Special snack in Jiangshan for Chongyang festival

Peiguo, similar to pizza, is a special snack in Jiangshan, Zhejiang province for Chongyang Festival. [Photo/js-news]

This year's Chongyang Festival or Double Ninth Festival, a day to pay respects to senior citizens, will fall on Oct 17. People in Jiangshan, a county-level city in Zhejiang province are preparing a local snack to celebrate the annual festival.

Peiguo, dubbed Chinese pizza, is a distinctive fermented rice cake topped with pork and vegetables.

Successfully making the snack requires several days of preparation to ensure the rice is fully saturated with water and the yeast is completely stirred and dissolved with the rice. Then people use machines to grind the rice into paste and let it sit for around three hours. The duration for fermentation is quite important and is determined depending on the climates.

When the paste is being fermented, fry all the ingredients together, including pork and various vegetables, season them with salt, and then prepare the toppings. Water bamboo shoots and green beans are must-have vegetables for Peiguo.

When the rice paste is ready, pour it evenly into a special steamer covered with a piece of gauze and place toppings. After steaming it for 10 to 15 minutes, the Peiguo is ready to eat.

Pork and vegetables are ready for toppings of Peiguo. [Photo/js-news]

The rice paste is placed into a bamboo steamer. [Photo/js-news]