During the Spring Festival, many regions in our country have a tradition of eating rice cakes, also known as “yearly cakes” or “nian gao,” which sounds similar to “prosperity year by year,” symbolizing that people's work and life improve with each passing year.
Rice cakes, as a food item, have a long history in China. In 1974, archaeologists discovered rice seeds at the Hemudu Neolithic site in Yuyao, Zhejiang, indicating that our ancestors began planting rice as early as seven thousand years ago. The Han people had various names for rice cakes, such as “rice cake,” “glutinous rice ball,” and “sticky cake.” The process of making rice cakes evolved from using whole grains to using ground rice flour. The sixth-century recipe book “Shi Ci” describes the method of making New Year's cake called “white cocoon sugar”: “Cook glutinous rice until it is thoroughly cooked, then while still hot, pound it into a sticky mass in a clean mortar and pestle, ensuring there are no remaining grains of rice…”. After pounding, the glutinous rice is cut into pieces the size of peach kernels, dried, fried, and coated with sugar before being consumed.
The method of grinding rice into flour to make cakes is also ancient. This can be confirmed by Jia Sixie's “Qi Min Yao Shu” from the Northern Wei dynasty. The recipe involves sifting glutinous rice flour through silk cloth, adding water and honey to form a slightly stiff dough, attaching dates and chestnuts onto the dough, wrapping it in reed leaves, and steaming it until done. This type of glutinous rice cake has distinct Central Plains characteristics.
Most rice cakes are made from ground glutinous rice, a specialty of the southern Yangtze River region. In the north, the grain with a similar sticky texture to glutinous rice is glutinous millet (also known as small yellow millet). When the husk of this millet is removed and ground into flour, then steamed with water, the result is a yellow, sticky, and sweet treat that is enjoyed by people along the Yellow River as a celebration of a bountiful harvest. A text from the reign of Emperor Chongzhen during the Ming dynasty, “Scenes and Customs of the Capital,” records that people in Beijing used to eat millet cakes on New Year's Day, calling them “yearly cakes.” It is not difficult to see that “yearly cake” comes from the northern pronunciation of “nianniangao,” meaning “sticky-sticky cake.”
There are many types of rice cakes, with representative examples including white cakes from the north, yellow millet cakes from the northern countryside, water-milled rice cakes from the southern water towns, and red turtle cakes from Taiwan. Rice cakes differ in flavor between the north and south. Northern rice cakes can be steamed or fried, both sweet; southern rice cakes, besides being steamed or fried, can also be stir-fried in slices or boiled in soup, with both sweet and savory flavors.
It is said that originally, rice cakes were used for offerings to gods on New Year's Eve and to ancestors at the beginning of the lunar year, later becoming a food associated with the Spring Festival.
Rice cakes are not only a festive delicacy but also bring new hope every year. As a poem from the late Qing dynasty states: “People love heights, so they create food with auspicious sounds, hoping that each year will surpass the last, praying for a good harvest.”