The Yellow River Basin is a typical arid agricultural area. On this vast land, due to low precipitation, our ancestors selected several crops with strong vitality and adapted to local soil and water through long-term agricultural practice, known as the “Five Grains”. This also determines the dietary habits of the ancestors in the Yellow River Basin, who mainly relied on five grain products.
The so-called “five grains” refer to hemp, millet, millet, wheat, and glutinous rice. Ma refers to sesame, formerly known as sesame or oil hemp. The ancestors already knew how to grow sesame seeds to extract oil and cook dishes. This tradition continues to this day, and people still choose sesame oil as their first choice for edible vegetable oil. The “Xiao Mo Xiang Oil” produced in the Yellow River Basin is even more unique. Millet, also known as millet, is one of the earliest crops planted in the Yellow River Basin. The Book of Wei Feng in the Classic of Temples states: “Big rats, big rats, do not eat our millet.” It can be seen that as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the ancestors in the Yellow River Basin had already made millet their staple food. After being cooked, millet has a strong stickiness and is often made into various pastries. Using millet to make wine is also a tradition in the Yellow River Basin. Millet wine has a strong and fragrant aroma and is loved by the people. Ji, commonly known as millet, is also known as millet or millet. Like millet, it was the earliest crop cultivated by our ancestors.
Millet and millet are distinguished by viscosity. Millet has the characteristics of drought resistance, high temperature, short growth period, etc. It is widely planted in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River. Millet rice and millet porridge are popular staple foods. Wheat is wheat, divided into barley and wheat, and is the most common crop in the north. Wheat is ground into flour, which can be used to make cakes, Mantou, noodles and other staple foods. Shu is a legume crop, generally referring to soybeans. Initially, the ancestors in the Yellow River Basin mainly consumed soybean leaves and made soybean rice. Afterwards, soybeans are made into various products such as bean sprouts, fermented soybeans, and soy sauce. The most distinctive thing is tofu, which is the favorite of the people in the Yellow River Basin.
During festivals, the food on ordinary people’s dining tables is usually more abundant than usual. Usually, only round and square Mantou are made. When the Spring Festival comes, they are transformed into various shapes, or made into various flower patterns, or decorated with red dates as decoration, called “jujube mountain”, or made into animal shapes, or made into the appearance of the so-called “God of Wealth”. These foods are offered as offerings to ancestors on the first day of the Chinese New Year. Dumplings made with pork or lamb filling are an essential food for the people in the Yellow River Basin during the Chinese New Year. In some mountainous areas of the Yellow River Basin, oil cakes made from millet flour are an indispensable pastry for festivals. There is a “Oil Cake Festival” in Xiangning County, Shanxi Province, which is characterized by eating oil cakes. In Qinghai, located on the upper reaches of the Yellow River, when a child is one month old, they make thin slices of flour and fry them in oil to make “Mo Mo Mo” (a type of bread), which is then distributed to guests who come to offer their blessings at banquets. On the second day of the second lunar month, people in the Yellow River Basin will stir fry corn and various beans, while people in Wuyang County, Henan Province will also fry noodle soup and make rice cakes to eat.
