What can I eat on Lantern Festival?
There are many foods that can be eaten during the Lantern Festival. In the old Lantern Festival, there were Yu Liang cakes (white rice cakes) in Luoyang, powdered lychees in Jinmen (lychees made of powder in Luoyang in the Tang Dynasty were used as holiday food), and lactose pills and Chengsha jiaozi were sold in Lin 'an. In Shangyuan, Suzhou, besides oil (flour cakes, fried with bean paste) and jiaozi, there are also sugar dumplings, glutinous rice balls, lotus seeds, popcorn and melon seeds. There is also the custom of eating shepherd's purse jiaozi and shepherd's purse rice cakes.
In order to make money, Cantonese people like to eat lettuce and cook with cakes during the Lantern Festival. There is a custom of eating Yuanxiao tea in Shaanxi and other places. All kinds of vegetables and fruits are put in the hot noodle soup, much like the ancient "Yuanxiao porridge". People in western Henan like to eat jujube cakes on the Lantern Festival, which means good luck. People in Kunming like to eat bean noodles, similar to Yuanxiao. Is to fry and grind the beans, make them into balls and cook them with water. Taizhou area eats bad soup after watching lanterns on the fourteenth day of the first month. Stir-fry the soup with shredded pork, shredded winter bamboo shoots, mushrooms, fungus, dried bean curd, oil bubble and spinach. And add a little rice flour to cook it into salty paste food. The rotten soup drunk on the fifteenth day of the first month is sweet, with sweet potato powder or lotus root powder mixed with lotus seeds, red dates, longan and so on.
What to eat at Lantern Festival 1, Tangyuan:
On the Lantern Festival, southerners eat glutinous rice balls mainly to pray for the whole family to be round and round. The glutinous rice used to make glutinous rice balls is flat in nature and sweet in taste, and has the functions of tonifying deficiency, regulating blood, invigorating spleen and appetizing, benefiting qi and stopping diarrhea, warming middle warmer, promoting fluid production and moistening dryness. In addition, the conventional fillings of various glutinous rice balls are mainly fruits and dried fruits, including sesame seeds, walnuts and peanuts, and vegetable oil has a "higher" nutritional value. Boiling jiaozi in water is the easiest way and the healthiest way to eat it.
2. Lantern Festival:
On the Lantern Festival, northerners want to eat Yuanxiao. Speaking of Yuanxiao, many people think that glutinous rice balls are Yuanxiao. In fact, Yuanxiao and Tangyuan are actually two things, although there is little difference in raw materials and appearance. The most essential difference lies in the production process. It's easier to make dumplings. Generally, glutinous rice flour is mixed with water to make skin, and then "wrapped" stuffing. Making Yuanxiao is much more complicated: first, you need to mix dough and cut the solidified stuffing into small pieces. After watering once, throw it into a basket filled with glutinous rice flour and knead it into a ball, while sprinkling water until the stuffing is covered with glutinous rice flour and knead it into a ball.
3. Lettuce:
Cantonese people like to "steal" lettuce and cook it with cakes during the Lantern Festival. It is said that this kind of food represents good luck. Guangdong people are calm and down-to-earth, and have good intentions for festivals. Lettuce, which is most commonly used in festive occasions such as the opening of new stores, is also an essential holiday product for the Lantern Festival. Lettuce, often a common vegetable on the dining table in the south, is homophonic with "getting rich", so it is also regarded as a festive thing symbolizing wealth and good fortune.
4. Lantern Festival tea:
In Shaanxi and other places, there is a custom of eating Yuanxiao tea, that is, putting all kinds of vegetables and fruits in hot soup noodles, much like the ancient "Yuanxiao porridge". This kind of tea increases the intake of cellulose, minerals and vitamins, and is not as greasy as ordinary Yuanxiao. It has a neutralizing effect on the acidic constitution caused by eating more animal food in festivals, and also makes Yuanxiao more comprehensive in nutrition.
5. Camellia oleifera;
On the night of Lantern Festival, the ground says "fifteen flat, sixteen yuan", one day to eat jiaozi, one day to eat Yuanxiao; In mountainous areas, it is "15 dozen camellia oleifera, 16 pinch flat grain". As the saying goes, "ten miles are different." Making tea is to stir tea noodles with chopsticks to make camellia oleifera, also called noodle tea.
6, oil hammer:
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, rice porridge or bean porridge was used as the festival food for the Lantern Festival. However, this kind of food is mainly used for sacrifice, not holiday food. Until the Tang Dynasty, Zheng's Record of Chefs recorded: "Go on a diet in the middle of the year and get rid of the oil hammer." According to the records in Tai Ping Guang Ji, Lu Shi Miscellaneous Notes and Guru Order, the method of making oil hammer is similar to that of frying Yuanxiao in later generations. Some people call it "the pearl in oil painting".
7. jiaozi:
On the fifteenth day of the first month, northerners have the habit of eating jiaozi, while people in Henan have the custom and tradition of "fifteen flats and sixteen circles" for Lantern Festival, so they should eat jiaozi on the fifteenth day of the first month. Jiaozi is a folk food with a long history and is deeply loved by people. There is a folk saying "delicious but not as good as jiaozi".
8, jujube cake:
People in western Henan like to eat jujube cakes on the Lantern Festival, which means good luck. Jujube cake was originally the imperial cake of Qing Dynasty. It is sweet and fragrant, and contains vitamin C, protein, calcium, iron, vitamins and other nutrients, which can not only replenish the spleen and stomach, but also benefit qi and promote fluid production. It also has the functions of protecting the liver, increasing muscle strength, beautifying and preventing aging.
9, sticky cake:
Sticky cakes are also called rice cakes. Besides Yuanxiao and noodles, some people eat sticky cakes on the Lantern Festival. Sun Simiao, a famous doctor in the Tang Dynasty, wrote in Diet Therapy, "autotrophic rice is sweet, slightly cold, non-toxic, clearing heat and benefiting qi." After the Tang Dynasty, there were also records of eating cakes during the Lantern Festival in the Yuan Dynasty.
10, surface lamp:
Speaking of the custom of Lantern Festival, people usually think of eating glutinous rice balls, enjoying lanterns and solve riddles on the lanterns. However, there is another custom handed down from the Han Dynasty, that is, bean flour lanterns on the fifteenth day of the first month. Lantern is an auspicious lamp, which can drive away evil spirits and diseases. Therefore, squeezing bean flour lanterns on the fifteenth day of the first month is the common people's prayer for happiness and prosperity in the new year.
1 1, bean dough:
People in Kunming like to eat bean noodles, similar to Yuanxiao. Is to fry and grind the beans, then make them into balls and cook them with water. It tastes good.
12, rotten soup:
Taizhou area eats rotten soup after watching lanterns on the fourteenth day of the first month every year. Stir-fry the soup with shredded pork, shredded winter bamboo shoots, mushrooms, fungus, fresh duck, dried bean curd, oil bubble, Sichuan bean board, spinach, etc. Add a little rice flour and cook it into a salty paste. The rotten soup drunk on the fifteenth day of the first month is sweet, made of sweet potato powder or lotus root powder with lotus seeds, candied dates and longan.
13, steamed bread, wheat cake:
There is a custom of eating steamed bread and wheat cakes in Pujiang, Zhejiang Province during the Lantern Festival. It is said that the reason is that steamed bread is made of dough, and wheat cakes are round, which means "happy reunion of children and grandchildren". In Shangyuan County, Changde City, Hunan Province, it is called "time soup" to make soup with Chili peppers and add leeks and fruits to entertain guests.
14, noodles:
There is a folk proverb in Jiangbei, which is called "Shangyuan Festival, save noodles, and look forward to next year after eating." Local people eat noodles on the fifteenth night of the first month, which sounds unrelated to the Lantern Festival, but it also means praying for good luck. "Annals of the Emblem" states: "On the 18th day of the first month, the lights go out and people spit on their faces. As the saying goes,' when the light is on, it goes out', and everyone celebrates. " Eating noodles with lights out symbolizes continuous celebration.
What do you eat in the north and south of Lantern Festival? The north "rolls" the Lantern Festival;
1, Yuanxiao is much more complicated to make than Tangyuan;
First, cut the mixed and solidified stuffing into small pieces, water it once, then throw it into a basket full of glutinous rice thread and roll it, sprinkling water while rolling until the stuffing is covered with glutinous rice thread and rolled into a ball.
2. Because of the different production techniques, Yuanxiao is thicker than Tangyuan.
3. The stuffing of Yuanxiao is relatively simple. The traditional Lantern Festival is mainly filled with sweet stuffing, and the stuffing is mostly white sugar, sesame and osmanthus.
4. After the Yuanxiao is cooked, the soup will be thicker. Like glutinous rice porridge, the skin is soft and the stuffing is hard, and the fruit and rice are fragrant.
South "Bao" jiaozi:
1, jiaozi's method is a bit like wrapping jiaozi: first add water and flour to glutinous rice flour (just like wrapping jiaozi) and let it "wake up" for several hours. Then mix all the stuffing materials and put them in a big bowl for use (don't cut them into small pieces like Yuanxiao). The water content of dumpling stuffing is more than that of Yuanxiao, which is one of the differences between them. The process of wrapping jiaozi is also like that of jiaozi, but there is no rolling pin. Wet glutinous rice flour is very sticky, so we have to pull a small group of wet noodles by hand and squeeze them into a circle. Use chopsticks (or bamboo tools) to pick a ball of stuffing and put it on the glutinous rice slices, and then turn your hands around to make dumplings. The surface of the finished jiaozi is smooth and shiny, and some of them are pointed, like a peach. The skin of glutinous rice balls already contains enough water, which is very sticky and difficult to preserve. It is best to cook and eat now.
2. The softer and smoother the jiaozi, the better, so the raw materials of glutinous rice are very particular. Choose a variety with strong viscosity. There is also a saying in the processing technology that "water mill powder" should be used. That is to say, after the glutinous rice grains are soaked in water, they are ground with water (like soybean milk), preferably with a stone mill. The ground powder can be hung in gauze bags and drained, and can be refrigerated for three or four days (it will be sour after a long time). It can be seen that good glutinous rice balls are difficult to produce industrially, which is another feature that distinguishes them from Yuanxiao.
3. Tangyuan has richer fillings, covering sweet, salty and meat. On the basis of traditional sweet stuffing, diced meat, diced ham and other fillings are added.
4. There are many "schools" of glutinous rice balls in the south, and now the most famous one is "Black Ocean Crisp" glutinous rice balls in Ningbo. The so-called "black ocean crisp" is a mixture of lard and black sesame powder, and lard is not boiled pure oil, so the original "plate oil" in pig stomach should be used. Tear off the omentum outside the "suet", squeeze it by hand, and then add the black sesame powder bit by bit. This thing is absolutely dross from the perspective of modern health preservation, and it tastes excellent: slippery, waxy, soft and spicy, and it is worth a try.