Chapter 3 Hokkien Light Cake

Drive from Nanping, Fujian Province to Wuyi Mountain all the way, passing through Jianou and Jianyang counties. Along the road, there are thousands of hectares of Xinhuang, green and verdant, but it is not a rich town. The food is not special at all, but the light cake is quite rural. The light cake is similar to the sesame seed cake in the north, slightly smaller, only half as thick as the sesame seed cake, and the sesame seeds on the surface are much sparser, and the color is golden after being baked.Guangbing has a thin filling, which is a little minced meat and chopped green onion.What’s interesting is that the fillings in the suburbs of Nanping are slightly bigger and of good quality. The farther you go north, the less the fillings are. The ones near Jian’ou are dotted with bits and pieces of meat. When you arrive in Jianyang, there are mostly green onions. , we can see the poverty in the mountainous areas of northern Fujian.Every time I drive to a small town, there are always people carrying small baskets to sell light cakes, and there are many buyers.No matter where you go, the light cakes you buy are freshly baked, hot but not hot.If you look carefully, there are small shops that bake light cakes wherever you can stop along the way.The store is very simple, with only noodle tables and one or two stoves. The hawkers sell them in bulk from the store. Probably due to insufficient manpower, the production and processing can only be given to the hawkers. The division of labor is different, but each gets what he wants.

From Nanping to Wuyishan, the journey took more than four hours a few years ago. There were people who sold out the cakes everywhere, and there were always people on the bus who kept buying. A traveler bought it four times, eating as he bought, and eating as he went. I ate at least twenty light cakes on the way, and I would never eat cold ones.I don't eat chopped green onion. Seeing everyone's appetite and smelling the burnt aroma of the pancake, I can only look forward to the pancake and sigh.Near Jian'ou, a small vendor swore to me that the light pancakes he sold had no green onions, so I bought two, and they were indeed charred on the outside and soft on the inside, very delicious. As for the question of whether there are green onions, I think No further discussion.

Why is this kind of cake called light cake? No one can tell what it sells and eats. The car is almost at Chong’an, and I stopped for the last time to take a nap. I finally got relieved from an old cake seller.He said: Light cakes, light cakes are the cakes invented by General Qi Jiguang. General Qi relied on this kind of dry food to fight against the Japanese in Fujian and Zhejiang.The noodles used for light cakes are slightly fermented, unlike the northern sesame seed cakes, which are perishable, and they will not deteriorate after being baked for three to five days.Later, the people in northern Fujian also made it to comfort Qi's army.For the convenience of carrying, there is a small hole in the middle of the cake, which can be worn with a string. Now some places make light cakes, and the tradition of small holes in the middle is still preserved.After more than 400 years, light cakes spread among the people in northern Fujian.Whether the light cake seen today is the original form, or whether it is Qi Jiguang's invention, is impossible to test, but the light cake is indeed the most distinctive and charming food in northern Fujian.