What to eat on the beginning of spring, spring plate and spring pancake

The Beginning of Spring is the beginning of spring and there are many food customs on the Beginning of Spring. This is most obvious in the north. Many places have the custom of eating spring rolls and spring plates. These customs have changed a lot now, but the food culture of the Beginning of Spring will never change.

1. Eat spring dishes

Since the Tang Dynasty, the custom of eating spring plates at the beginning of spring has been widely circulated among the people. For example, in the book Sui Shi Guang Ji written by Chen Yuanliang in the late Southern Song Dynasty, it was quoted in Si Shi Bao Jing of the Tang Dynasty that "on the day of the beginning of spring, people in the city make spring pancakes and lettuce, which are called 'spring plates'." The term spring plate is also frequently seen in Tang Dynasty poems. For example, the poet Cen Shen wrote in the poem Sending Yang Qian to Runan County to Visit the Province and Get Married at the New Year: "I look at Runan from afar, and go early to make spring plates." In the Song Dynasty, this custom became more common. Su Shi, a great poet in the Northern Song Dynasty, mentioned this custom many times in his poems, such as "Foamy milk flowers float in the noon cup, and spring plates are tried with water pepper and wormwood shoots", "I am sad to hear the reed pipe playing in the frontier, and I am happy to see the water pepper buds on the spring plates"; and the great poet Lu You of the Southern Song Dynasty also had the lines "Just right for spring plates with fine lettuce" and "Spring plates and spring wine are good every year" in his two poems "[Gan Huang En] Bo Li's Birthday on the Day of the Beginning of Spring" and "[Mulanhua] Written on the Day of the Beginning of Spring". In the Qing Dynasty, Pan Rongbi recorded in "The Imperial Capital's Annual Annals: Spring Plates in the First Month": "On the New Year's Day, spicy plates are offered. Even the families of the nobles and commoners must kill chickens and pigs, cook noodles and cakes, and mix them with lettuce, green leeks, and shallots, and stir-fry the peels of vegetables, and eat raw water carrots, which is called 'Biting Spring'."

According to research, the Spring Plate actually evolved from the Five Spicy Plate of the Wei and Jin Dynasties. The "Jingchu Sui Shi Ji" by Zong Yan of the Southern Dynasties quoted the "Fengtu Ji" by Zhou Chu of the Western Jin Dynasty, saying: "On New Year's Day, a five-spice plate is made, and on New Year's Day, five kinds of incense are used to refine the body." The "Year-End Poem in Response to the Order" by Yu Xin, a poet of the Southern Dynasties, also has the sentence "Let's open the cypress leaf wine and try to offer the five-spice plate." The so-called five pungent vegetables are five kinds of spicy vegetables. According to Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica", "On New Year's Day and the beginning of spring, onions, garlic, leeks, Polygonum multiflorum, mustard and other tender vegetables are mixed and eaten to welcome the new year. This is called the 'five pungent dishes'. As Du Fu's poem said, 'Spring day, spring dish with fine raw vegetables' is it." In fact, people in ancient times ate the five pungent dishes not only to "welcome the new year" as Li Shizhen said, but also to disperse the energy of the five internal organs and to keep fit and prevent epidemics. According to modern scientific views, during the Spring Festival, when the cold ends and spring comes, it is the time when people are prone to catching colds. Using the five pungent vegetables to dredge the internal organs and disperse sweat will undoubtedly play a certain role in preventing epidemic influenza. During the Tang and Song dynasties, people improved the five-spice dish by adding some seasonal vegetables, turning it from a monotonous spicy taste into a dish with green and red threads that have good color, aroma and taste, and named it the "Spring Plate".

The custom of eating spring plates has been passed down to this day, but the content of the spring plates has undergone greater changes. It now mainly consists of New Year seasonal vegetables such as green leeks, bean sprouts, celery, etc., plus shredded meat, shredded tofu, etc. stir-fried into a plate, and sea cucumbers, mushrooms, shredded chicken and other ingredients can also be added as appropriate. It varies from person to person and can be matched at will.

2. Eat spring rolls

Spring rolls are also a festive food that people often eat on the Spring Festival. This food is made by wrapping stuffing in a thin dough and frying it in oil. The specific production method is: mix flour into a paste, put some on the bottom of a pan, cook over low heat, rotate the pan from time to time, make spring roll skins as thin as a cicada's wing, then wrap the stuffing, roll into a long tube about two inches long, stick the two ends with batter, and fry in floating oil until crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, with excellent color, aroma and taste. Spring roll wrappers are usually made of wheat flour, but some are made of egg skin or tofu skin. As for the fillings, they are divided into two schools, the northern ones use more leeks, bean sprouts, shredded pork, etc., while the southern ones use more cabbage, shredded pork, shredded shrimp, dried shrimp, celery, bean paste, fruits, etc.

The name of the food spring roll was first seen in the book "Dreams of the Southern Song Dynasty" by Wu Zimu in the Southern Song Dynasty, in which two types of spring rolls, "thin-skin spring rolls" and "mother-and-child spring rolls" were mentioned. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, spring rolls had become a popular delicacy. Today, spring rolls with their golden color, crispy crust, tender meat filling and tempting aroma have become a popular and unique delicacy at banquets in many large hotels. Nowadays, people no longer limit their consumption of spring rolls to the Spring Beginning Day; they can also be eaten on other days. However, spring rolls still taste special when eaten on the day of the Beginning of Spring.

As a traditional food culture, biting spring and tasting spring were originally an integral part of the Spring Festival celebration customs. However, this festival custom has faded a lot now, and even many young people are no longer aware of this custom. Nowadays, people tend to eat noodles and dumplings instead of spring plates, spring pancakes and spring rolls to welcome the arrival of spring. Therefore, there is a widespread saying among the people that "eat dumplings and noodles to welcome the spring."