Food for Spring
By admin on 2014-12-29

Chinese moms and grandmas were faced with a day of sweat and toil on Thursday when the country waved goodbye to winter and ushered in spring with traditional meals and other celebrations.

"Lichun" – literally means the beginning of the spring -- the first day of the first of the 24 divisions of the solar year according to the traditional Chinese calendar. 

1) Food for beginning of the spring - Spring Pancakes

It seems that every festival in China is celebrated with a certain food. We have moon cakes for the Mid-autumn Day and dumplings for the Spring Festival. Today is February 4, which marks the start of spring. What's the food for today?

Pancakes! Or more specifically, Spring Pancakes. You can either cook it by yourself to kill time or you can buy it in the supermarket to save time.

And it has to go with several dishes. But what exactly? Some suggest scrambled egg with leek–but some say just egg. And bamboo shoots according to some old sayings, or celery?

It seems very hard to reach a consensus but don't worry, at least we've got three must-haves here.

Ingredients:

a) Braised pork with soy sauce

b) Stir-fried bean sprouts

c) Egg pancake (cutting into clumsy shreds)

Eating spring pancake is more or less the same as eating the Peking Duck, which means you've got to put everything on the pancake, and make a roll. But its history went far beyond the Duck back to the Eastern Jin Dynasty (316AD－ 420AD), approximately 1600 years ago.

So bite it and not only will you get the whole prosperous spirit of spring but also a tangible feeling about being Chinese.

2) Food for beginning of the spring - Fried Spring Rolls

This dish is different from spring pancakes. The pancake is staple food but this is a snack. Its taste varies according to different preferences. It can be sweet or salty. Put simply, this is a thin pancake for wrapping up meat, vegetables, etc. This food is a traditional snack which bears very auspicious meaning. Since it looks like gold bars, naturally people tend to link it with a symbol of wealth. Of course, the taste is also good. Here I only introduce the practice, as taste depends on you.

Ingredients: Thin pancake  

a) Bean paste (sweet) 

b) Oil Bean sprout, Carrot (Shredded) (salty) 

c) Oil Shelled shrimp, Mushroom, Carrot (shredded)  (salty with meat)

Methods:
1. B and C need to be cooked. Heat up the wok with a little oil and stir-fry ingredients B(C) with a little salt until well done. 

2. Place 2 tbsp of filling in the center of thin pancake; fold over until you can not see the filling from the outside. 

3. Heat up the frying pan with oil and fry the thin pancakes until all skin is golden.

Tips:

1. The frying process should be done slowly and carefully.  

2. Thin pancakes are usually available in supermarkets during “Lichun”.