For the past few days, Tang Xiaonan's breakfast had been nothing but Qingming rice cakes. There were savory ones and sweet ones, green ones and white ones. Her mother, Phoebe Huxley, had made some, her grandma Raina had made plenty, and her maternal grandmother had even sent some over. The family was overflowing with so many Qingming rice cakes that they had them for breakfast every single day.
The white ones, called *baiguo*, were made without the traditional Qingming grass. They usually had a savory filling of stir-fried pickled mustard greens, pork belly, firm tofu, spring bamboo shoots, and scallions, all finely diced. The green ones, or *qingguo*, were made with Qingming grass (mugwort) boiled with lye, then mixed with glutinous rice flour to form a dough. The dough was shaped into a bowl, filled, and then pinched shut on both sides, resembling a dumpling.
