In southern Fujian, Tomb-Sweeping Day's family get together to make "moist cakes" after sweeping graves. This has always been a kind of inheritance of the traditional customs of Minnan citizens.
Tomb-Sweeping Day is one of the 24 solar terms in China and a traditional folk festival in China. Tomb-Sweeping Day's eating of "wet cakes" is related to the ancient Cold Food Festival. Cold food, as its name implies, means cooking without fire and eating cold cakes, which reflects the belief of the people in mourning for the dead. In the past, the Spring Festival in China was held at the Cold Food Festival until it was changed to Tomb-Sweeping Day.
The citizens of Quanzhou in southern Fujian have kept this ancient custom of Qingming rolling cakes, which is also rare in the whole country.
Today's "ice-moistening" keeps pace with the times and is well-made and suitable for all seasons. It has become a traditional food and flavor snack in southern Fujian. "Run cake" is also called "cake", "spring cake" and "spring roll".
"Runbing" skin needs special skills to be fried thin and tough. Nowadays, most families buy ready-made, make their own cakes, eat them together and wrap them together, which is very interesting. Street food stalls also have special production and sales, and buy whole pieces of "moist cakes" or "moist cake skins".
Speaking of this "moist cake" skin, you have to mention the moist cake skin shop of Master Yafo in West Street. Every year in Tomb-Sweeping Day, there is a long queue at the door of the store. Customers queuing to buy "wet cakes" all craned their necks, waiting for the wet cakes to come out. There is a saying: "Eat while it is hot if you want" (expressed in Minnan). At this time, the master in the shop is busy moistening the bottom of the pot.
Don't look at this thin cake crust, but the production process is well studied. Master Fu has been making pastry crust for more than 30 years: this technology has been passed down from generation to generation, with a history of about 100 years. From the age of seven to more than 40 years old now, we have to use a special flat-bottomed iron pot to make cake crust. The mixing of flour should be moderate, not too dry or too thin; When the pot is hot, put the dough in your hand on the pot, knead it, and then lift it quickly. The surface that sticks to the bottom of the pot immediately becomes a thin dough. The freshly baked cake crust is as thin and bright as white paper, which makes people appetite.
The symbolic meaning of "running cake" is also one of the reasons why people like it. "Runbing" includes radish, bean sprouts, dried beans, fried oysters and all delicious food. So many things are also learned. The radish symbolizes gold, the white bean sprouts are silver, and the wet cakes made are all gold and silver. Take it to worship ancestors, to show that ancestors also expect their descendants to have gold and silver, and financial resources are rolling in, and their lives are getting better every year. Moreover, there must be a thin and transparent cake crust outside the cake to wrap up the pit inside and "contain" everything inside: generosity, tolerance, tolerance, forgiveness and indifference.
Life is getting better every year, and the custom of eating "wet cakes" remains the same. This is not only a kind of inheritance of traditional customs in China, but also a kind of food custom culture for people to live a clean life.