Five-color glutinous rice, commonly known as five-color rice, also known as green japonica rice or flower rice, is named after glutinous rice in five colors: black, red, yellow, purple and white. It is a kind of glutinous rice cooked by Zhuang and Dong people in Tomb-Sweeping Day and the "March 3" song festival of the lunar calendar, and it is a traditional food for Zhuang people to entertain their guests and sacrifice their ancestors. There is another saying, that is, yellow, green, pink, purple and blue represent five kinds of food, namely, staple food, fruits and vegetables, meat, snacks and dairy products, and tell us how much and how to eat all kinds of food through an image plate and instructions. Beautiful Legend In ancient times, there was a young Zhuang man named Tenon, whose father had long since passed away and only lived with his mother who was paralyzed in bed. Tenon was very filial, and fearing that his mother would be bored at home alone, he carried his mother up the mountain to chop firewood and plant seedlings in the fields. Every time he brought a big bag of his mother's favorite glutinous rice to her side, so that her mother could eat it whenever she was hungry. This move of Tenon's mother and son was seen by a monkey on the mountain. The monkey took advantage of Tenon's opportunity to chop wood on the mountain and sneaked to his mother's side, promptly taking the glutinous rice away. Mother couldn't move, but watched the monkey take the glutinous rice. For several days, Tenon looked at his hungry mother and pulled the maple leaves around him helplessly, but he couldn't think of any way. Suddenly, Tenon found his hand pinching maple leaves dark, which turned out to be stained with black maple leaf juice. Looking at the black fingers, Tenon had a brainwave. He immediately cut the maple leaves from the tree home, put them in a stone mortar, and soaked them in water for a day and a night to get black juice, and then soaked the glutinous rice in the black juice for one night. The next morning, the black glutinous rice was picked up and cooked, and suddenly a fragrance filled the whole house. Mother shouted in the room, Tenon, what smells so good! Tenon said excitedly, this is black glutinous rice, how fragrant and sweet it is! This day is the third day of the third lunar month. Early in the morning, Tenon took his mother up the mountain to cut firewood. He wrapped black glutinous rice with banana leaves, deliberately revealing a little black color. The monkey saw it, thought it was poison, dared not touch it, and ran away. On this day, Tenon ate black glutinous rice, but his mouth was not dry, and he felt full of energy and played more firewood. From then on, Tenon and his mother went up the mountain to cut wood, all with black glutinous rice. Later, the Zhuang family learned Tenon, and every household cooked black glutinous rice. Later, the clever Zhuang family learned to make yellow, red and purple glutinous rice with gardenia and red bluegrass, and finally evolved into today's five-color glutinous rice. Exquisite skills to make five-color glutinous rice pay more attention to methods. Black glutinous rice is mashed with the skin of maple leaves and their tender stems in a mortar, slightly air-dried and immersed in a certain amount of water. After soaking for a day and a night, the leaf residue is taken out and filtered to obtain the black dye solution. Black dye juice should be put into a pot and boiled with slow fire to 50-60 degrees Celsius, and then glutinous rice should be immersed in it. Yellow dye can be extracted from fruits and tubers of plants such as yellow flower, gardenia jasminoides Ellis and astragalus mongholicus. Boil the yellow flower, or mash the gardenia jasminoides Ellis and soak it in water to get the yellow-orange dye solution. You can also use Huangqiang to smash it and rub it with glutinous rice to get yellow glutinous rice (which can be steamed directly without soaking). Red dye and purple dye are made by boiling the same species of red bluegrass with different leaves. The leaves are slightly longer and darker, the boiled color is thicker, and the soaked rice becomes purple; The leaves are round, the color is light, the boiled color is light, and the soaked rice becomes bright red. After extracting the four kinds of juice, soak different amounts of rice in them for one night, and then steam them in a steamer for about one hour, so that glutinous rice with five colors (black, red, yellow, purple and white) can be steamed. The five-color glutinous rice made in this way is bright in color, colorful, crystal clear and bright, and it is moist, soft, mellow and even, with a plant fragrance, which is memorable to eat and has certain medicinal value. Red bluegrass produces blood, gardenia has the function of clearing heat and cooling blood, and green japonica rice cooked with maple leaves can strengthen bones and muscles, benefit the stomach and replenish marrow. The flavor of Zhuang's five-color glutinous rice varies from place to place. Some put the soaked rice beans or mung beans and five-color glutinous rice together in a steamer, put the chopped semi-thin fat pork and chopped shallots in a hot pot for frying, then add a proper amount of salt, cooking wine, soy sauce, monosodium glutamate, etc., and then pour the steamed five-color glutinous rice, rice beans and mung beans into the pot to catch them evenly. This glutinous rice tastes fragrant and has a unique flavor. Some steamed glutinous rice, fried peanuts and sesame seeds and put them in a mortar, and then sprinkled the peanuts and sesame seeds into the five-color rice and mixed well. This five-color glutinous rice tastes rich in flavor. Others put the five-color glutinous rice into a fresh bamboo tube, and then put the bamboo tube on a bonfire and bake it slowly. As the bamboo tube crackles, a burst of fragrance overflows, and the unique bamboo tube fragrance is even more mouth-watering. Family members with good luck love five-color rice as a symbol of happiness and good luck. On festive days such as children's full moon and the completion of new homes, five-color rice should be cooked and distributed to neighbors. Zhuang people also love maple leaves, thinking that maple leaves can "drive away evil spirits" and bring good luck and peace to people. Therefore, when cooking five-color rice on the third day of the third lunar month, a carefully selected maple leaf is inserted at the door of every household. Even the dye residue from cooking five-color rice should be scattered at the foot of the wall outside the house in order to exorcise evil spirits and ensure safety. Zhuang people love to cook glutinous rice, and often judge whether the hostess is a real clever woman by whether the color of glutinous rice is bright and the taste is sweet. On the third day of March, when it was still dawn, housewives quietly got up and put the five-color glutinous rice into a steamer and steamed it with Chinese fire. Soon, the Zhuang village was filled with strong fragrance everywhere. In the morning, the children came out, each holding a group of glutinous rice in their hands, eating and comparing to see whose glutinous rice was darker, yellower, redder and more fragrant. Soon, the owner's sister-in-law came out, too. They walked from house to house, watched from house to house, tasted from house to house, and saw whose glutinous rice was the blackest, the yellowest, the reddest and the most fragrant. They watched, compared and tasted it, and the morning of March 3 in Zhuangxiang became lively. Soon, boys and girls came out one by one, dressed in gorgeous Zhuang costumes, holding hydrangeas, carrying five-color glutinous rice, humming folk songs, and holding hands, and went to the slope to catch up with the songs ...