Miao Five-Color Rice

Miao Five-Color Rice

　　Miao Five-Color Rice

　　Hainan Miao Five-Color Rice, commonly known as Five-Color Rice, is also called Qingjing Rice or Flower Rice. It gets its name from the glutinous rice turning into five colors: black, red, yellow, purple, and white. It is a type of glutinous rice steamed by every Zhuang and Dong household during the Qingming Festival and the traditional "March 3" Song Festival. It is a traditional food used by the Zhuang people to entertain guests and honor ancestors.

　　The making of Hainan Miao Five-Color Rice features five colors—red, yellow, purple, white, and black. Each color is achieved by mixing the rice with unique plant juices used as natural dyes, then steaming it in a specially made wooden steamer.

　　1. For black glutinous rice, use maple leaves and the bark of their tender stems. Pound them in a mortar, let them dry slightly, then soak them in a certain amount of water for one to two days. Strain out the leaf residue to obtain the black dye liquid. Boil the black dye liquid over low heat to about 50–60°C, then soak the glutinous rice in it.

　　2. For the yellow dye, you can extract it from the juice of yellow flowers (called "Huamai" in the Zhuang language), gardenia fruit, or turmeric tubers. Boil the yellow flower juice, or crush gardenia and soak it in water to get a yellowish dye liquid. Alternatively, mash turmeric and mix it thoroughly with glutinous rice, then knead it well to turn the rice yellow (this can be steamed directly without soaking).

　　3. Red and purple dyes are made from the same species of red-blue grass but with differently shaped leaves. Leaves that are longer and darker in color yield a deeper hue when boiled, resulting in purple-dyed rice. Leaves that are rounder and lighter in color produce a lighter dye, yielding bright red-dyed rice.

　　4. After extracting the four types of dye liquids, soak unequal amounts of rice in each until they are colored. Then steam them in a steamer for about an hour to achieve the five colors: black, red, yellow, purple, and white (the natural color of glutinous rice). The resulting Five-Color Glutinous Rice boasts vibrant, colorful, and translucent grains. Its tender texture, delicious taste, mild flavor, and subtle sweetness make it truly memorable.

　　Five-Color Glutinous Rice dyed with natural plants is not only beautiful and delicious but also has certain medicinal properties. Honglan Grass helps generate blood. The Qing Dynasty text “Lvshan Hall Class Debate” states: “Red flowers, being red and juicy, are agents that generate and invigorate blood.” “Yellow Flower Rice” or gardenia has heat-clearing and blood-cooling effects. Li Shizhen noted in “Compendium of Materia Medica” that maple leaves “relieve diarrhea, promote sleep, strengthen muscles and qi, and prolonged consumption lightens the body and prolongs life.” He also said that Qingjing Rice made from boiled maple leaves can “strengthen muscles and bones, benefit the stomach and intestines, enhance mobility, and nourish marrow.”