Home>Tourism>Tour Hunan>Xiangxi Tujia & Miao Autonomous Prefecture>Dining
Tongye Baba (Glutinous Rice Cake Wrapped with Vernicia Fordii Leaves)
In Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, there is a delicious pastry popular with locals. It is made of glutinous rice power and long-shaped rice power and mixed with sweetened bean paste, or soybean meal, diced spicy bean curd, diced preserved meat and vegetables.
The pastry is wrapped with clean leaves of Vernicia Fordii before it is steamed. It is called Tongye Baba in Chinese, a snack food popular in Sichuan, Guizhou, Hubei, western Hunan and northeast Yunnan. It is not only favored by locals as everyday food, but also it is chosen as main food served during Hungry Ghost Festival and Middle-Autumn Festival.
Apart from the ingredients mentioned above, a variety of grain can be made for the snack, such as fermented polished round-grained rice, corn and wheat. Wrapped with fresh and moderate leaves of Vernicia Fordii into funnel shape, Tongye Baba gives off a special fresh fragrance after steamed.
Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn