Rice cake

Rice cake

　　Rice cakes are exquisitely made and fall into two main categories: dry cakes and water cakes. To make dry cakes, first soak high-quality white rice until soft, then press and grind it into powder. Next, mix the powder with mint, orange peel juice, and brown sugar, and grind it finely. Sift the mixture through a fine sieve into a steamer basket, then carefully slice it into small pieces using a thin knife—each piece about 2 inches wide, 1.5 inches tall, and 0.5 inches thick. Steam them over high heat until cooked. Water cakes are made from high-gluten flour, with one percent glutinous rice flour added. They are steamed in the same way as dry cakes but without sugar. After steaming, sprinkle brown sugar on top, let it melt, and then sprinkle with sesame seeds or perilla seeds to finish. Among dry cakes, festive dry cakes are considered the finest, and they come in two types: layered cakes and colored cakes. Layered cakes are diamond-shaped, slightly thicker and larger than regular dry cakes, with a filling of mixed layers including brown sugar, mint, orange peel, date paste, and longan. Colored cakes are square-shaped, featuring a red waistline in the middle and a red-tinted surface, creating a striking red-and-white contrast with a fine and attractive texture. When steamed rice cakes are served to guests, brown sugar and rose sugar are added on top; when used for ancestral worship or Buddhist offerings, fresh flowers are inserted on the surface of the cake. Every year during the Qingming Festival, when green broad beans ripen and come to market, bean flour is mixed into the rice dough, giving the cakes a greenish-yellow hue and an even better flavor. These green bean rice cakes are often used for tomb-sweeping in the mountains and for entertaining distinguished guests.