Steamed Blood Cake 血糕

Steamed Blood Cake (血糕) is a snack from Anyang (安阳), Henan, made by steaming buckwheat flour with pig's blood and then slicing and frying the cake before it is served with garlic. The Anyang city government says fried blood cake is popularly known as one of the "three treasures of Anyang" (安阳三大宝), together with pizha (皮渣), a steamed cake of glass noodles, and fenjiang rice (粉浆饭), a sour millet porridge cooked in mung-bean starch water.

How it is made

According to the Anyang city government, buckwheat flour and pig's blood are mixed with seasonings and steamed into a cake. A Ta Kung Pao feature on Anyang's three treasures notes that Anyang grows buckwheat and adds the next steps: the steamed cake is left to cool, cut into slices and fried in oil, then spread with mashed garlic.

Flavour and texture

The city government describes the result as spicy and savoury. Ta Kung Pao's writer found the slices a bright red, laid out on the plate like opening plum blossoms, audibly crisp when bitten, with the garlic lingering afterwards.

Where it comes from

Ta Kung Pao retells a local legend from the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty: heavy rain flooded the fields around Anyang, and officials handed out buckwheat seed to see people through the famine. A farmer surnamed Wang steamed buckwheat flour with pig's blood, fried the cake and dressed it with garlic juice, liked the taste and made a living selling it, and the cake became a popular snack across the Anyang area.