Posted 2017/4/16
Eating sticky qingtuan date back more than 2,000 years.
In the old days people always made qingtuan at home and some families prepare it in an annual ritual.
Sometimes grass seedlings are replaced with mugwort, which is also green. A little lime water reduces the mugwort's astringent taste.
The green juice is then mixed with glutinous rice to make dough, which is stuffed with a filling.
But it is always eaten cold. Traditionally other food is also eaten cold on Tomb Sweeping Day. The story goes that no fire was allowed, as a gesture to commemorate Jie Zitui, a great minister during the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC-467 BC), who was burned to death in a forest fire on that day.
In Shanghai, many well-known restaurants offer qingtuan during the season.
There are long queues in front of Wang Jia Sha, a Shanghai brand famous for local snacks. The queue snakes around Nanjing Road W. to Wujiang Road.
Wang Jia Sha also offers such fillings as ma lan tou (Indian kalimeris herb), dried meat floss, egg yolk and dried fruits.
Another famous snack shop Guang Ming Cun sells its signature qingtuan with a filling of dried carrots, shrimp, pork and mushroom. Others have taro filling.
