Speaking of which, when I was young, I hated garlic, and it had a choking spicy taste, and if I got close, I had a bad feeling. So sometimes when I watch TV, people feel quite puzzled by the behavior of eating noodles with garlic as if they were sucking melon seeds. Garlic and I are separated by a chasm. But this gap was broken one day, and it was the eight garlic of the flavor.
Some time a friend brought me a gift, and it was Lapa Garlic. The small jar of Laba garlic gives people a very beautiful texture, and the inner wall of pure glass is piled up with crystal clear lapa garlic inside, revealing a little ink jade-like luster, and the small jade jade reflects each other inside, and the pearl jade scattered in the spring is nothing more than that. The freshly opened canned garlic tastes very good. Laba garlic should have been soaked for more than a week and still has the taste of new garlic. The taste is not so pungent and spicy, but with a slight sour taste, taste it, and some sweetness emerges from the tip of the tongue, crisp, easy to mouth, on the white porridge is still a bit addictive.
If I'm fascinated by Laba Garlic, then Laba Porridge is one of the most fortunate attempts I've been making.
Lapa Festival is relatively unfamiliar to us Cantonese, and it can even be said that it is very simple, the southern humid and hot weather is mostly, and it is naturally difficult to accommodate the Laba porridge born from the cold and barbaric environment in the warm environment. My acquaintance with Laba Porridge originally stemmed from my mother's attempt.
Mother likes to boil porridge, white rice cold porridge, new year's red sweet porridge, or millet porridge, casserole porridge, etc. are involved in many, the reason why she tried Lapa porridge, probably in the process of relatives chatting, talking about children eating more grains, eight treasure porridge, Lapa porridge What the body grows fast, the benefits of health, and then she began to try to boil Lapa porridge at home.
Naturally, I didn't believe it, but in the end I couldn't resist the rosy bowl of porridge with a hot smell that my mother held out.
In a small bowl, full of red agate-like red, sweet and sticky, decorated with the warmth of a winter, the beans taste like quicksand in the mouth, the silver ear is smooth and tender, the cinnamon candied fruit is warm and slippery, and the bottom of the sticky porridge is also protruding from the barley and walnuts. Looking down, each spoonful scoops up a steaming blessing and melting sweetness, and warms the stomach and heart.
Even a literary gentleman like Shen Congwen can't escape its delicacy and indulge in it.
"When it comes to Laba porridge, who doesn't immediately have a sweet and greasy feeling in their mouths." Combine millet, rice beans, dates, chestnuts, and children to cook into a pot, let it boil like a sigh in the pot, just look at its sigh, smell the fragrance, it is enough to swallow more than three mouthfuls of spit, not to mention, the big bowl is loaded, the spoon is stuffed into the mouth! "
Laba porridge is not only a heart-warming delicacy, but also a testimony to the long river of our history.
The original Lapa Festival dates back thousands of years to ancient times, when people ploughed, hunted, fought fierce beasts under the leadership of tribal leaders, picked up dried fruits, and guarded the fire. In such an era, it is easy to give birth to the concept of gods and totems. Praying for well-being and sacrificing heaven and earth is the place of faith that people live and die. The largest of these is the "Lari Festival", which is mostly in the december of the lunar calendar, which inherits the alternation of the New Year and the old year, adhering to people's expectations and beliefs to connect the heavens and the earth.
Later, with the influx of Buddhism during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the popularity of the rulers, the people's yearning for warm red porridge in the cold winter slowly evolved into the current Lapa Festival. Northerners are particularly fond of this festival, and even a few wealthy bosses will set up a small table in front of the village entrance or in front of the mall, set up bowls of fresh feasts, steaming porridge for pedestrians to eat, chat about gossip news in the day, or the changes in the children at home, through the warm closeness.
Children and children, you don't have to be hungry, after lapa eight is the year, lapa porridge, drink for a few days, mile mile la la twenty-three.
But for Cantonese people, such activities are rarely seen after all, and in the early years, they were even not more than the Eighth Festival. But with the development of communication means over the years, there is also the popularity of electrical appliances such as mobile phones. On such a day, there are always quite a few people who send blessings to the circle of friends, or learn the methods of northerners to boil la ba porridge, pickle la ba garlic, and wait for the arrival of the New Year. But in the end, there are still some differences, such as the northern boiled laba porridge likes to add millet and red dates, etc., while the Guangdong generation is more fond of glutinous rice, lilies, lotus seeds and so on in terms of taste.
Of course, there are also some areas that have developed different changes, such as in the Chaoshan and Shanwei regions, some people have improved the Luohan porridge based on Laba porridge, which is also quite popular. Buy some mustard in the dried fruit shop, rinse them, put them in a pot and add glutinous rice, shiitake mushrooms, dried shrimp, lotus seeds, yams and wild vegetables, as well as home-pickled sausages. Under the boiling of the small fire, the Luohan porridge and water in the casserole slowly formed with the sound of fluttering bubbles, and then the elders of the family would divide it into small bowls for everyone to fill. The porridge is over-flame, which is mixed with granular lotus seeds, mustard fruits, etc., permeated with turquoise texture, emitting a bright and moist breath in the boiling heat, and each bite contained in it carries the unique salty aroma of Luohan porridge and the aroma of rice, which is particularly tempting.
But compared with Luohan porridge, on this day, more Chaoshan people, Shanwei people are more inclined to order a large pot of seafood casserole porridge in the night market, and eat a lively meal with their families, which is extremely sweet.
So, how did everyone live on the day of the Eighth Festival?