The Erkuai (Rice Cake) in Kunming

During the Spring Festival, people in Kunming are accustomed to eating rice cakes. Rice cakes are made by soaking, steaming, pounding and kneading. “Every household changes the spring couplet and rice, pounds the rice to make rice cakes for cooking”, a poem of the Qing Dynasty describes the scene of the Spring Festival in Kunming like this. While the northerners eat dumplings in Spring Festival, people in Kunming cook rice cakes. Sliced, compounded with ham slices, pickled vegetables, and hot peppers, fried with pig fat, and seasoned with sugar and sauce, the rice cakes can be served at tables. People also send rice cakes to each other when visiting relatives. Rice cakes cooked by the four various methods of frying, boiling, stewing and roasting have various tastes.