The birth of a child is without doubt an important event in every family. New mothers throughout Taiwan follow the traditional advice in recovering from childbirth to eat nourishing foods. One popular dish in their postpartum diet is sesame oil chicken, but many decades ago, not every household could afford to buy chicken. Alternatively, people in Tainan came up with the idea of eating pengbing to achieve a similar nourishing effect. At that time, locals believed that the effect of eating three pengbings was equivalent to that of eating sesame oil chicken.
對於每個家庭來說，生孩子絕對是一大要事。無論南北，新手媽媽都會坐月子，食用溫補的食物來恢復身體，最常吃的月子餐是麻油雞。但早年不是每個家庭都買得起雞肉，在台南，人們於是就以椪餅來為產婦坐月子，當時人們認為吃三個椪餅，等於吃一隻麻油雞。
postpartum (adj.) 產後的
Photo courtesy of Bookman l 圖片:書林
equivalent (adj.) 相等的
Pengbing is named for its round and bulging appearance. A brown sugar filling is wrapped in high-gluten flour, then flattened with a rolling pin. The final step before baking it is to cover each cake with the red seal of the bakery. The cake will expand continuously as it bakes, leaving a white, crumbly skin and a hollow center (much like pita bread). The wrapped brown sugar filling expands during the baking, evenly adhering to the cake skin. Pengbing is also often called “fragrant cake” from the aroma of brown sugar released in each bite. To enhance the nourishing effect of eating pengbing, locals would smash the top of a pengbing, crack an egg in the middle and slowly fry it with sesame oil and rice wine. This is the special “postpartum confinement cakes.”
椪餅因圓圓膨膨的外形而得名。在高筋麵粉製成的餅皮中，包入黑糖餡， 平後蓋上各間餅店的紅印，烘烤時餅皮會像西方的口袋餅一樣不斷膨脹，烤好的椪餅外皮薄脆，內部空心。裡面的黑糖餡隨著烘烤膨脹，均勻附著在餅皮上，每一口都可以吃得到黑糖香，台南人更以它香氣十足，而稱其為「香餅」。為了達到溫補功效，當地人會將椪餅頂部敲開，打個蛋，用麻油和米酒慢慢煎，並稱作「月子餅」。
hollow (adj.) 空心的
aroma (n.) 香氣
About 200 years ago, when Tainan was the capital of Taiwan, pengbing was a popular snack, but ordinary people could not afford to eat it. There was a saying at the time: “Even the flies on the grass outside the city wall long for the delicious fragrant cake (pengbing) from the city.” Sugar was a luxury at the time, so most people could only daydream about eating it. Nowadays, however, visitors to Tainan can not only easily find vendors selling postpartum confinement cakes, but find innovative versions with colorful skin and various fillings to choose from. Visitors need to be cautioned about the fragility of pengbing when eating it, as it easily crumbles. Or they can try soaking pengbing in hot milk like the locals do as an alternative way to eat it.
約兩百年前，台南是台灣的首都，椪餅大家都愛，但普通百姓吃不起。當時有句諺語說：「草地蒼蠅嘛肖想縣口香餅」，意思是城外的人也想吃城內的椪餅，是做白日夢。糖在當時是奢侈品，只有住在城裡的有錢人才能買得起。但現在來台南，不僅有賣以麻油煎成的「月子餅」，還有各種口味的椪餅，外皮顏色更加繽紛，內餡還有各種口味可以選擇。不過椪餅容易碎，吃的時候要小心，若是怕碎也可以學台南人泡在熱牛奶吃。
文章由書林出版公司提供：
www.bookman.com.tw
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