What traditional food does Xiaoman eat?
Xiaoman traditional food: bitter vegetables
Spring breeze blows, bitter vegetables grow, and wasteland is a granary. Bitter vegetables are one of the earliest edible wild vegetables in China. Bitter vegetables taste bitter, but better than jejunum. Bitter vegetables are astringent in bitterness, sweet in astringency, refreshing in freshness, tender in coolness and rich in nutrition. They contain many vitamins, minerals, choline, sugar, riboflavin and mannitol needed by human body, and have the functions of clearing away heat, cooling blood and detoxifying. In medicine, bitter herbs are often used to treat fever, and the ancients also used it to sober up. People in Ningxia like to cook bitter vegetables, wash them and eat them with salt, vinegar, spicy oil or garlic paste to make them cool and spicy, and eat steamed bread and rice, which greatly increases their appetite. Pickling bitter vegetables in yellow rice soup is also useful. It tastes sour and sweet, crisp and refreshing. Some people also boil bitter vegetables with boiling water, and squeeze out bitter juice to make soup, stuffing, stir-fry and cook noodles, each with its own flavor.
Xiaoman traditional food: bitter gourd
Momordica charantia is a good food in summer, which is rich in nutrients, mainly containing protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and other nutrients. Immature tender fruit as a vegetable, mature pulp can be eaten raw, cold, fried meat and grilled fish, crisp and refreshing, with unique flavor.
Bitter gourd has the effects of stimulating appetite, promoting digestion, clearing away heat and pathogenic factors, relieving fatigue, clearing away heart fire and improving eyesight, benefiting qi and strengthening yang. Momordica charantia contains protein in addition to bitter quinine. It is found that protein can stimulate immune cells and has anti-cancer effect.
Xiaoman traditional food: Lycium barbarum seedlings
Lycium barbarum seedlings are also called wolfberry tips. Chinese medicine believes that Lycium barbarum seedlings are cool, sweet and bitter, and have the functions of clearing away heat, nourishing yin and improving eyesight. It is suitable for treating fever due to yin deficiency, thirst, hand and foot fever, liver and kidney deficiency, dry eyes, toothache due to deficiency of fire, etc. Pick the tender seedlings of Lycium barbarum and put them in vegetarian soup to cook or cook soup to refresh yourself and get rid of summer heat; In order to taste delicious, stir-fry Lycium barbarum seedlings until half-cooked, then pour in the egg paste (add salt, pepper and oil before beating the egg paste and mix well), stir-fry until golden and half-burnt, and serve with porridge, which is delicious.
Xiaoman traditional food: dandelion
Dandelion, also known as Veronica, Dictyophora and so on. , a whole grass with roots of Taraxacum mongolicum, a compositae plant, is widely distributed all over the country. Dandelion is a nutritious vegetable, which mainly contains protein, fat, carotene, riboflavin, calcium, phosphorus, iron and other nutrients. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that dandelion is sweet, bitter and cold, and enters the liver and stomach meridians, which has the functions of clearing away heat and toxic materials, stopping diarrhea, benefiting gallbladder, protecting liver, strengthening stomach and lowering blood pressure.
In order to reduce the bitter taste of dandelion, dandelion can be washed, boiled in boiling water or salt water for 5-8 minutes, then soaked in water for several hours, and then the bitter taste is leached and washed, and then soup or porridge is cooked.
Xiaoman's interesting folk customs
Cheshen
As the old saying goes, a villain moves three cars. What exactly does "three cars" mean? In fact, they are all related to agricultural production, that is, waterwheels, spinning wheels and oil trucks. People actually offered sacrifices to the God of Cars, because it was very important to irrigate fields with water trucks in ancient agricultural society. If the water in the field is insufficient, it will easily affect the harvest. So how to sacrifice the car god? Legend has it that the car god is a white dragon. People will place sacrifices in front of the waterwheel during the small full season. Interestingly, there will be a glass of white water during the sacrifice, which will be sprinkled on the field during the sacrifice to pray for the prosperity of the water source.
Silkworm sacrifice to god
Around Xiaoman, silkworms will start to cocoon, which is the key period for picking silk reeling. In the traditional agricultural society, the harvest of farming and mulberry is uncontrollable. Because silkworm babies are delicate and difficult to raise, silkworm was regarded as a "natural thing" in ancient times. People offered sacrifices to silkworm gods in Xiaoman, hoping to bless the harvest of silkworm. There is also a saying that Xiaoman is also the birthday of the silkworm god, so there will be sacrificial activities.
The history of offering sacrifices to the silkworm god is very long, which is said to have been recorded in the distant Zhou Dynasty. Moreover, due to different local customs, the silkworm gods worshipped are also different. In some areas, silkworm gods and Tsing Yi gods are worshipped. The custom of offering sacrifices to silkworm gods is mainly in the south, because cotton is the main textile in the north, so this custom is also very regional, and it is more common in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, reflecting the typical farming culture of men and women in China.
Bitter vegetables
Besides offering sacrifices, let's talk about Xiaoman's eating habits. The ancient book "Zhou Shu" once recorded: "The bitter vegetable show on the day of Xiaoman." In Xiaoman season, there is a custom of eating hard dishes everywhere. Bitter taste, but high in nutrients, for example, can be used to treat fever. In the way of eating, bitter vegetables can be cold or squeezed out to make soup.
The origin of Xiao Man
Xiaoman is one of the twenty-four solar terms and the second solar term in summer. It means that the seeds of summer crops are full, but immature, just small and not full. Every year from May 20th to 22nd, when the sun reaches 60 degrees, it is in full bloom.
Twenty-four solar terms: "In mid-April, things are small and full." At this time, the seeds of summer sowing crops such as wheat in the north have begun to be full, but they are not yet mature, which is about the late stage of milk ripening, so it is called Xiaoman. Agricultural proverbs in southern China have given Xiaoman a new meaning: "Xiaoman is not satisfied with the broken ridge"; "Little people are full of discontent, regardless of mangoes." The word "full" is used to describe the amount of rain, and it is pointed out that if there is not enough water in the field when it is full, the ridge may crack and even rice cannot be planted when it is planted.