The special offering for Chingming in Wuyuan, where we visited, was wormwood cake, a kind of cake made of wormwood leaves and glutinous rice, before Ching Ming day comes.
"Wormwood" is a kind of wild vegetable which looks like celery leaves. It is very short, but has unique pure fragrance.
Blend the wormwood leaves and mix the juice with the glutinous rice flour. The dough becomes light green immediately. Stuff the dough with sweetened bean paste, sesame or vegetables. Press the dough with a mould to produce a round cake, and then place it on a banana leaf and steam.
To the local people, wormwood cake is "more than simple fine food. It is more like a spring breeze that contains infinite memories and unique homseickness which drifts further and further away and becomes ever more refreshing as time goes."
I shall miss Wuyuan, although as time passes the memories will fade with age.
Oh if I can get a whiff of the wormwood cake aroma!! And feel again the warmth from the steam of a roadside stove. It has been a shivering cold day.
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