Minor Cold Food

During Minor Cold, people in old Nanjing traditionally eat caifan. Caifan is a famous Nanjing specialty and one of the foods most favored by local people during this season. Its ingredients vary. One version combines Aijiaohuang greens with slices of salted pork, sausage, or diced salted duck, together with chopped ginger and glutinous rice, all cooked in one pot. The result is richly fragrant and savory.

Aijiaohuang greens, sausage, and salted duck are all well-known Nanjing specialties, making this a truly local “Nanjing caifan”, one that can even stand alongside Laba porridge in seasonal importance.

Older Nanjing residents believe that eating caifan during Minor Cold helps warm the body, dispel cold, and strengthen the constitution. In the past, every household in Nanjing would cook caifan on this day, filling entire lanes with its aroma. A family sitting together around a steaming pot of caifan was both one of the warmest reunions before the Spring Festival and the truest taste of Nanjing.

Caifan carries the deep emotions of winter warmth and local memory. In a bowl of caifan are home-cured pork, greens grown by the doorway, and air-dried sausage—it is not merely food, but the taste memory of an entire city. A bowl of caifan during Minor Cold warms the body while calling the heart home.

In traditional Guangzhou custom, glutinous rice is eaten on the morning of Minor Cold. A folk saying goes, “小寒大寒，无风自寒”—during Minor Cold and Major Cold, it feels cold even without wind. Eating glutinous rice on winter mornings to ward off the cold is a traditional custom in Guangdong. Traditional Chinese medicine considers glutinous rice beneficial for replenishing the center and strengthening qi, making it especially suitable for the cold season.

The glutinous rice eaten by people in Guangdong on Minor Cold mornings is not plain rice. Cured pork, Chinese sausage, peanuts, mushrooms, dried shrimp, and other ingredients are stir-fried first and then mixed with the cooked glutinous rice. Glutinous rice contains more sugar than ordinary rice, and after eating it the whole body feels warm, helping to resist the cold.

Traditional Chinese medicine considers glutinous rice warm in nature and sweet in flavor, entering the spleen, stomach, and lung meridians. It is traditionally associated with replenishing the center and qi, strengthening the spleen and nourishing the stomach, and reducing spontaneous sweating, and is considered helpful for weakness and cold in the spleen and stomach, poor appetite, abdominal bloating, and diarrhea.

Glutinous rice carries the health wisdom of dispelling cold, warming the body, and replenishing the center and qi. Warm in nature, it is especially suited to the cold days of Minor Cold, bringing warmth through the entire body. In a richly filled bowl of glutinous rice, the savory aroma of cured meats seeps into every soft, glutinous grain, making each bite one of winter’s richest forms of warmth. In Guangzhou, a Minor Cold morning begins with a steaming bowl of glutinous rice.

“三九补一冬，来年无病痛。” Minor Cold falls around the period of Sanjiu, one of the coldest times of the year and also one of the best periods for winter nourishment. Mutton is warm in nature and is especially associated with warming and nourishing kidney yang, dispelling cold, and warming the body, making it a central food on the Minor Cold table. During this season, people commonly eat mutton hotpot and drink mutton soup to resist the severe cold.

Northern China has long had a custom of eating mutton during Minor Cold. In Hebei, Beijing, and other regions, people enjoy sliced mutton hotpot, sitting around the fire as steam rises from the pot. In Shandong, Henan, and other regions, mutton soup is especially valued, and a single bowl can leave the whole body sweating. North or south, mutton remains one of the first choices for Minor Cold nourishment. Folk tradition even says, “小寒吃羊肉，大寒吃萝卜.”

Mutton embodies the health wisdom of winter nourishment during Sanjiu and warming yang to dispel cold. The folk saying “三九补一冬，来年无病痛” expresses the importance placed on nourishment during Minor Cold. At the coldest time of the year, people use some of the warmest nourishing foods to store enough heat in the body for the spring ahead. A steaming meal of sliced mutton hotpot is exactly what Minor Cold calls for.

Minor Cold falls close to the Laba Festival, and eating Laba porridge during Minor Cold has therefore become a custom in some regions. Laba porridge, also known as “七宝五味粥,” “佛粥,” and “大家饭,” is a porridge made from a wide variety of ingredients.

The custom of drinking Laba porridge is associated with Buddhism. According to tradition, the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month was the day on which Shakyamuni Buddha attained enlightenment. To commemorate the six years of ascetic practice during which he was said to eat only one sesame seed and one grain of rice each day, people in ancient India drank porridge on this day. As Buddhism spread into China, the practice gradually developed into a folk tradition.

The Qing-dynasty 《燕京岁时记·腊八粥》 records: “腊八粥者，以作点染。” The custom of eating Laba porridge around Minor Cold began in the Song dynasty. Every year on the Laba Festival, the imperial court, government offices, Buddhist temples, and ordinary households alike prepared Laba porridge. By the Qing dynasty, the custom had become even more widespread.

Laba porridge carries the dual meanings of ritual prayer for blessings and warming the body against the cold. It symbolizes warmth, completeness, harmony, auspiciousness, and health. A bowl of Laba porridge gathers the essence of many grains and ingredients; it is both an offering to ancestors and deities and a nourishing winter food that warms the body and comforts the stomach.

A folk saying goes, “腊七腊八，冻掉下巴”—the cold around the seventh and eighth days of the twelfth lunar month is enough to freeze off one’s jaw. A steaming bowl of Laba porridge is just right for resisting that piercing chill.

During Minor Cold, Tianjin has a tradition of eating yellow sprout cabbage. It is a local Tianjin specialty made from the new shoots of Chinese cabbage. In earlier times, fresh vegetables were scarce in northern winters, so people in Tianjin developed a special method of cultivating yellow sprout cabbage, adding a rare touch of fresh green to the winter table.

According to the 《津门杂记》, yellow sprout cabbage is a variety of Chinese cabbage. Its roots and stems are cut and then placed underground in a heated environment, encouraging new shoots to grow. The resulting vegetable is crisp, tender, and fresh, making it a prized winter food.

Yellow sprout cabbage carries the practical wisdom of enjoying freshness in winter. In a season when fresh vegetables were scarce, one crisp bite of yellow sprout cabbage brought a hint of spring to the Tianjin table. A small head of yellow sprout cabbage embodies both the ingenuity of ordinary people in dealing with severe winter and their pursuit of a better quality of life.

Minor Cold brings severe winter weather, and the diet is traditionally centered on warming nourishment. At this time, people commonly simmer soups with Chinese yam, goji berries, red dates, and similar ingredients for “温补,” warming nourishment. Minor Cold is considered a good period for winter supplementation, and the saying “三九补一冬，来年无病痛” has circulated since ancient times. Nourishment at this time is traditionally meant to be warming rather than excessively rich or heavy.

In Guangdong and other regions, people simmer mutton soup or chicken soup during Minor Cold and add traditional medicinal ingredients such as angelica root, astragalus, and goji berries in the hope of nourishing the body. In the north, mutton and beef soups are favored to dispel cold and warm the body. North or south, a bowl of hot soup is an indispensable warmth during Minor Cold.

Warming nourishing soups embody the health wisdom of using warmth to resist cold and nourishment to sustain the body. In winter, the body’s yang qi is believed to remain hidden within, and nourishment should be warming rather than drying. A mild, soothing bowl of soup nourishes the body while also comforting the heart. A bowl of hot soup during Minor Cold is one of the simplest everyday expressions of the traditional Chinese medicine principle “nourish yin in autumn and winter.”

People in Nanjing traditionally place importance on drinking chicken soup during Minor Cold, and old Nanjing has the food custom “一九一只鸡”—one chicken for each nine-day period. People believed that from the Winter Solstice onward, one chicken should be eaten every nine days, continuing until the end of the ninth nine-day period, thereby completing the entire winter nourishment plan. Minor Cold falls between the second and third nine-day periods, making it an especially suitable time to eat chicken for nourishment.

Chicken soup is considered nutritious and traditionally associated with warming the center, replenishing qi, nourishing essence, and enriching marrow. Soup made from an old hen is also believed to dispel cold, warm the body, and strengthen resistance. For Nanjing people who value dietary therapy, a bowl of old-hen soup is one of the best rewards one can give oneself during Minor Cold.

Chicken soup carries the seasonal dietary wisdom of “one chicken for each nine-day period, nourishing the body through all nine periods of winter.” From the Winter Solstice to Minor Cold and then Major Cold, one chicken after another links together an entire winter nourishment plan. A bowl of clear chicken soup condenses a whole year of hard work and the hope for health in the year ahead.

During Minor Cold, stalls selling sugar-roasted chestnuts can be seen everywhere on northern streets. Chestnuts are known as “肾之果,” the fruit of the kidneys, and are traditionally associated with strengthening the kidneys and sinews, nourishing the stomach, and strengthening the spleen.

On a cold winter day, buying a freshly roasted bag of chestnuts and holding it warm between the hands already drives away part of the chill. Peel one open, and the golden flesh inside is sweet, soft, and glutinous. Eating chestnuts during Minor Cold is considered beneficial for warming and nourishing the body, and it is also one of winter’s most heartwarming snacks.

Sugar-roasted chestnuts carry the dual meaning of warming both hands and heart, while strengthening the kidneys and body. In the severe winters of northern China, a hot bag of chestnuts warms more than the hands—it warms the heart as well.

Chestnuts are one of China’s traditional dried fruits and are often used as seasonal foods or ritual offerings during festivals such as the Spring Festival, Winter Solstice, and Minor Cold. Peeling open a golden chestnut during Minor Cold, its soft sweetness offers one of the most reassuring forms of happiness in a northern winter.

During Minor Cold, old Beijing had a custom of eating “消寒糕”, literally a cake for dispelling the cold. It is essentially a type of nian gao, steamed from glutinous rice flour together with walnuts, red dates, and other ingredients. Soft and glutinous in texture and sweet in flavor, it was believed by old Beijing residents to help dispel the cold of the winter, hence the name “消寒.”

Because “糕” sounds like “高”, eating Xiaohan Cake also expresses the auspicious wish of “rising higher year after year.”

Every year during Minor Cold, old-established Beijing brands such as Daoxiangcun offer Xiaohan Cake, creating a distinctive winter sight. In times when food and material goods were less abundant, eating a warm piece of Xiaohan Cake was one of the rare sweet pleasures of winter.

Xiaohan Cake carries the dual meanings of dispelling severe cold and rising step by step. The words “消寒” directly express people’s hope that the harsh cold will pass quickly, while the homophony between “糕” and “高” conveys hopes for progress in the coming year. Eating a piece of Xiaohan Cake during Minor Cold makes it seem as though even the bitter cold might melt into its soft, sweet warmth.