What is the legend of mung bean cake?

Mung bean cake is one of the famous traditional snacks in Beijing, and China has a long history of eating it. Legend has it that the smell of boils during the Dragon Boat Festival is particularly strong, and mung beans have the function of annealing and clearing heat in China's food culture, so eating mung bean cakes during the Dragon Boat Festival can avoid the influence of boils. Dai Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica records: "Mung beans are ground into flour, filtered to get powder, and used as bait to stew cakes ... with the functions of clearing away heat, benefiting qi, regulating five internal organs, calming the nerves and strengthening the stomach.

The origin of mung bean cake is related to a story that happened in Shanxi.

Legend has it that a long time ago, in a war-torn era, there was a Shandong native Li Zhuang, and his wife Liang Dong was young, beautiful and smart. The couple make a living everywhere. When they came to Yanchi, Shaanxi Province, they heard that salt digging was needed here, so Li Zhuang and his wife decided to stay and work here. Li Zhuang is a diligent person. He starts before dawn every day and comes back after dark. In this way, he went out early and returned late. Although he is very strong, he can't stand long-term physical labor and returns exhausted every day. The wife was very distressed and tried to supplement her husband's nutrition.

In hot summer, my wife always cooks a large pot of mung bean soup, which can quench thirst and prevent heatstroke. After a long time, it's a pity to throw away the remaining mung bean cubes in the soup, so Liang Dong thinks this mung bean can supplement nutrition for her husband, but how can she make it into food? I bought a lot of persimmons in winter and haven't finished them yet. After consideration, Liang Dong finally came up with a way to kill two birds with one stone. She peeled the cooked mung beans, patted them into noodles with the palm of her hand, cut the persimmon into pieces with a knife, one layer of mung bean noodles and one layer of persimmon pieces, put them in a box, steamed them in a pot, and then put them in a water tank for ice. The next day, I took it out and soaked it in salt water. I poured it out, cut it into a big piece and let my husband take it to the salt pond. After eating it, my husband praised it again and again, but after a few days, my husband found that it was delicious and not hungry. Liang Dong couldn't think of a good way at the moment.

One day, Liang Dong and her husband went to Yanchi and saw a driver driving a car carrying salt to feed animals. When she looked carefully, the animal ate peas. Out of curiosity, she went to ask the driver why he should feed Doudou. The driver told her that the animal was very strong after eating peas and could climb any high slope. After coming back, Liang Dong bought some peas, cooked and peeled, or cooked like mung beans mixed with persimmons, and asked her husband Zhuangli to take them to Yanchi to eat.