What do Chinese people eat during the Winter Solstice?

The "Collected Interpretations of the Seventy-Two Hours of the Moon Order" writes: The energy stored in the winter solstice reaches its peak in November. On this day, the sun moves to 270° of ecliptic longitude, and people in the northern hemisphere will experience the longest night of the year. The ancients believed that the winter solstice is the critical point for the delivery of yin and yang. On this day, it reaches the solstice of yin. After this day, the yang energy will rebound. This is in line with the subtlety of the old saying "Winter Solstice and Yang are born", and this is exactly what "the extremes of things must reverse".

The ancients were the first to establish the Winter Solstice as a solar term, and also gave it the meaning of a holiday. After all, it is the shortest day of the year and is very memorable. "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" records: Before and after the winter solstice, a gentleman should settle down and be quiet, all officials should do their best, not listen to politics, and choose auspicious times to save trouble. The ancients more than 1,600 years ago already had the awareness of legal holidays, which was about the winter solstice.

Nowadays, the importance of the Winter Solstice has declined slightly. Surrounded by fast food culture, it often tops the topic list, and its discussion is always inseparable from "Whether we should eat dumplings or glutinous rice balls during the Winter Solstice?" Such. It is a commonplace topic that needs to be brought up and stirred up every year.

As a big foodie country, "eating" is inevitable, and the winter solstice is no exception. Whether it’s dumplings, wontons or glutinous rice balls, they are part of cultural customs. What’s more, eating during the winter solstice is much more important than you think.

1 Winter Winemaking

"If you don’t drink Winter Winemaking during the Winter Solstice, you will have to freeze overnight." The Winter Solstice in Suzhou is deeply imprinted with the imprint of Winter Winemaking.

"Eat from time to time", the fastidious Suzhou people always eat the food according to the season. After the season, the food will fall out of favor. One week before the winter solstice, the winter wine brewed for two months was finally on the market. The time-honored brand instantly became an Internet celebrity store, and there was an endless stream of old Suzhou people queuing up to buy wine. After a year of waiting, there is only a ten-day sales period, which is enough to make people in Suzhou itchy. Unable to contain their excitement, they stand on tiptoes and poke their heads around. When will this long queue end?

Gu Lu, a native of the Qing Dynasty, recorded in "Qing Jia Lu": People in rural areas used herbal medicine to make wine, which was called winter wine, such as "Qiu Lu Bai", "Du Mao Chai", "Baobi Qing", and "Bamboo Leaf Qing". name. The creator of October is named "October White". The koji made from white flour and white rice soaked in spring water is called "three white wine".

"Autumn dew white" and "bamboo leaf green" are really nice names. The ancients' love for winter winemaking is reflected in these names.

Whether it is "Autumn Dew White", "Du Mao Chai" or "Bamboo Leaf Green", the ancients always had different imaginations in describing colors. In fact, winter wine has a golden color, with little osmanthus grains floating in the yellow.

Old people are still used to making homemade winter wine. In late autumn, the sweet-scented osmanthus trees in front of and behind the house are already covered with goose-yellow "pearls", and the warm and elegant fragrance enters the nose unstoppably. Cut a few branches covered with sweet-scented osmanthus, gently pinch off the goose-yellow flower grains, flatten them and air-dry them, then add them together with gardenias to the rice wine fermented from glutinous rice and distiller’s yeast. The sweet-scented osmanthus introduces the fragrance and the gardenias add color.

The fragrant sweet-scented osmanthus wine that fills the alleyway in my memory is now made. One sniff and you'll remember it for a lifetime.

Snow gradually accumulated on the thatched roof, forming a mist in one breath. The small stove made of red clay gave off a faint glow of charcoal fire, "Tonight the fermented fermented grains of Wu rice are fermented." Warm up a pot of winter brew, take a sip, add a pound of marinated meat, and sit around the stove with two or three friends to drink wine and eat meat. Chatting about home affairs is also a rare pleasure.

More than 1,000 years later, there is no Lotte in Shantang Street. Sitting next to the water, the scent of cinnamon is refreshing, and the little female fish are walking and laughing across the water, warming the cold sunset.

This day is just like making wine in winter, neither strong nor rushed, just like the little fish in Suzhou looking back at the water, plain, warm and clear, and the water flows slowly.

2 Fuping Persimmon: So sweet and glutinous that you lose your teeth

Speaking of persimmons, the earliest memory of persimmons is the round and flat ones with "white spots" placed on my grandmother's bedside. A sweet yet astringent snack.

The appearance of Fuping persimmon cakes completely subverted my imagination of persimmon cakes. It turns out that persimmon cakes can be so soft, waxy and sweet.

Of course, people who like sweets love it to death, and people who don’t like it find it too sweet.

The willow shadows are sparse, the paths are full of fallen leaves, and the frost is coming at the right time. The golden persimmons covering the branches have begun their transformation from ordinary fruits to delicious sweets.

From frost to winter solstice, the growth of Fuping persimmons must go through 12 rigorous ancient processes: picking, hook folding, peeling, racking, pinching, removing from the rack, water removal, frost... The frost hanging time of 48-60 days is strictly controlled.

Different from the ordinary round and flat persimmons on the market, Fuping persimmons look very cute. Due to the traditional natural hanging technique, the fruit concentrated from 200g to 40g turns into a chubby little peach when it is fully bathed in the sun, which truly corresponds to the good meaning of "Persimmon persimmon comes as you wish".

Gently tear the persimmon open, leaving the white icing naturally formed on the surface of the persimmon on your fingers, revealing the red soft-boiled pulp, which is as crystal clear as jelly.

Take a bite, it is silky and refreshing, and the plump pulp seems to be eager to spill out from between the teeth. What remains between the lips and teeth is full of traces of sunlight and the fragrance of the pulp.

The child next door is already crying.

3 Dongjie Wan

Carrying a heavy luggage, I pushed open the mottled wooden door. There was a "squeak" and the old woman came following the sound, chanting "Come back." It's back! Come in quickly and take some Winter Festival Pills. "

"If you eat Winter Festival Pills, you will be a year older." In the Chaoshan area, the Winter Solstice is one of the most important festivals of the year. The winter solstice is also called "Winter Festival" and is the last festival of the year, so it is also the "small year" in Chaoshan area. After eating the "Winter Festival Pills" unique to the winter solstice, the child will be one year older. The so-called "Dongjie Wan" is actually the "glutinous rice ball" in the dispute between the north and the south.

The night before the winter solstice, the housewives at home begin to make arrangements. The women put a large bamboo basket, which is a shallow-rimmed basket, on the table and sat around "SO Yuan" (dialect, pronunciation).

Traditional Dongjie Pills come in two colors, one is made directly from glutinous rice flour and is white; the other is made with red yeast rice water and is pink-purple.

The women deliberately rolled the winter festival pills into different sizes and uneven shapes, and called them "Father and Son Gongsun Pills", which means that at the end of the year, the whole family is happy and happy.

Early the next morning, the women made soup with brown sugar, sprinkled with ginger slices, put the meatballs into the pot and cooked them. The meatballs that have just come out of the pot should be offered to the ancestors first while they are still hot, and then offered in turn to the landlord's mother-in-law, parents-in-law, Simingjun, the well god, etc.

After the ancestors and gods have been arranged, it is the turn of the whole family. The timeless rules are the reverence for family traditions inherited by Chaoshan people from generation to generation. After the ancestor worship ceremony is over, the tense nerves are relaxed. I eat a bowl of winter festival pills and welcome the new year in the sweet and glutinous environment.

4 "Brain"

In Yinchuan, Ningxia, 2,300 kilometers away from the northwest of Guangdong, people must eat "brain" during the winter solstice. This title sounds a bit scary at first, and I instantly picture a rough and bold northwest man eating meat and drinking wine.

In fact, the "brain" here is just another name for mutton powder soup.

On the day of the winter solstice, around three or four o'clock in the morning, the family members had already gotten up early to prepare for the food on the day of the winter solstice.

When making a bowl of mutton noodle soup, Matsuyama purple mushroom is definitely the essence. Wash the prepared Matsuyama purple mushrooms and make soup. When the soup becomes thick, the fragrant soup base of the pink soup will be formed.

Cut the mutton into cubes, stir-fry until the water vapor is dry, then add ginger, onion, garlic, and chili powder. After the taste is fragrant, mix the chopped mushrooms with the diced meat and stir-fry again, pouring on some vinegar, and add some other condiments. After the meat is rotten, add the fungus and daylily and stir-fry, then add the clear mushroom soup. When the soup boils, add the chopped vermicelli cubes and soaked vermicelli, cook it well, and finally add the leek, garlic sprouts, and coriander. Titian, a pot of hot and fragrant mutton powder soup is on the table.

Yinchuan's mutton noodle soup is like a pot of stew, with five colors, red with chili, yellow with day lily, green with garlic sprouts, coriander, and chewy white noodle cubes and vermicelli. Black mushrooms, fungus...all kinds of game are brought together to enhance the umami value of the mutton.

In many places, the Winter Solstice is a big day to worship ancestors, and Yinchuan also has this custom. The rice noodle soup dumplings made first must be served in a bowl in front of the ancestor's memorial tablet. The enthusiastic ones will also serve a bowl to the neighbors. Finally, the whole family will sit together and drink the mutton rice noodle soup with yellow radish. The stuffed dumplings or a few hanging stove tri-tip pancakes and fennel pancakes are also amazing.

5 Mutton Soup

In addition to Yinchuan, Ningxia, the must-eat mutton during the winter solstice is also in Chengdu, the "Land of Abundance" 1,300 kilometers away.

If you have to argue with a colleague in Chengdu about the rights and wrongs of eating during the Winter Solstice, he will definitely give you a sincere look: if you eat dumplings and glutinous rice balls, you must cut up the mutton soup!

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As soon as winter comes, mutton soup restaurants pop up on the streets of Chengdu. On the winter solstice, the number of people going to drink mutton soup reaches its peak.

In order to eat mutton and drink mutton soup during the winter solstice, people can brave the cold and wait in line for an hour or two, order a few kilograms of haggis and mutton, and brave the cold with family and friends. Enjoy the warmth of the mutton soup sliding into your stomach at the night market.

Among them, dipping in water is the key to whether the mutton soup is delicious or not. When Xunbai's mutton soup is served, you must add a piece of fermented bean curd, sprinkle two spoonfuls of spicy millet, and add three pinches of chives and coriander. Only then can the freshness, fragrance and spiciness of the mutton soup be fully released.

Chengdu people are very particular about eating and drinking mutton soup. First, dry the haggis in the soup, then scald the soul mate peas, and dip it into a dish of fermented fermented rice and spicy coriander. Then rinse the good mutton in clean water for a few seconds, and the mouth will be filled with the delicious taste of mutton.

The winter solstice is complete after a meal of mutton soup.