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Jiuhua rice cake: Spring Festival delicacy for Quzhou natives

chinadaily.com.cn| Updated :2020-01-15

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The Chinese word for rice cake, Niangao, is a homonym literally meaning "higher each year", which in plain English refers to the concept of making each year better than the last one. [Photo/qz123.com]

The Chinese word for rice cake, Niangao, is a homonym literally meaning "higher each year", which in plain English refers to the concept of making each year better than the last one. For most Quzhou natives, Jiuhua rice cake is their first choice when shopping for Spring Festival food.

The delicacy comes from Miaoyuan village in Jiuhua town. It used to be a tradition among Miaoyuan villagers to make rice cakes at the Spring God Temple.

First they grind a mixture of round-grained rice and glutinous rice into a thick liquid, then press bags of the rice milk with a lifting jack and leave them to stiffen.

Then they steam the chunk rice milk after peeling them into small pieces and put the steamed rice flour into a large stone mortar and punch them hard until all the air mixed in the rice flour is expelled, which makes the rice cake taste smoother and springier.

The last step is to cut the well-punched rice flour into shapes, normally, rectangle.

Although there are now various different flavors of Jiuhua rice cake, the original is still the most popular.