Rice Cake

Rice Cake

　　A local specialty snack popular in southern Jiangxi.

Its preparation is simple: soak glutinous rice in cold water for a day and a night, then grind it into a rice slurry. Pour the slurry evenly into a round bamboo sieve used as a wrapper. When the slurry thinly covers the surface of the sieve, steam it over high heat in a wok to make the cake, then cut it into several small pieces, peel them off the sieve, add stir-fried seasonings and meat filling, wrap them into rectangles, brush with a little sesame oil or cooked tea oil, and you have a fragrant, delicious rice cake rich in local flavor.

In a small county in Jiangxi Province, many restaurants have an eye-catching sign at their entrance that reads “Specialty Rice Cake” to attract diners from all over.

In the past, every Hakka woman in Shangyou, Jiangxi, knew how to make rice cakes. The criterion for whether they were good at it? The taste of the rice cakes they made was used to judge a woman’s capability. Poorly made rice cakes had coarse slurry, thick steamed wrappers, and unappetizing seasonings. Well-made ones had fine, tender rice slurry, were steamed over bamboo fire until the wrapper became paper-thin and translucent, and had just the right flavor.

The seasonings for rice cakes can vary with the seasons. In spring, green vegetables are the main choice; in summer and autumn, melons are preferred; in winter, cabbage and radishes are common. Spices can include Chinese chives, scallions, garlic, etc. Adding stir-fried lean meat filling makes it even tastier.

Historical Story

Speaking of the origin of rice cakes, there is a story behind it. According to the *Shangyou County Annals*, more than a month after the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Yuan army attacked Shangyou County. The townspeople refused to surrender, angering the Yuan troops, who carried out a retaliatory massacre after capturing the city, killing over 1,300 people. A surviving Hakka woman, searching for food after the chaos, was surprised to find a basin of soaked rice. When she rubbed it, it turned entirely into slurry. Cooking it as usual was impossible. How could she prepare it to eat? Behind the county town were densely forested mountains and plenty of dry bamboo, offering ample firewood. She got an idea: using a bamboo sieve originally meant for drying grain, she poured the rice slurry onto it, steamed it over high heat, and wrapped it with some pickled vegetables and radish. Tasting it, she found it delicious. She invited neighbors to try it, and everyone agreed it was tasty, praising her ingenuity. When asked what she used to steam the slurry, she didn’t explain directly but gestured, saying, “Round (Yuan) bamboo (Mie)!” This caused amused laughter among the villagers, who echoed, “Yuan Mie (meaning ‘Yuan destroyed’)!” In that era, saying the wrong thing could cost your life—especially since the Yuan Dynasty ruled the Han people harshly, with ten families sharing one kitchen knife. Moreover, this young woman had publicly said, “Yuan Mie.” “If we don’t teach her a lesson, what can we do?” The authorities interrogated the woman in court, but the clever wife explained the “bamboo circle” reference with her sieve, leaving the officials with no grounds to punish her and had to release her. Though few know of this Hakka woman’s brave story, the Hakka delicacy from Shangyou County, Jiangxi—the rice cake—has lived on ever since.