Shandong snacks
HarmonyReilly
Sweet foam is a traditional popular porridge food in Jinan. It is a kind of salty porridge made mainly of millet flour. People in Jinan also commonly call it "five-spice sweet foam". Among the many snacks in Jinan, Tianmo is the most affordable and high-quality "signature" snack. <br /><br />One of the origins of sweet foam<br /> In the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, due to natural disasters and wars, a large number of refugees flocked to Jinan. There was a small porridge shop surnamed Tian, which often gave up porridge for relief. The victims told each other that an increase in the number of people coming to the porridge shop to drink porridge to save lives. The porridge shop was unable to satisfy everyone's demands, so it added a large amount of vegetable leaves and salty and spicy seasonings to the porridge. Whenever the victims saw white foam in the big pot of porridge before serving bowls and serving porridge, they affectionately called it "Tian Mo", which was the porridge provided by Boss Tian. At that time, a needy scholar who came to Jiji to take the exam also came here to get this porridge. The meal was extremely sweet and he thought that the "sweet foam" would be a true inheritance. Later, after the scholar obtained fame and became an official, he made a special trip to Ji to drink sweet foam again. He no longer felt like it used to be. When asked why, the boss replied that it was actually "Tian foam", which means porridge with the surname Tian. The official suddenly realized that it was caused by a mistake in writing when he only listened to the sound, so he wrote a plaque "Sweet Foam" and recited a poem: "I mistakenly made Tian Mo sweet because of the connection at the beginning; I have read all the vicissitudes of the world. Taste, after bitterness and spiciness, it is always sweet." From then on, this salty porridge was called "sweet foam". It seems that only by personally visiting and drinking this delicious salty porridge can you feel the origin of the name Tianmo! <br /><br />The second origin of sweet foam<br /> There is a saying that best explains the origin of "sweet foam": it was not called "sweet foam" at first, but called "Tianmo"-when the porridge is ready, add some vermicelli, vegetables, peanuts, seasonings, etc."Finally", it tastes great! "Tianmei" spread. Later, people transformed it into "sweet foam" according to its homophonic elegance.
