Et (), which means ''glutinous rice cakes on banana leaves,''{{Cite book , last=Guangxi Ancient Books Editing and Publishing Planning Leading Group Office , title=Sawndip Sawloih , publisher=Guangxi Nationalities Publishing House , year=2012 , isbn=9787536363892 , pages=148 , quote=蕉叶糍粑 is a traditional pastry made in the western parts of the

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

province of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. It symbolizes jubilance and is shared with relatives and friends during festivals such as the Spring Festival (also called

Chinese New Year Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a New Year, new year on the traditional lunisolar calendar, lunisolar and solar Chinese calendar. In Sinophone, Chinese and other East Asian cultures, the festival is commonly r ...

Spirit Festival The Ghost Festival, also known as the Zhongyuan Festival (traditional Chinese: 中元節; simplified Chinese: ) in Taoism and Yulanpen Festival () in Buddhism, is a traditional Taoist and Buddhist festival held in certain East Asian countrie ...

, and

Winter Solstice The winter solstice, also called the hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere ( Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the winte ...

, as well as in

wedding A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...

ceremonies, birthday feasts, and housewarming parties.

History

The people of

Gaozhou Gaozhou is a county-level city in southwestern Guangdong Province, China. Formerly the primary city in the area, it is now administered as part of the prefecture-level city of Maoming. As of the 20210 census, Gaozhou had a population of 1,328, ...

County were the first to make Et and refine its production. Gaozhou was once a wasteland overgrown with weeds. After war broke out, a group of refugees made their way to the county and planted tubers and other coarse cereals (e.g. maize, sorghum, and millet). To make good use of the crops, the settlers used mallets to pound the grain into flour. The flour was mixed with water to form a smooth paste and steamed to increase its overall size.粤西方言"籺"类词与粤西民俗
中国知网Accessed 20 Dec.2016 Later, the people of Gaozhou successfully cultivated rice. To celebrate the harvest, they followed the same method of pounding the rice into flour, adding vegetable filling, and kneading them into various shapes. This was the original method of making Et. At first, round-grained rice flour was used to make Et, but

glutinous rice flour Domestication syndrome refers to two sets of phenotypic traits that are common to either domesticated animals, or domesticated plants. These traits were identified by Charles Darwin in '' The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication. ...

was later found to be more suitable for making Et because it increased viscosity and improved taste.

Stuffing

Et stuffing can vary according to taste. Usually, the stuffing is either sweet or salty.糯米籺的加工技术及研究进展
中国知网Accessed 20 Dec.2016 Sweet stuffing mainly contains sesame, peanuts, desiccated coconut, and lotus root. Salty stuffing mainly contains green beans, peanuts, bacon, and shrimp.

Dressing and sauces

Dressing and sauces are also important for Et. Generally, people in the western parts of Guangdong use ginger, peanut oil, soy sauce, and other traditional seasonings.

Folklore

During the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

(618–907 AD), the Nanshan god of longevity passed by

County and accommodated himself in a courier hostel. At midnight, he heard a woman bursting into tears. He was curious and asked for information from the crying woman. He learned that the woman was an impoverished widow and completely bound by her parents-in-law.making procedures of 籺(hé)
Accessed 20 Dec.2016 Her in-laws were seriously ill and she decided to go to seek a longevity herb to save their lives. The god was deeply moved by the woman's filial behaviours and gave her two balls of rice. The woman brought them home and made them into peach-shaped Et. After eating the Et, her in-laws recovered. From then on, this kind of Et represented longevity and ecstasy and gained growing popularity.

References

External links

Chinese cuisine Rice cakes Cantonese cuisine Chinese pastries