The temperature in beginning of spring is still low, but the sun is getting longer, so we should eat something sweet and divergent. At this time, many places have the custom of eating spring cakes (called "biting spring"), which can be traced back to the Jin Dynasty. Pan Yue's "Guanzhong Ji" contains: "Make spring cakes in spring and wrap them with Artemisia annua, leeks and Polygonum multiflorum." According to Cui Yan's "Four-person Moon Order" in Han Dynasty, China has long had the dietary custom of "beginning of spring eating lettuce" ... to welcome the New Year. After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the so-called "biting spring" mainly refers to eating radishes every day in beginning of spring. Liu Ruoyu in Ming Dynasty "On ambition? Introduction to Eat Well: "On the second day in beginning of spring, all people, regardless of their status, chewed radishes and said' Bite Spring'." In the past, the custom of eating spring cakes at the beginning of spring every day was not only popular among the people, but also often given to ministers as holiday food in the palace. Chen's Chronicle of Years Old records: "The day before, beginning of spring hosted a banquet in Taichi. The lettuce in the dish is decorated with radish and placed in the middle. " Radish is a food spread by Xin Gan. Spring cakes in Beijing are pancakes baked or steamed with flour. When eating, it is often served with fried bean sprouts, fried spinach vermicelli, fried leek, fried leek with smoked shredded pork, scrambled eggs, shredded tofu, elbow with sauce, pig head with sauce, shredded chicken, fried chromium, shredded onion, sweet noodle sauce and so on. Eat with spring cakes. The Qing Dynasty poets Jiang Yaozong and Fan Laizong's "Wing Chun Cake" have a wonderful and vivid description of this: "Even the frost is white, and the ironing stove is red. Thin books cut the full moon, soft rolled tubules. It's chewy only when you hide it. "
The rainy season should be less sour and more sweet, nourishing the temper. Beijing's "Wang Chun Honey Cake" is sweet and refreshing by adding honey to the cake and filling it with honey grapefruit. Honey and grapefruit are common sweet foods, which can strengthen the spleen and promote digestion. They are good for nourishing the spleen and stomach, and it is best to eat them at this time. And "Rain Festival, Going Back to Mother's Home" is a holiday custom of the Han nationality in western Sichuan. During the rainy season, the married daughter returned to her parents' home with gifts such as canned meat to thank them for their parenting. The meat in the pot is stewed with trotters and kelp in a casserole, and then the mouth of the pot is sealed with red paper and red rope.
After the long summer, the weather is getting hotter and the plants are flourishing, which is the best time to maintain the heart. In Wang Ting, Jiangsu Province, it is a long summer custom to eat sweet wine, taste three delicacies (broad beans, amaranth and garlic seedlings), salted duck eggs and long summer cakes. In the old days, silk thread was used to weave "egg complex", in which salted duck eggs were put and hung on the child's chest, praying not to "malaria in summer". Every household also uses flour to make wheat cakes with various fillings, which are called long summer cakes (Wang Ting Town Records).
The summer solstice, also known as the "summer solstice festival", is the season when the sun is at its peak. There are folk customs such as eating noodles, zongzi and wonton. Because sweat consumes the heart, the diet is mainly light, pay attention to balanced nutrition and moderate amount, you can eat more "bitterness", and you should focus on strengthening the spleen, relieving summer heat and eliminating dampness. This is the beginning of the dog days, so we should reduce going out for the summer. As the saying goes, "jiaozi is on his head, and the eggs are spread on the pancakes under his feet." This way of eating is to make the body sweat more and expel all kinds of toxins from the body. Wuxi eats porridge in the morning from summer to Sunday, and wonton at noon, which means chaos and harmony. The proverb goes: "In summer to Sunday, wonton is reunited in winter to Sunday, and people in Ankang are reunited in four seasons."