Since 1912, hundreds of bowls of homemade savory rice cake (碗粿) have overloaded the offering table of the Chen family home in Changhua County’s Tianwei Township (田尾) to venerate the art of making the perfect savory rice cake, a tradition passed down through 29 generations.
Family patriarch Chen Jung (陳茸) and matriarch Tsan Ju-fu (詹如福) began selling the rice cakes in Changhua in 1850. Seven years later, they bought land in Tianwei and built their first house, which later became the Chen family’s ancestral temple, family members said.
Chen and Tsan led a frugal life to keep the rice cake business afloat and their family thriving. They acquired land totaling more than 10 hectares with 19 wooden houses built for their descendents, the Chen family said.
Photo: Chen Kuan-yu, Taipei Times
Sunday was the 104th anniversary of the Chen family’s “savory rice cake festival.”
An annual family reunion, it is a time when family members return to Changhua to pay tribute to their ancestors, the Chen family said.
Their offerings do not constitute any regular sumptuous banquet, but a wide array of savory rice cakes that come in different sizes and flavors, handmade by each member of the family, although one ingredient has remained unchanged — gratitude for their ancestors, the Chens said.
The Chens create the kind of savory rice cake endemic to central Taiwan, made of steamed ground rice topped with fried mushrooms, shrimps, dried shallots and pork slices, and dressed with creamy soy sauce.
The Chens said that more than half of the people who sold savory rice cakes in Changhua in the early days were their relatives.
Chen Wei-jen (陳韋任), a 22nd generation descendent, said that the savory rice cake industry has been declining, with only one branch of the extended family still selling the delicacy in the county’s Tianjhong Township (田中).
The family has branched out beyond the county, but each year’s festival brings the family back together, competing to make the perfect savory rice cake and serving up one bowl of culinary delight after another on offering tables, in a celebration more boisterous than that of the Lunar New Year, Chen Wei-jen said.
Chen Chia-lien (陳嘉蓮) a 23rd generation descendent and Taichung resident, said family members cook savory rice cake in steaming kitchens to prepare for the festival, which has become an iconic representation of festivity for her.
Taipei resident Chen Chih-yang (陳志揚) said that the rice cake festival was a highly anticipated event when he was a child.
He used to follow his grandmother to the rice-grinding factory where the rice was ground to milk to make the rice cake, he said, adding that the traditional rice cake prepared by his grandmother is the best he has ever had.
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