What do you eat in the traditional off-year in China?

1. Fried corn: In the southeast of Shanxi, there is a custom of eating fried corn. There is a saying in the folk proverb, "23. If you don't eat fried corn, pour a pot for the New Year.". People like to bond fried corn with maltose and freeze it into pieces, which tastes crisp and sweet.

2. Sticking cakes: There is a folk song of "Twenty-three Sticky Cakes Sticking" in Luxi, Shandong. Every year, on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, it is the day for every household to steam and eat sticky cakes, which means to stick the mouth of the kitchen god and let him say the good things in the sky, not the bad things on earth. Sticky cakes are made of yellow rice and red dates, which are sweet and rich, and the entrance is soft, meaning "high every year". In addition, Hainan people use coconuts as ingredients to make coconut cakes for eating and praying, which means "high every year".

3. jiaozi: In the north, during the Spring Festival, we are used to eating jiaozi, which means seeing off the kitchen god and "seeing off jiaozi against the wind". When offering sacrifices, jiaozi should be placed on the platform. In addition, there is a folk saying "delicious but not as good as jiaozi". During the Spring Festival, jiaozi has become an indispensable food.

4. Melon: Melon is an ancient traditional name of the Han nationality. It is not only food for the Spring Festival, but also a sacrifice (the god of offering sacrifices to stoves). In the past, I asked Wang to buy some candies made of maltose, such as honeydew melon and Guandong sugar, on the 23rd, not only for him to put in a good word when he boarded the Jade Emperor, but also for sticking the candy on the Kitchen God's mouth to prevent him from saying more. There is such a two-part allegorical saying in Beijing: "The kitchen god ascended to heaven-speak well".

5. Rice cake: the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, commonly known as "off-year". People in Wuxuan, Guiping and other places in Guangxi have the custom of making rice cakes. The rice cake is made of glutinous rice flour as the main material, peanuts, sesame seeds and sugar as the ingredients, put into a mold to make it round, and then steamed at high temperature, with a unique flavor and the meaning of "round and round".