Why eat rice cakes during the New Year. What is the point of eating rice cakes during the New Year?

During the Spring Festival, many regions in China pay attention to eating rice cakes. Rice cake is also known as "New Year Cake", which is homophonic with "high every year", which means that people's work and life are improving year by year. Rice cake as a food has a long history in our country.

In 1974, archaeologists discovered rice seeds in the ruins of the Matriarchal Clan Society in Hemudu, Yuyao, Zhejiang, indicating that our ancestors had begun to cultivate rice as early as 7,000 years ago. The people of the Han Dynasty had a variety of names for rice cakes, such as "rice cake", "bait", and "glutinous". The ancients also had a development process from rice cake to flour cake for the production of rice cakes.

The sixth-century cookbook "Shiji" contains the method of making rice cakes called "white cocoon sugar", "those who cook rice and rice and heat it in a pestle and purify it are rice cakes, which must be extremely ripe and do not allow rice grains to .......""After steaming the glutinous rice, scoop it into rice while it is hot, then cut it into the size of a peach pit, dry and fry it, roll it on with sugar and eat. The method of grinding rice flour to make cakes is also very early. This can be proved from Jia Sixian's "Qi Min Yao Shu" in the Northern Wei Dynasty.

The production method is to sieve the glutinous rice flour with silk, add water, honey and form a hard dough, paste dates and chestnuts on the dough, wrap it in a basket leaf and steam it. This glutinous rice pastry is quite characteristic of the Central Plains. Rice cakes are mostly made of glutinous rice milling, and glutinous rice is a specialty of the south of the Yangtze River, and there are sticky grains like glutinous rice in the north.

This kind of millet is husked and ground and steamed, after being steamed with water, it is yellow, sticky, and sweet, and it is the food of the people in the Yellow River Basin to celebrate the harvest. In the article "Imperial Scenery and Things" engraved during the reign of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, it was recorded that the people of Beijing at that time would eat millet cakes and say New Year cakes every "New Year's Day of the first lunar month". It is not difficult to see that "New Year Cake" is a homonym for "sticky cake" in the north.

There are many types of rice cakes, such as white cakes from the north, yellow rice cakes from Saibei farmers, water mill rice cakes from Jiangnan water towns, and red turtle cakes from Taiwan. Rice cakes have a difference in flavor between the north and the south. There are two kinds of northern rice cakes, steamed and fried, both of which are sweet; In addition to steaming and frying, there are also slices of fried and soup boiling methods, and the taste is sweet and salty.

It is said that the earliest rice cakes were used for the Chinese New Year's Eve sacrifice to the gods and the ancestors of the New Year's Eve Dynasty, and later became a Spring Festival food. Rice cakes are not only a festive delicacy, but also bring new hope to people every year. As stated in a poem at the end of the Qing Dynasty:

How high the hearts of the people are, the harmonic food system, the righteousness of the year is better than the year, in order to pray for the year. ”

Rice cakes are high in calories, and it is not easy to digest if you eat more, so people with ** and people with bad stomach should take it in moderation. "Rice cake" and "annual ring bureau stupid high" homonym, everyone eats rice cake during the New Year is to express a kind of expectation for a better life.

Chinese like to eat food with auspicious sayings during the festival, such as dumplings shaped like ingots, said to represent the treasure rolling, the soup balls are round, there is a saying that the delegation members are round, and the fish has the saying that "there is more than every year", so it is a must-have food ...... on the tableRice cakes are no exception, "rice cakes" are homophonic with "high year", so they represent a year higher than the year.

Rice cake is a food steamed out of sticky glutinous rice and rice flour, and there is a clear record of eating rice cake in China as early as the Liao Dynasty. Rice cakes are mostly made by grinding glutinous rice, which is grown in the south of the Yangtze River and used in the north. The production of rice cakes can be pure rice cakes, or they can be enlarged with dates, nuts, brown sugar and other materials, which makes rice cakes rich in a variety of food and leaves.

As a festive delicacy, rice cakes give people good wishes for the rise of the year, implying that everything is going well every year, and has always been welcomed by everyone. The calories of rice cakes are higher, containing protein, fat, carbohydrates, niacin, phosphorus, potassium and other elements, the taste is sweet and delicious, and has the effect of nourishing and dispelling diseases.

The meaning of eating rice cakes during the New Year is: rice cakes are also known as "New Year cakes", which are homophonic with "high every year", implying that people's work and life are improving year by year.

In traditional Chinese food customs, rice cakes must be eaten during the Chinese New Year. The main meaning of eating rice cakes is that they are high, and the meaning of high every year is that they have a very good meaning, and they hope that by eating rice cakes in the new year, the cause can be thriving, rising every year, and rising every year. Therefore, when it is time for the Chinese New Year, every family will prepare rice cakes for their families to eat, hoping to have a successful career and a happy life in the new year.

At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, Wu Zixu killed himself, and before he died, he said to his subordinates: "If the country encounters a disaster and the people have no food to eat, you will go to the city wall and dig three feet into the ground, where there is a lot of grain." After Wu Zixu committed suicide, there was no food in the city, and many people were starved to death, so someone proposed to dig the city wall, and they really dug up a lot of bricks made of grain, that is, rice cakes.

In the end, he won the battle and returned triumphantly. Since then, people have made a lot of rice cakes every year to commemorate Wu Zixu.

How to eat rice cakes during the New Year

1. Dip the rice cake in sugar.

Rice cakes dipped in white sugar are a more traditional way to eat in the south, mainly by cutting large rice cakes into slices and then putting them in an oil pan to fry. When the cake is fried until both sides are golden brown, it can be fished out, and then dipped in white sugar to eat, which is particularly sweet and crispy.

2. Soy sauce rice cake.

Soy sauce rice cakes are somewhat similar to stir-fried vegetables. Slice the rice cake and fry it in a pan of oil, then remove it after frying. Prepare some soy sauce in the pot, boil the sugar into the juice, and then pour the fried rice cake into the sauce and stir-fry.

The crispy rice cake is wrapped in soy sauce and white sugar sauce, which is particularly delicious.

3. Rice cake soup.

Rice cake soup is made by cutting rice cakes into slices, then putting some lard and some green vegetables to boil together. Rice cake soup can be used as a snack or as a dish, and it is very New Year's worth eating.