Shunxi Yellow Rice Cake

Shunxi Yellow Rice Cake

　　In Pingyang, just mentioning Shunxi Yellow Rice Cake is practically common knowledge. This slightly larger yellow rice cake, known for its unique chewiness and subtle taste of grass ash, has become a staple dish at hotels and street food stalls. Dishes like stir-fried yellow rice cake with cauliflower and stir-fried yellow rice cake with mantis shrimp... these creative variations have quickly become a favorite among diners.

　　So what makes Shunxi Yellow Rice Cake so "good"? It turns out that the "yellow" color doesn’t come from any artificial coloring — it originates from a type of firewood collected from the mountains. The wood is burned into ash, then mixed with boiling water and filtered to produce a yellow-tinted liquid. The finest late-season glutinous rice is then soaked in this yellow water for about two hours before being ground into rice flour. The flour is steamed in wooden barrels, then transferred to a machine that produces the familiar strips of yellow rice cake we see today. Shunxi Yellow Rice Cake has a history of over 300 years. Originally made entirely by hand, most of the cakes were shaped like Meifeng Mountain, a local landmark. Now, the process is semi-handmade. From July each year until the end of the year is the peak sales season for the rice cakes. Currently, in addition to supplying nearby towns like Shuitou, the cakes are also sold across the country.

　　Source: Wenzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism