Xing'an Rice Crispy Candy

Xing'an Rice Crispy Candy

　　Rice crispy candy is a type of confection made by heating rice to make it expand, mixing it with cane sugar syrup, allowing it to cool, then cutting it into squares and wrapping them in white Xiang paper for sale. In the Guilin area, Xing'an rice crispy candy is the most famous — sweet but not cloying, melts in your mouth, suitable for all ages, and especially popular among rural consumers. Speaking of its origins, the story is quite interesting.

　　Legend

　　In order to seal the Kitchen God’s mouth, Chang’e invented Xing’an Baba (a kind of flatbread), which stuck the lazy, gluttonous, and greedy Kitchen God’s mouth shut so he couldn’t speak, thereby saving Wu the Daredevil from disaster in Xing’an. The Kitchen God, who loved good food, fell for Chang’e’s trick and was left to suffer in silence — unable to voice his bitterness. Ever since, he harbored a grudge and constantly sought opportunities to take revenge on Wu the Daredevil by venting his anger on the people of Xing’an. That year, Xing’an enjoyed a bumper harvest, with grain filling the granaries and rice overflowing the jars. Because of Chang’e’s invention of Baba, every household in Xing’an followed suit, making large quantities of Xing’an Baba to celebrate the plentiful year. The sound of pounding rice and making Baba made the Kitchen God tremble with anxiety, and even the mere sight of Baba enraged him. After much scheming, he came up with a malicious plan. He immediately summoned cockroaches and crickets, ordering them to swarm every household's grain storage and rice jars to defecate and urinate, ruining all the rice in Xing’an and starving or impoverishing its people. The fabled “Fate Chickens” and “Fate Ducks,” upon receiving the order, crawled into the grain stores and rice jars to relieve themselves. As everyone knows, the excrement of these creatures carries an unbearable stench. Once rice is contaminated by it, it becomes inedible. Moreover, cockroaches are carriers of bacteria — eating anything that they’ve crawled over is almost certain to cause diarrhea.

　　Within one night, all the rice stored by the people of Xing’an was ruined by the Kitchen God. But no one knew it was his doing, and instead, they burned incense and offered fruits, praying to the Kitchen God for protection and to ward off disasters. Seated high on the altar, the Kitchen God gloated smugly and sneered coldly, “Let’s see if you still admire Wu the Daredevil, let’s see if you still revere Chang’e. Hmph, hahah!” When Chang’e heard of this, she scolded angrily, “You wretched Kitchen God. The Jade Emperor sent you down to Earth to protect the people, but instead of safeguarding them, you bring disaster upon them. Just wait and see how I punish you!”

　　But the people needed to eat, and Chang’e felt even more anxious than if she were going hungry herself. She flew hastily from the Moon Palace to Guilin, wandering the streets to see if there was any way to save the people of Xing’an. Suddenly, a loud “bang” startled Chang’e. Looking closely, she saw a blind man setting up an expansion machine by the roadside, popping corn. Chang’e thought, corn is popped because dried corn is too hard to chew, so expanding it makes it softer. Then could rice also be expanded? She asked the blind man, who said yes, but pointed out that rice grains are much smaller than corn kernels, not as chewy, and rice is more valuable than corn, so no one had thought to pop rice. Chang’e then asked if there was a way to remove any off-odors from the rice. The blind man replied that it wasn’t difficult — a folk remedy was to add a bit of salt when rinsing the rice, which would naturally eliminate the smell. Chang’e exclaimed excitedly, “Xing’an is saved, the people are saved!”

　　Chang’e went to Xing’an and told Wu the Daredevil to instruct the villagers to wash the rice with salted water before expanding it for consumption. Wu tried it once and while the strange smell was gone, the resulting product caused excessive internal heat — leading to toothaches, mouth blisters, or constipation. Also, one couldn’t eat much at a time, getting hungry again quickly, which didn’t suit the needs of farmers. So Wu the Daredevil put on his thinking cap and decided to go all in: he boiled sugarcane juice into syrup, poured the popped rice into the pot, stirred it well, spread it out to cool, then cut it into square pieces. He then wrapped ten pieces in Xiang paper per package, creating a very distinctive kind of candy. When sold in town, the novelty item was an instant hit — citizens rushed to buy it. The money earned was used to purchase rice and oil, actually turning a profit. News spread quickly, and every household began imitating the process. The entire Xing’an region echoed with the “bang bang” sounds of expansion machines. The Kitchen God, thinking the people were rising against him, was terrified out of his wits, fled Xing’an with his tail between his legs, and never dared to return. From then on, Xing’an became the first place to produce rice crispy candy, which gained fame far and wide and became one of Xing’an’s two major specialties.