What does the Qingming Jiangnan custom eat?

On the same day in Tomb-Sweeping Day, Changzhou people will eat dumplings without stuffing for breakfast. The big dumplings were made before the Spring Festival and soaked in cold water until the Dragon Boat Festival.

On Qingming Day, take out the big dumplings, cut them into pieces, fry them in oil, and put sugar or salt according to your taste. Some people put some willow leaves in it, which means adding "green".

2.snails

The Youth League itself is a dessert, which is mostly used as breakfast or catering, and snails are the "highlight" on the Qingming table. Due to the moderate climate temperature during the Qingming period, snails at this time are clean and delicious. In Changshu, people will invite two or three friends to gather in the snail house from time to time, smoking snails and telling their own family stories, which has a unique flavor.

Tomb-Sweeping Day is the best time to eat snails. Because at this time, the snails have not yet propagated, and they are the most plump and plump, so there is a saying that "the snails in Qingming are worth a goose". Snails can be eaten in many ways. They can be fried with onion, ginger, soy sauce, cooking wine and sugar. You can also cook, pick snail meat, mix, drink, rot and simmer. If you eat properly, it can really be called "a snail is not worth a thousand things, and wine is not as good as food."

3. Green and white jiaozi

During his stay in Tomb-Sweeping Day, Wudi always had the custom of eating "green and white jiaozi". In Wuxi Meicun and Hongshan areas, locals also use fresh meat, bean paste and sesame as stuffing, symbolizing the noble character of Taibo, the ancestor of Emperor Wu.

Before Tomb-Sweeping Day, wheat grew vigorously, and its leaves were neither old nor tender. After washing the wheat leaves cut from the ground, mash them in a stone mortar, wrap them in cloth and squeeze them hard to get green juice. Adding a proper amount of lime water to the green juice will make the color greener and tender.

When wrapping jiaozi and glutinous rice flour, pour some green juice into it, and the kneaded rice flour will turn blue. Jiaozi will be steamed in a big steamer on the stove, and the whole stove will smell of wheat. When steaming, if you dip a brush in cooked oil and brush it evenly on the surface of the dumplings, the green dumplings will be as green as jade and more attractive.

4. Xunzi

Old Nanjing eats "cold utensils" called prickly heat. Heat rash is made by kneading oil and wheat flour into thin strips, winding them into rings and frying them. Go for an outing in spring, bring cold-proof equipment, swim while eating, or add sugar and brew it with boiling water, each with its own flavor.

The prickly heat that is popular in Han areas is different from the north and the south: the prickly heat in the north is generous and free, with wheat flour as the main material; The southern prickly heat is exquisitely made, mainly rice and flour. In ethnic minority areas, there are many kinds of prickly heat with different flavors, especially in Uygur, Dongxiang, Naxi and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

5, Qingming tears

"Tomb-Sweeping Day, eat Qingming with tears ..." In the countryside of Changshan in Quzhou and Hua Kai, there is a nursery rhyme. Especially in Jinyuan Village, Dong 'an Township, Changshan County, it is Qingming every year, and "Qingming Tears" is a cold dish that every household must make to commemorate their ancestors. This custom has been circulating for 1000 years.

In memory of their ancestor Wang Jie, villagers made rice noodles into small round tears, which were only made and eaten in Tomb-Sweeping Day. Qingming tears look like small dumplings, but they taste completely different. No mugwort leaves, the color is white, as flawless as pearls; Mixed with Artemisia argyi leaves, the color is green and deep as jade. This snack has a faint fragrance and a smooth entrance.