User:Zhouduck

Spring-pancake, or chunbing is a traditional Chinese food, which is a pancake wrapping around mixed vegetable and sauced pork. Unlike other traditional Chinese foods, which are widely spread, spring-pancake is unique to Beijing. People in Beijing eat spring-pancake on the day called lichun to celebrate the beginning of the spring. The spring-pancake took its rise from the Jin dynasty and has prospered since the Tang dynasty. The lichun was valued by both Chinese ancient kings and civilians. Unlike kings’ great celebrations, civilians celebrated the lichun by eating spring-pancake wrapping the most fresh mixed vegetable and meat, which is called bite-the-spring. Bite-the-spring implies that civilians are praying for a good harvest year through tasting the fresh vegetable and meat on the beginning of the spring. In the Qing dynasty, spring-pancake became a fried pancake that wraps the most select ingredients, including the pale green bud of scallions, sauced ham, chicken, pork, black date, walnut seed and sugar. In addition, spring-pancake was one of the nine desserts for the regal banquet of Qing dynasty. Nowadays, spring-pancake has become more simplified to cook. People in Beijing use fresh vegetable such as bean sprouts, leaks and spinachs to cook spring-pancake. The pork used to cook spring-pancake is bought from a store in Beijing named Tianfuhao, [1] which has a history more than 270 years.

References “立春民俗之吃春饼 [Lichun minsu zhi chichunbing].” 北京文网[Beijing Wenwang] 4 Feb. 2008. 16 Feb. 2009  “立春吃春饼的由来 [Lichun chi chunbing de youlai].” 搜搜问问[Sousou Wenwen] 4 Feb. 2008. 16 Feb. 2009  “今年第一个节气——立春[jinnian diyige jieqi——lichun].” 大化青年[Dahua Qingnian] 4 Feb. 2009. 16 Feb. 2009 

Footnote [1] “Tianfuhao 天福号 braised pork hock” TouchBeijing.com.16 Feb. 2009 

Photo 立春民俗之吃春饼 [Lichun minsu zhi chichunbing].” 北京文网[Beijing Wenwang]. 4 Feb. 2008. 16 Feb. 2009                                  