"Like glutinous rice balls, it is smooth and round, and it is busy." These jingles are about the traditional food "rice noodle pills" made by Hakka people to satisfy their appetite.

Rice noodle pill

The invention of rice noodle pills is closely related to the hard living conditions in Hakka areas in the past and the virtues of Hakka people's own diligence and thrift.

We know that dried rice noodles are easily broken, and usually a bag of rice noodles will leave some "rice noodle residue" at the end. In the era of lack of materials, Hakka people are reluctant to waste these "rice noodle dregs", but it is difficult to arouse their appetite if they eat them directly.

What shall we do? The clever Hakkas have come up with a unique trick: collecting these "rice flour dregs" to make meatballs.

But rice noodles are not sticky and cannot be kneaded into dough. So the Hakkas thought of adding leftovers or potato powder, so that the rice powder residue can stick together and be easily made into meatballs. This is the earliest method of making rice noodle pills.

rice noodles

Later, with the improvement of people's living standards, rice noodle meatballs became a kind of meatballs with rice flour as the main material and rich ingredients such as potato powder, mushrooms, pork, squid and shrimp, which were salty and fragrant.

Its production method is more and more sophisticated and mature, and gradually evolved into the following process:

First, soak the rice noodles with fresh water, such as mushrooms, squid, dried shrimps, etc. After the rice noodles are relaxed, cut them into pieces, and then pour them into an oil pan for frying. It should be noted that the heat of the fried powder should not be too big, otherwise it is easy to fry the rice noodles.

In order to remove the odor, mushrooms, squid, shrimp and other ingredients should also be fried.

Then chop the pork, fry it in a pot, add ingredients such as cassava powder, pepper, fried mushrooms, squid and shrimp, and add seasonings such as chicken essence, monosodium glutamate and soy sauce. Then put it into the wet powder, add the fried dry rice flour, stir well together, and knead it into balls.

Knead into a ball

It is said that in order to make rice noodle pills, peanut oil must be used and salt particles should be avoided, because salt particles are difficult to dissolve. Finally, I need to remind you that when making meatballs by hand, it must be hot, because it is not easy to knead them into meatballs after cooling.

To ask where there are delicious rice noodle balls, the White House is the first thing that most Hakkas think of. Don't be surprised, this is not the White House in Washington, USA, but the White House town in Meizhou, Guangdong. However, it is no longer a town, but a Baijia community in Meijiang District of Meizhou City, but the reputation of "the hometown of rice noodles and pills" remains the same. Rice noodles and pills are sold in the vegetable market here every day.

The White House in Meizhou, Guangdong Province

In fact, there are many interesting place names in Meizhou. For example, you can study in Cambridge (Jianying Memorial Bridge) in the morning, go shopping in Xinmatai (Taikang Road, Xinzhongyuan, Ma Shixia) during the day, and eat rice noodle pills at the White House at night, so that you can travel through several "worlds" in one day and fully enjoy the slow life.

Night view of Jianying Memorial Bridge in Meizhou

Rice noodle pill

White House rice noodle pills enjoy a high status in the eyes of Hakkas. Since its birth, it has been welcomed by diners and spread all over the country, even exported to Southeast Asia where Chinese are relatively concentrated, such as Singapore and Malaysia.