sea.

Sweetfish spawn in the deep pools of swimming streams in autumn. After that, the stream gradually cools and the larvae swim downstream.

As winter turns to spring and the stream warms up, the little sweetfish swim upstream again, grow up in the swimming stream, and lay eggs in autumn.

This unique behavior is as interesting as swallows and geese.

In the early years, there were a few sweetfish in Lingjiang River, which were called "Five Treasures of Yanshan". However, in recent years, due to water pollution, they are not easy to see.

Tiantai Mountain Yongxi has become the only place of origin.

Here, the water is clear, the rocks are clean, the vegetation is lush, and sweet fish appear among them. It is like entering a paradise.

3. Dumpling cake tubes Dumpling cake tubes are the unique and most distinctive food of Tiantai. Every year during Qingming Festival, July 15th, Winter Solstice and Chinese New Year, every household makes dumpling cake tubes as festive food.

In recent years, it is also eaten at the beginning of summer and Mid-Autumn Festival.

It is customary to eat dumpling tubes when entertaining relatives and friends.

4. Tiantai Wheat Cake Wheat cake can be said to be as famous as the rooftop flavor food and dumpling cake tube.

The wheat cake is round, which means reunion.

On the fourth day after their wedding, the new daughter-in-law has to go to the kitchen to make meatballs and wheat cakes, called "Reunion wheat cakes."

5. Mian Nao Mian Nao Mian. The main ingredients of Mian Nao Mian are: handmade noodles, black fungus (or mushroom), tofu skin, meatballs, carrot shreds, day lily, egg skin, fried tofu, dried tofu, green vegetables,

Winter bamboo shoots (or wild rice shoots).

At the same time, when making noodles, you should pay attention. When making meatballs, you must add egg whites after mincing the meat and stir.

On the rooftop, Mian Nao Mian is a symbol of hospitality. I hope a bowl of Mian Nao Mian can also bring a sense of hospitality to customers in a foreign country!

6. Paste spicy boil Paste spicy boil is a kind of salty soup made with rice flour or "shanfen". All dishes are cut into small cubes. The main ingredients are refined meat, winter bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, dried fragrant seeds, oil pickles, peanuts, and Sichuan beans.

, spinach, and some are added with pig ears, black fungus, and baked bream, mixed with a little chili powder, and cooked until steaming hot, which is both appetizing and neutral, and rich in nutrition.

Nowadays, "pao spicy boiling" also has a sweet version, which contains longan meat, red dates, apple slices, and lotus seeds, which gives it a different taste.

The food of a place has an inseparable relationship with the cultural environment.

Tiantai can be said to be a mountain city of Xianfeng Taoism. It is the birthplace of Tiantai Sect of Buddhism and a Taoist resort.

In addition to the most famous Guoqing Temple, there are also Gaoming Temple, Zhenjue Temple, Xiangxiaguang Temple, Jigong Temple, etc., and more than ten others. When I chatted with the master in the taxi, he seemed to give me a list of temple names.

In addition, many people on Tiantai are originally from Henan, so they also brought their pasta-making skills with them.

Coupled with acquired fusion and mergers, a unique food culture has emerged.

After understanding these backgrounds, it should not be difficult to imagine the flavor of the small town of Tiantai.

There are a lot of vegetarian and pasta dishes, and the taste is mainly salty. The cooking method is not complicated, so the original taste and texture of the ingredients are more vividly reflected.

Let me share with you the "Food Map" I collected on the rooftop.

The left side is similar to the new city, with larger hotels and shopping malls here. The menus in restaurants also include rooftop snacks, which is suitable for a group of people to have a dinner together. You can also order two special snacks to try.

The right side is similar to the old city, a truly authentic specialty snack concentration camp, including a pedestrian block, suitable for groups of friends to leisurely stroll and eat, and discover the treasures of old shops in nooks and crannies.

Next, let’s go from the new city to the old city. Let’s talk about the good things I ate on the rooftop in terms of shops!

Rooftop Xujia Snacks Don’t be fooled by the name of the store. When I found the door of this store with the mentality of going to eat at a stall, I was surprised. It is a very impressive restaurant.

The self-service tea is a pot of hot soy milk, which is the first time I have encountered this.

The mealtime business is very good, almost every table is occupied but there is no queue, which is great.

The menu of this restaurant is super rich, with almost all kinds of dishes available. Of course, the specialty snacks are worth introducing.

The batter is dragged into the pan into pancakes, wrapped in various fillings: shredded potatoes, mustard greens, eggs, dried vegetables, tofu, etc., and then stacked in a pile.

Does it sound simple, bland and uninspired?

But after taking one bite, I shouted "It tastes so good".