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Green sticky rice balls colored with fresh spring grass
By Tan Weiyun |
March 29, 2012, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
QINGTUAN, literally green cakes, look like glossy round stones and are traditionally eating around the Qingming Festival, which falls next Wednesday this year.
The sweet glutinous rice qingtuan, also called dumplings, are common in ritual offerings to ancestors on that day in southern China. They may be filled with sweetened red bean paste, black sesame paste with sugar, mashed jujubes, nuts and other sweets, sometimes even pork.
The green color is supposed to come from the juice of fresh grass shoots (maiqing) and it symbolizes spring; the fragrance suggests meadows. Traditionally it takes hours to stew the grass. These days many commercial qingtuan are made with green food coloring.
Eating sticky qingtuan date back more than 2,000 years.
In the old days people always made qingtuan at home and some families prepare it in an annual ritual.
Sometimes grass seedlings are replaced with mugwort, which is also green. A little lime water reduces the mugwort's astringent taste.
The green juice is then mixed with glutinous rice to make dough, which is stuffed with a filling.
But it is always eaten cold. Traditionally other food is also eaten cold on Tomb Sweeping Day. The story goes that no fire was allowed, as a gesture to commemorate Jie Zitui, a great minister during the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC-467 BC), who was burned to death in a forest fire on that day.
In Shanghai, many well-known restaurants offer qingtuan during the season.
There are long queues in front of Wang Jia Sha, a Shanghai brand famous for local snacks. The queue snakes around Nanjing Road W. to Wujiang Road.
Wang Jia Sha also offers such fillings as ma lan tou (Indian kalimeris herb), dried meat floss, egg yolk and dried fruits.
Another famous snack shop Guang Ming Cun sells its signature qingtuan with a filling of dried carrots, shrimp, pork and mushroom. Others have taro filling.
Gong De Lin, a vegetarian restaurant, is famed for its qingtuan made of mochi, which is pounded sticky rice, without sugar.
The sweet glutinous rice qingtuan, also called dumplings, are common in ritual offerings to ancestors on that day in southern China. They may be filled with sweetened red bean paste, black sesame paste with sugar, mashed jujubes, nuts and other sweets, sometimes even pork.
The green color is supposed to come from the juice of fresh grass shoots (maiqing) and it symbolizes spring; the fragrance suggests meadows. Traditionally it takes hours to stew the grass. These days many commercial qingtuan are made with green food coloring.
Eating sticky qingtuan date back more than 2,000 years.
In the old days people always made qingtuan at home and some families prepare it in an annual ritual.
Sometimes grass seedlings are replaced with mugwort, which is also green. A little lime water reduces the mugwort's astringent taste.
The green juice is then mixed with glutinous rice to make dough, which is stuffed with a filling.
But it is always eaten cold. Traditionally other food is also eaten cold on Tomb Sweeping Day. The story goes that no fire was allowed, as a gesture to commemorate Jie Zitui, a great minister during the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC-467 BC), who was burned to death in a forest fire on that day.
In Shanghai, many well-known restaurants offer qingtuan during the season.
There are long queues in front of Wang Jia Sha, a Shanghai brand famous for local snacks. The queue snakes around Nanjing Road W. to Wujiang Road.
Wang Jia Sha also offers such fillings as ma lan tou (Indian kalimeris herb), dried meat floss, egg yolk and dried fruits.
Another famous snack shop Guang Ming Cun sells its signature qingtuan with a filling of dried carrots, shrimp, pork and mushroom. Others have taro filling.
Gong De Lin, a vegetarian restaurant, is famed for its qingtuan made of mochi, which is pounded sticky rice, without sugar.
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