What are the historical and cultural records of peas?

Peas were called Shanrong in ancient times. "Compendium of Materia Medica" records that "there are mountains and peas, and their seedlings are weak and wan, so they are named peas, plants, and there are many soils in the north today". History books say that Rong is "the North of Tang Yu". It can be seen that peas began to bloom in spring and harvest in summer on this land north of Taiyuan 3000 years ago. Later, peas were also planted in the north of China (Guanzirong), but historically, "they came out of the ground as big as almonds", and planting in the alpine mountain area in the north of Shanxi was the best.

Peas, from seedlings to beans, can be delicious for the people. "Yellow River Culture Series People's Food Roll" contains that after the spring rain, all flowers are in full bloom, and the fresh pea seedlings are attractive in green, mixed with tender leeks or fried with single flavor and pleasant fragrance. Speaking of pods, commonly known as "flat horns", it is a good product to pick raw food, make the juice sweet and refreshing, and cook and fry it into vegetables. Pea in early summer is "the first of a hundred valleys", and it was "cooked and fried" before the Ming Dynasty. Grinding flour, the surface is very white and delicate (Compendium of Materia Medica). In addition to cooking porridge, making koji and making bean jelly, it also makes cakes with stuffing, called pea cakes, which are folk snacks.

According to the grand view of imperial cuisine in China, pea cakes were introduced to Beijing in the early Qing Dynasty, renamed pea yellow, and became a famous Han snack in Yanjing. Therefore, there is a saying that "the food has always been Yanjing, the pea yellow has a long-standing reputation, the red dates are embedded in gold and Curie, and ten articles buy Huang Qiong together". The breakfast of Emperor Qianlong smelled of "pea yellow", but it was not popular in the palace at that time. When Empress Dowager Cixi arrived, she also called vendors into the palace to make them, and improved them into stuffing-free hearts, which gradually became the name of the Qing court.

Pea cake is also called "bean cake" or "sand cake" in Quwo, Houma, Hejin and other places in Shanxi. It is made of peas, gardenias and persimmons. Locals like to eat bean paste cakes, which has become the business of many foreigners. There is a folk saying that "come to Quwo County and live in Dadongguan". Copy a burden and earn some money from bean paste. " During the Republic of China, bean paste cakes were everywhere and became a unique local snacks of the Han nationality.