Cozying up to the Kitchen God

Editor's note: To understand China, sit down to eat. Food is the indestructible bond that holds the whole social fabric together and it is also one of the last strong bonds of community and culture.

It's only fair that we should pay homage to one of the most ancient of Chinese deities in a food column devoted to a culture largely incubated in the territory he reigns over - the kitchen.

Zaojun, the Kitchen God, is a fair-faced celestial being who spends only a few days in the heavenly court of the Jade Emperor. For most of the year, he presides over the heart and hearth of earthly households, guarding the livestock, the servants and, most of all, the cooking stove.

He is privy to the darkest secrets, and he sees all.

From as long as we can remember, the portrait of the Kitchen God, seen here with his wife, has reigned over the cooking stove in many Chinese kitchens. Jin Yuequan / For China Daily

He listens to the back room gossip, the quarrels among the womenfolk. He witnesses the trickery of malingering servants, the secret stashes of food hidden for a stolen feast, the cutting of corners in the making of a complicated dish, the whispered rumors, the scandalous truths.

For those reasons, when it is time for him to ascend to make his annual reports, the whole household is suddenly alerted to his imminent departure and he is showered with food offerings to put him in the best of moods.

Yes, even the gods must be bribed. In this case, the Kitchen God is sent off with an appropriate feast, all of which will include a final offering that is very sticky, and very sweet.

These sticky sweets, the foolish humans hope, will seal his lips or sweeten his tongue and he will return in the new year with the appropriate bountiful blessings from heaven after making a positive assessment of their merits.

Right now, in kitchens large and small all across China, the preparations are starting. Zaojun will be traveling to report to his boss soon, on the 23rd day of the last lunar month, which is Jan 20.

He has been doing this every year for a long, long time - as far back as the Xia Dynasty (c.21st century-16th century BC), more than 2,000 years before Christ was born. The Xia was the first recorded dynasty in Chinese history, so it is likely Zaojun has been around even longer than that.

Basically, the Kitchen God has been guardian of the stove ever since the Chinese started cooking indoors.

The day of his departure also signals the start to a flurry of preparations for the official arrival of Spring, a week away. His portrait, probably smoky from standing over the stove for an entire year, will be taken down, smeared with honey and reverently burnt to send him on his way.

In the new year, a brand new portrait will go up on the wall.

Meanwhile, the kitchen and its inhabitants will be pretty busy. There is even a folk rhyme to guide you through it all:

Twenty-third, pumpkin candies, twenty-fourth, spring cleaning.

Twenty-fifth, tofu time, twenty-sixth, make meat stew.

Twenty-seventh, kill the rooster, twenty-eighth, rise the dough.

Twenty-ninth, steam the buns,

New Year's Eve, stay up late

New Year's Day, celebrate!

Once Zaojun leaves, replete with sticky pumpkin-shaped candies, the mops and dusters come out the next day and every dustball and each cobweb is industriously swept up and removed.

The more creative among the girls will start crafting beautiful paper cut-outs from auspicious red paper. Fruits and flowers, the Chinese characters for happiness and spring, images of deer and bats and other lucky icons - all these will be pasted on windows and walls.

Those with good calligraphy skills will be called upon to write couplets of good wishes that will go across lintels and door frames. All on red paper.

In the meantime, an enormous amount of cooking will be done - starting with the slaughter of the chickens, ducks, pigs and goats to the soaking of soy beans for the making of tofu.

Another important task is the bun making. Steamed buns are very much part of the daily diet all year round, but the buns for the New Year will be decorated with dates and shaped into impressive works of art.

In my own household, Ayi and I will be creating flower buns cut from strips of dough artfully twisted into blossoms. Ayi comes from Henan, where the ladies are really good at turning dough into masterpieces of miniature architecture.

She has taught me how to press dried Chinese jujubes into the dough for instant effect. The red fruits add color and flavor as well. We also make piggy buns because the pig is, of course, a symbol of prosperity.

In the southern regions of China, a sticky rice cake called niangao is also prepared. The basic recipe is golden syrup and glutinous rice flour. Occasionally, red beans and coconut milk are added and the mixture poured into containers lined with bamboo or coconut leaves. These days, elaborate jelly molds are used to shape the cakes, with fish molds being the most popular because fish is homophonic with "overflowing abudance".

At this time of the year, rituals and symbolic foods become part of the celebrations and even though some may seem to be based simply on superstitions, they are still oddly comforting and very much part of the festivities that make a new lunar year so very special.

As for the Kitchen God, I'm pretty sure he enjoys the attention he gets every year and he never fails to return, duty completed, and ready for another year listening in on the household secrets.

paulined@chinadaily.com.cn