1, Ningde: Eat glutinous rice balls.
Tangyuan is one of the customs of winter solstice in Ningde. In the folk, people will taste it at breakfast on the solstice in winter, which means "reunion and perfection" and symbolizes family harmony and auspiciousness. The ancients also mentioned that they would eat glutinous rice balls from the winter solstice, which showed its popularity in Jiangnan.
2. Nanping: glutinous rice cake
The glutinous rice cake is one of the most famous local snacks in Nanping, which is similar to the "rice food" in Fuzhou. It uses local high-quality glutinous rice, soaked in water, steamed in a rice cage or pot, and then poured into a stone mortar. One person uses a wooden pestle and the other turns it, which is commonly known as "making rice cakes".
Beat glutinous rice into a thick paste, stir it constantly, moisten it with some sesame oil, knead it into a ball the size of a thumb by hand, and put it into a powder bowl filled with fried sesame seeds, peanuts, beans and sugar to eat.
3. Longyan: braised chicken with wormwood leaves, glutinous rice balls.
The most common winter solstice cuisine in Wuping, Longyan is to eat chicken, stew chicken with moxa sticks and boil thick chicken soup. The old man adds velvet antler powder to the bottom of the bowl and drinks chicken soup well, so he won't feel cold all winter.
Longyan has a unique food-pot dumplings, which are palm-sized and triangular in shape. It is prepared by mashing wild ramie or wormwood, kneading with glutinous rice, and making skin. There are two kinds of fillings: salty pot stickers are usually fried with winter bamboo shoots, shrimps and shredded mushrooms, or simply stuffed with sauerkraut.
4. Zhangzhou: rounding.
The custom in Zhangzhou is to eat brown sugar jiaozi on the solstice in winter. On the eve of the festival, every household grinds glutinous rice into balls and puts them on bamboo curtains. The next morning, it was cooked in a brown sugar pot as a holiday breakfast. People who went out tried their best to get home, reunite with their relatives, rub jiaozi, eat jiaozi, paste jiaozi, worship ancestors and sweep graves, and paste "cold couplets", all of which were unique folk culture.
5. Putian: Tietie Tangyuan
The night before the winter solstice, Putian was called "the winter solstice". That night, red candles were lit in every hall, and the lights were like day, which meant brilliant career. At the dinner table, red oranges are regarded as "fruit yue".
On the day of winter solstice, everyone gathered around the big dustpan (commonly known as "Dai Li Arc"). Housewives knead glutinous rice flour (commonly known as "rice sacrifice") into round strips with boiling water, pick them into big round blanks, and then knead them into "balls" with their palms. This is "winter solstice rubbing pills"