A brief introduction to the origin of rice cakes, and what is the origin of rice cakes?

As an authentic traditional Chinese food, rice cake has a long history and rich cultural connotation, and the following is an introduction to the origin and eating of rice cake.

1. The origin of rice cakes.

In ancient times, there was a monster called "Nian", which lived in the deep mountains and forests all year round, and when it was hungry, it would catch other animals to satisfy its hunger. When Nian was so hungry that he had no choice but to go down the mountain to hurt the people, snatch people for food, and make the people unbearable. Later, there was a clever tribe called the "Gao clan", and every severe winter, when the monsters were about to go down the mountain to forage for food, they made a lot of food with grain in advance, kneaded into strips, and put them outside the door in pieces, and people hid at home.

When the year came, he couldn't find anyone to eat, so he didn't choose to eat, so he filled his stomach with the grain strips made by the people, and then returned to the mountains after he was full. When people saw that the monster was gone, they all went out of the house to congratulate each other, glad that they had escaped the "year" level, were safe and sound, and were ready for spring ploughing. Because the grain strips are made by Gao's, the purpose is to feed the "year" degree, so the "year" and "high" are linked together, and they are called rice cakes (homonym).

Rice cakes originated from Wu State, after the death of Wu Guo's doctor Wu Zixu, Yue Guo took the opportunity to cut down Wu, the people of Wu State were hungry and unbearable, so they secretly demolished the city wall and dug the ground, but found that the city base was made of glutinous rice, and then the people used glutinous rice masonry to make food, and survived the difficulties, and it was the early rice cake, and later in order to thank Wu Zixu, every New Year, people have to make rice cakes to sacrifice Wu Zixu.

The origin of rice cakes: According to legend, after Wu Zixu killed himself in the late Spring and Autumn Period, Goujian, the king of Yue, raised troops to attack Wu, surrounded Gusucheng, the capital of Wu, and the Wu army was trapped in the city, and the food was cut off, and the women and children in the streets and alleys cried miserably. Before he died, he said to his subordinates:

If there is trouble in the country and the people are deprived of food, you can dig three feet under the city wall and get food. ”

After Wu Zixu's death, his subordinates were surrounded by the Vietnamese army, and many people starved to death when the city ran out of food. It turned out that when Wu Zixu supervised the construction of the city wall in Gusu City, he was ready to store grain to prevent hunger.

Since then, every family has made rice cakes every New Year, and rice cake soup is eaten at the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner to commemorate Wu Zixu.

How to eat Ningbo Cicheng rice cake: boiled, fried, fried, fried, sliced and fried, boiled in soup, etc., and salty and sweet are suitable. For example:

Fried rice cake with sugar. The folk proverb says: "Sugar is fried, the oil is bursting, and the corners of the mouth are blistering."

There are many cooking methods, there are no less than dozens, and the storage conditions were not good in the past, so many residents sliced the rice cakes and dried them for storage, and soaked them in water for two days when eating. There are also those who are soaked in water, which can be kept fresh for several months.

China has a wide area, different customs and habits, and a variety of new types of rice cakes. The representative ones are the white cake in the north, the yellow rice cake of the farmers in the north, and the glutinous baba in the southwest; Taiwanese red turtle cake, etc. 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.

Rice cakes, a traditional food made from glutinous rice, can be traced back to ancient China. According to historical records, as early as the Tang Dynasty, people already had a way to make rice cakes.

There is a legend about the origin of rice cakes: according to legend, in ancient times, an elderly grandmother was ready to welcome the New Year, but because she was old, the glutinous rice could not be steamed, so she kneaded the glutinous rice balls into small balls, and then threw them into the pot, but it turned into long strips of food, which became the later rice cakes.

In addition, rice cakes also have symbolic meaning in traditional Chinese culture. Because "cake" is homophonic with "gao", rice cakes are regarded as an auspicious food that symbolizes "high ascension", and people eat rice cakes with the expectation of a better life in the future.