When Wu Zixu was built, a lot of glutinous rice was steamed, pressed into bricks and cooled. As the cornerstone of the city wall, it also stores food for famine relief. Later, every bumper year, people made glutinous rice into city brick-like Ciba to commemorate him.
Ciba is a kind of food made by steaming and mashing glutinous rice. Ciba is made by putting cooked glutinous rice into a stone trough and mashing it with a stone hammer or reed. Generally, this kind of food can be called Ciba.
Today, Ciba is still a must-have food for people all over South China before the Spring Festival every year. In some places, Ciba is made into large and small circles, symbolizing harvest, celebration and reunion. Some places are also called rice cakes, and this name also represents good luck. People often say: "rice cake, rice cake, long life." The rice cakes in Daoxiang Village, Guanqian Street, Suzhou are the best.
Cuisine characteristics
Ciba is also the most popular food in Hakka area. People are used to making it at festivals or when harvesting food. It symbolizes celebration, reunion and harvest. Ciba is made of glutinous rice, and its characteristics are sticky, tough, smooth and fragrant.
It is also available in southern Anhui, mainly on the Double Ninth Festival, as a holiday food for guests to taste. Ciba is mainly made of glutinous rice and potatoes, soaked in clear water and steamed in a steamer, then quickly put in a stone mortar until it is soft and elastic, then make the rice paste into a big or small ball while it is hot, and roll it in a plate mixed with sesame seeds and sugar to eat. 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. 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.