Five-color glutinous rice is commonly known as five-color rice, also known as green japonica rice or flower rice, which is named because glutinous rice has five colors: black, red, yellow, purple and white. It is a glutinous rice cooked by Zhuang and Dong people in Tomb-Sweeping Day and the "March 3rd" song festival of the lunar calendar. It is a traditional food for the Zhuang people to entertain guests and worship their ancestors. There is also a saying that yellow, green, pink, purple and blue represent five kinds of food, namely staple food, fruits and vegetables, meat, snacks and dairy products, which tell us how much and how to eat various foods through an image disk and instructions. Beautiful legend has it that in ancient times there was a young Zhuang man named Tenon, whose father had long since passed away and only lived with his mother who was paralyzed in bed. Tenon was very filial. Afraid that his mother would be bored at home alone, he carried his mother up the mountain to chop firewood and transplant rice in the field. Every time, he will bring a big bag of his mother's favorite glutinous rice to her, so that she can eat it at any time when she is hungry. This move of Tenon's mother and son was seen by a monkey on the mountain. The monkey took advantage of the tenon to chop wood on the mountain and sneaked to the mother monkey to take the glutinous rice away in time. Mom can't move, she can only watch the monkey take glutinous rice. For several days, Tenon looked at his hungry mother and tugged at the maple leaves around him helplessly, but he couldn't think of any way. Suddenly, tenon found that his hand holding the maple leaf was black, which turned out to be stained with black maple leaf juice. Looking at the black fingers, Tenon had a brainwave. He immediately cut the maple leaves off the tree from home, put them in a stone mortar, soaked them in water for a day and a night to get black juice, and then soaked the glutinous rice in the black juice for a night. The next morning, black glutinous rice was picked up and cooked, and suddenly a fragrance filled the whole house. Mother shouted in the room, tenon, what smells so good! Tenon said excitedly, this is black glutinous rice, how fragrant and sweet it is! This day is the third day of the third lunar month. Early in the morning, Tenon took his mother up the mountain to cut firewood. He wrapped black glutinous rice with banana leaves, deliberately revealing a little black. The monkey saw it, thought it was poison, dared not touch it, and ran away. On this day, Tenon ate black glutinous rice, but his mouth was thirsty, he felt energetic and made more firewood. From then on, tenon and his mother went up the mountain to cut wood, all with black glutinous rice. Later, the dealer learned tenon, and every household cooked black glutinous rice. Later, the clever banker learned to make yellow, red and purple glutinous rice with gardenia and red bluegrass, and finally evolved into today's five-color glutinous rice. Exquisite skills make five-color glutinous rice more particular about methods. Black glutinous rice and the skins of maple leaves and their tender stems are mashed in a mortar, slightly air-dried and immersed in a certain amount of water. After soaking for one day and one night, the leaf residue is taken out and filtered to obtain a black dye solution. Black dye juice should be put into a pot and boiled to 50-60 degrees Celsius with slow fire, and then glutinous rice should be immersed in it. Yellow dyes can be extracted from the fruits and tubers of plants such as yellow flowers, gardenia and astragalus. Boil the yellow flower, or mash the gardenia and soak it in water to obtain a yellow-orange dye solution. You can also mash it with Huang Qiang and rub it with glutinous rice to make yellow glutinous rice (you can steam it directly without soaking). Red dyes and purple dyes are made from the same red bluegrass with different leaves. The leaves are slightly longer and darker, the boiled color is thicker, and the soaked rice turns purple; The leaves are round, the color is light, the boiled color is light, and the soaked rice turns bright red. After extracting the four kinds of juices, different amounts of rice are soaked in them for one night, and then steamed in a steamer for about one hour, so that glutinous rice with five colors (black, red, yellow, purple and white) can be steamed. The five-color glutinous rice made in this way is bright in color, bright in color, crystal clear, soft, mellow and even, with a plant fragrance, which is memorable to eat and has certain medicinal value. Red bluegrass produces blood, gardenia has the function of clearing heat and cooling blood, and green japonica rice cooked with maple leaves can strengthen bones and muscles, benefit stomach and replenish marrow. The flavor of Zhuang five-color glutinous rice varies from place to place. Some put the soaked Mi Dou or mung beans and five-color glutinous rice in a steamer, put the chopped semi-thin fat pork and chopped shallots in a hot pot, and then add a proper amount of salt, cooking wine, soy sauce and monosodium glutamate. , then pour the steamed five-color glutinous rice, Mi Dou and mung beans into the pot and catch them evenly. This glutinous rice tastes delicious and has a unique flavor. Some steam glutinous rice, stir-fry peanuts and sesame seeds in a mortar, and then sprinkle peanuts and sesame seeds into five-color rice and mix well. This five-color glutinous rice has a strong flavor. Others put five-color glutinous rice into a fresh bamboo tube, and then put the bamboo tube on a bonfire and bake it slowly. With the crackling sound of bamboo tubes, a burst of fragrance overflowed, and the unique fragrance of bamboo tubes made people salivate. Lucky family members like colored rice as a symbol of happiness and good luck. On festive days such as children's full moon and the completion of new homes, five-color rice should be cooked and distributed to neighbors. The Zhuang people also love maple leaves, believing that maple leaves can "exorcise evil spirits" and bring people good luck and peace. Therefore, when cooking five-color rice on the third day of the third lunar month, a carefully selected maple leaf will be inserted at the door of every household. Even the dye residue from cooking five-color rice should be scattered on the foot of the wall outside the house to ward off evil spirits and ensure safety. Zhuang people love to cook glutinous rice, and often judge whether the hostess is a real clever girl by whether the glutinous rice is bright in color and sweet in taste. On the third day of March, before dawn, housewives quietly got up, put five-color glutinous rice into a steamer and steamed it over medium heat. Soon, the village was filled with rich fragrance. In the morning, the children came out, each holding a ball of glutinous rice, eating and comparing to see whose glutinous rice is darker, yellower, redder and more fragrant. Soon, the owner's sister-in-law also came out. They went door to door, looked from door to door and tasted from door to door to see whose glutinous rice was the blackest, the yellowest, the reddest and the most fragrant. They watched, compared and tasted, and the morning of March 3 in Zhuangxiang became lively. In a short time, boys and girls came out one by one, dressed in gorgeous Zhuang costumes, holding hydrangeas, carrying five-color glutinous rice, humming folk songs, holding hands and chasing songs on the slope. ...