Recipes and stories
During the period of Tomb-sweeping in April, people in the southeast part of China have a tradition of eating Qing tuan (sweet green rice ball). There is an old story that is related: Once upon a time on the Tomb-sweeping Day, a general of Taiping Dynasty, named Chen Taiping, was chased by a regiment of Qing Dynasty. A farmer nearby came to help Chen by disguising Chen as a farmer and letting Chen cultivate together with himself. Failing to catch Chen Taiping, the Qing regiment did not give up. They set up more checks by soldiers in the village and the surround area. Everyone who wanted to leave the village needed to be checked. This action was to prevent Chen getting food from someone in the village.
While getting back home, the farmer started to think about what food he should bring to Chen. Accidentally, he stepped on a clump of wormwood and slipped down. After he got up, he saw his hands and knees were covered with something green and glittering. Suddenly, he got a great idea. He picked up some wormwood back home, washed and boiled them completely to get the liquid. Then he added the liquid from the wormwood into some glutinous rice flour and made some green rice dangos (mi tuan zi, something similar to rice dumplings). Next, he took those green rice dangos covered with some green grass to Chen, dodging the soldier’s check. Chen Taiping ate the dangos, and thought that they tasted very delicious and chewy, but not sticky with teeth. At night, Chen returned safely to Taiping army. Afterwards, Chen Taiping told his superior about his experience and the dangos. The superior thought it very helpful, and therefore made a command which required all soldiers to learn how to make the green rice dango (which is now called qing tuan) for self-protection. Thus, the tradition of eating qing tuan becomes widely spread.
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