What food does Yunnan eat on the solstice in winter?

There is a custom of eating Ciba from winter to Sunday in Yunnan.

Ciba in Yunnan is slightly larger, with a diameter of about 20cm. You can cut it into small pieces at will, heat it with charcoal fire, dip it in honey or put it in a soda bar. You can also use brown sugar and white sugar instead of honey. Eat faster, honey will change from solid to liquid, and Bazin will change from hot to hard. Ciba is mainly made of glutinous rice and potatoes, and it tastes sweet.

Nowadays, street vendors often peddle with their feet on tricycles, and rice paste is packed in special iron drums, which has good thermal insulation. Shake the handle and the rice paste will come out of the round hole. In Yunnan, there is a custom of eating Ciba on the solstice of winter. Ciba should be made whenever ancestor worship or major festivals, or weddings and funerals. So in my hometown, Baba is called "Daba", and now the common glutinous rice balls are called "Xiaoba", which is somewhat disdainful.

The origin of custom

Whenever there is a happy event, the local people will make brown sugar mixed with rice cakes to entertain their guests as a sign of good luck. According to legend, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Wu Zixu defected to the State of Wu, helped the King of Wu to climb high and look far, even avenged his father, broke the State of Chu, and built a wall "Helv City" for the King of Wu. Wu Zixu knew he was in a high position, but he also made many enemies. He told his men that if anything happened to him in the future, Wu was in danger and the people were poor and hungry, they would dig three feet under the city wall.

You can find food. After Fu Cha acceded to the throne, after listening to the treacherous court official, Wu Zixu was forced to commit suicide. When Gou Jian, the King of Yue, broke the State of Wu, the people were miserable, so they went to dig the city wall. Sure enough, they saw bricks made of glutinous rice and solved the problem of food and clothing for the people. Later generations will make this kind of brick made of glutinous rice every year to commemorate Wu Zixu, and some will add brown sugar to make it into a circle, which means reunion. This is the origin of Ciba.