Wuxi---【Yixing Black Rice Porridge】

Chinese name: Black Rice Porridge, Tea Leaf Rice. Benefits: Strengthens the spleen and kidneys, relieves coughs, calms the mind, improves eyesight, and darkens hair; suitable for those with weak constitutions as a dietary remedy. Ingredients: Glutinous rice, South Candle leaf. Flavor: Fresh and fragrant. Origin: Anhui, Jiangsu

On the third day of the third lunar month each year, the She people celebrate the \"Black Rice Festival\"; every family prepares black rice, eats together as a family, and gives it as gifts to relatives and friends. At the same time, people gather to sing and dance to celebrate this festival. The She people living in Xiaocang Ethnic Autonomous Township, Lianjiang County also celebrate the Black Rice Festival, and the mountain villages are bustling with activity on this day. Black rice is a dish prepared by the She people using a wild plant called the Black Glutinous Berry tree; their leaves are boiled to make a soup, then glutinous rice is soaked in this soup for several hours before being taken out and steamed in a wooden steamer. This black rice has a blue-green to black color, with a shiny finish, and it is deliciously soft and tasty when eaten. Due to its antiseptic and spleen-strengthening properties, black rice can be placed in ramie bags and hung in a well-ventilated, cool place, where it will not spoil for several days. If it is stir-fried with lard, it becomes even more delicious. Hence, there is the saying that \"one household’s steaming food fills ten others with fragrance.\"

Modern technique: Ingredients: 500 grams of glutinous rice, 50 grams of South Candle leaves. Method: 1. Rinse the glutinous rice and set it aside. 2. Wash the Nanzhu leaves, add 500 milliliters of water, and boil for half an hour. Strain out the leaf debris to obtain the juice, then use this juice to cook glutinous rice. Cook it over low heat for about 2 hours, until the rice turns black and is fully cooked; it can be eaten right away at that point. Efficacy: It nourishes the spleen and kidneys, relieves coughs, calms the mind, improves eyesight, and darkens hair; it is suitable for those with weak constitutions as a dietary supplement for restoration. The plant used to make black rice can be Erythrina lucida (formerly known as Yangtong, also called black rice); it is an evergreen shrub belonging to the rhododendron family. Its leaves are herbaceous and oval-ovate in shape, with new leaves being bright red while older leaves are dark green ； Inflorescences are axillary; corolla is white ； The berries are spherical and turn purplish-black when ripe. Note that this is not Nandina), Elaeocarpus (which is a tree), maple, etc. Sun Simiao’s medical texts state: “South candle decoction promotes the growth of beard and hair, improves one’s appearance, provides warmth, and also treats all types of wind-related diseases. Long-term use lightens the body, improves eyesight, and keeps hair black and complexion youthful.” " The young leaves of maple trees can be used as tea. The root bark and leaves of the Chinese sumac are used in medicine, possessing effects such as reducing swelling and detoxifying, as well as promoting diuresis and laxation.

Black rice has a long history; it appeared during the Tang Dynasty, where it was called “Qingjing Rice”. It was a health-food used by Taoists to pursue immortality, serving as food for their fasting days. Du Fu’s poem \"To Li Bai\" reads: \"Is there not green essence rice to keep my complexion fair?\" Lacking sufficient funds for medicine, the forests and mountains are left in disarray. "(Hai Ma’s comment: This sentence seems to imply communist leanings.) Pi Rixiu’s poem \"Nanyang Guangwen wishes to settle in Jingxiang, so I write this as a gift\": \"The green-colored rice is ready; mist seems to envelop the stove. The white fur coat is like snow, spilling over the window.\" ”Lu Guimeng wrote in his poem \"Stories from the Taoist Hermitage\": \"Black rice freshly cooked emits a fragrant aroma, and it is a common practice for Taoists on fasting days.\" ” Zhang Ben’s poem \"Using green vegetables to prepare quick meals and sharing them with Xi Mei and Lu Wang; thus a quatrain was composed\": \"Who would care about precious gems when there are green vegetables available for quick preparation? It is said that these fine dishes originated from Hua Yang.\" Mixed with sesame by Fairy Yingyi, to be given to Lord Liu and Lord Ruan. ”– Yes, “Qing Shi Xun” is another name for Qingjing rice. It’s called “quick” because black rice is already cooked, so it takes little time to process.

Umee is purple rice, right? Like to drink purple rice porridge

Rice is originally white; it is dyed using the juice of a plant leaf.

It turns out there’s a story behind this: Why eat black rice? It is said that once upon a time, there was an old lady who loved roasted geese. Every time she wanted to eat geese, she would place a red-hot iron plate in the alley; at one end of the alley, she would put a bowl of soy sauce, and at the other end, a bowl of rice vinegar. Drive the goose into the alley; the heat forces it to run back and forth, going here to eat some soy sauce and there to eat some vinegar, and before long it becomes a roasted goose. After the old woman died, the King of Hell sent her to hell, punishing her by forcing her to walk through a pool of oil and up a mountain of slippery oil. Her son is the famous monk Maitreya. Master Mokuren knew that his mother was suffering in the afterlife, so he would often send food to her, but every time it was stolen by many little demons, and his mother never got to eat any of it. Mugen went up the mountain to pick black rice plants, soaked them to produce black water, cooked rice with it, and sent it over. When the little ghost from the netherworld saw that the food was black, it dared not eat it, so only the mother was able to eat it. Later, to commemorate Mokuren, this filial son, the custom of eating black rice came into existence. On the eighth day of April each year, locals give black rice to one another. If someone in the village dies, on the eighth day, people will bring black rice to the deceased’s home as a sign of mourning.

In the drama \"The Lamp of Pearl Princess\" (formerly known as \"Chen Xiang Breaks the Mountain to Save His Mother\"), there is a touching scene: the fairy San Shengmu (also known as Lady Qingti), who wished to live among mortals and marry one of them, violated the \"heavenly laws\". As a result, she was imprisoned in hell by the Jade Emperor, where she suffered from hunger day after day. Her son Chen Xiang (later known as Muliang) tried to show his mother respect by bringing food to her in prison, but all of it was eaten by the demons guarding the prison gates. Later, Chenxiang found a type of leaf from which juice could be extracted to darken the rice before cooking it; from then on, the ghost guarding the door dared not eat it anymore. Agarwood’s mother relied on black rice not only to sustain her life but also to restore her bodily fluids and energy, gradually becoming stronger. Agarwood’s filial piety moved the Jade Emperor, who then released his mother. Though it is a legend, it still carries the meaning of upholding righteousness and eliminating evil. We can also find such a record in the book \"Shen Yin\": in the Western Regions, there is a deity named Buddha, who is worshipped on his birthday with black millet rice from which no grains fall off. Followers of religion in China (both Buddhism and Taoism) followed suit, and thus this custom came into being. As for why black rice is eaten on the eighth day of the fourth month, it is because that day marks the birth of Buddha. Buddhists cook black rice as an offering to Buddha, and after making the offering, they distribute the black rice to their disciples, saying that eating it can ward off disasters. Because black rice is both delicious and good for health, people began to cook it and give it as gifts to relatives and friends, and thus it became popular. Both the \"Jiangning Prefecture Annals\" and the \"Jinling Seasonal Records\" state that in the past, \"on this day in our hometown, people would compete to sell these treats along the roads as snacks.\" "By this point, the green rice no longer held any superstitious meaning; it was regarded as a festival food

Black rice – who wants to eat it? I’m from Yixing; if anyone wants to try it, I can send them some. It’s not bad; combined with pineapple, it’s really delicious.

Boss, let’s start with ten yuan’s worth to try it out; P