Want to Eat Rice Cakes? You Can Make Them If You Have It, Recreating Childhood Flavors

In my hometown of Jiangsu Province, everyone has eaten a kind of rice cake that we call 'Rice Cake'. It tastes a little sour and a little sweet, with a crispy and fragrant exterior and a soft and glutinous interior, with a strong aroma of rice. They are usually sold in pairs, and eating them with root oil sticks is simply the perfect breakfast combination.

I remember the rice cake stall was usually set up on the side of the road with a charcoal stove, with a large iron pot on top and a wooden pot cover. The bottom of the iron pot had a little water, and the boss would constantly add charcoal to the stove. After the water in the pot boiled, the boss would lift the lid to scoop a of pre-fermented thick rice batter into the iron pot, and flip it into a circular rice cake. After it was finished, he would cover it with the pot lid, plugging the gaps with cloth strips, and continue to add charcoal. After about five minutes, the side of the rice cake that was attached to the pot would turn golden brown, and the boss would use a spatula to flip it over and put it on the next blank. It was hot and steaming, and it was best to eat it while it was hot.

Because of my deep longing for the old-fashioned rice cakes, I tried to make them at home several times. I tried using pure rice flour and fermenting it, I also tried using rice flour mixed with glutinous rice flour for fermentation, and I even tried using rice flour mixed with flour for fermentation, but all attempts failed. I couldn't get the sour and sweet taste, and it wasn't delicate enough, so I gave up. Until recently, I accidentally saw a snack in Old Shanghai that was very similar to the rice cakes we had eaten. It was made with rice wine, sticky rice flour, and a little sugar and yeast. The method was simple, and it rekindled my longing for rice cakes. So I tried it once, and I was finally able to reproduce the taste of the rice cakes I had eaten before. I finally realized that the sour and sweet taste of the rice cakes came from adding rice wine. Although I don't know what kind of fermentation was used in the rice cakes in my hometown, at least I think that rice cakes with rice wine completely reproduce the taste of old-fashioned rice cakes. If you are interested, let's take a look at how to make it!