Zhao Laowu Baba

Zhao Laowu Baba

　　Zhao Laowu Baba is a specialty of Qianxi County, Bijie City, Guizhou Province. The "Zhao Laowu" brand yellow rice cakes come in a series of products known for their fragrant taste, health benefits, unique flavor, and convenience — all of which have made them highly popular among consumers.

　　Yellow rice cake, also called yellow glutinous cake, is a very famous snack in Guizhou. Main ingredients: premium glutinous rice, soybeans, pure rock sugar, wrapped in corn leaves or bamboo leaf-wrapped zongzi leaves (free from any artificial colorings or preservatives). It has a crystal-clear golden color, fragrant and soft taste, and is convenient to eat. After slicing, it can be steamed, fried, stir-fried, or microwaved to soften, and is ready to eat straight out of the package. It is a nutritious staple and side dish.

　　　　The ingredients for yellow rice cake are extremely simple — mainly sticky rice, glutinous rice, and soybeans. However, its preparation is quite complex and time-consuming.

　　　　Because the steamed yellow rice cake has a bright red color and sweet taste, many assume that it contains a lot of brown sugar for coloring and flavoring. But that’s not the case. The golden hue and sweetness of the cake are entirely the result of this long steaming process. The sticky rice mixed with soybean juice, when steamed and fermented for a long time in a sealed wooden steamer, breaks down into large amounts of sugar. Meanwhile, the color of the sticky rice changes from white to yellow and becomes increasingly fragrant and glutinous. This gives the cake its name — yellow rice cake — and is also its most distinctive feature: authentic taste, with all flavors naturally derived. Authenticity and pure flavor represent the highest realm of both cuisine and life. In this sense, yellow rice cake can be considered a rather characterful delicacy.

　　　　After a long 20 hours, the yellow rice cake is finally ready, with its aroma wafting through the moist bamboo leaves. When peeled hot from the leaves, the golden, glistening yellow rice cake is revealed — its sticky, sweet, and bamboo fragrance fills the nose and warms the heart, making mouths water and appetites soar.