Cloud cake with too big year
Original text / Zhang Qiuqin
It's the New Year again, and these days I'm worried about buying cloud cakes for my mother.
Speaking of buying cloud cakes for the New Year, it has been a tradition for generations in our family. Since I can remember, when I entered the Waxing Moon Gate, the ancestors would prepare dozens of cloud cakes early and wait for them to be given to the younger generations. On the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, two pieces of cloud cake per person and pressed money were pressed under the children's pillows.
The pressure money can be ignored, no matter how much, once I received 2 cents, 5 cents of the pressure of the year, the cloud cake is always indispensable. The elders will give the cloud cake to the younger generations, and will also send hope at the same time: I hope that the children will grow tall, get high scores, be happy every day, rise high, have a high future, etc., as long as it is a blessing related to "high", they can be sent, and "cake" takes its meaning of "high".
Grandma has been around the pot all her life and has no fixed income, but she is sensible, takes the overall situation into account, and is single-mindedly thinking about her children and grandchildren. Usually everyone is filial to the old man, give a 5 yuan, 10 yuan, she is reluctant to spend, with a handkerchief wrapped layer after layer under the pillow. Only in the New Year will she carefully take it out, repeatedly nagging, urging us to help her go to the Hejia Pastry Factory to buy cloud cakes.
30, 50, no more.
With the growth of the team of future generations, the number of cloud cakes has also increased, "buy more, buy more, cousins, cousins have a share!" "Piece by piece and pressed money in a red bag to enter the countdown.
Gradually, when the distant juniors came to visit Grandma, they put down their gifts and left, who still had the inconspicuous cloud cake.
However, Grandma was very insistent that we chase outside the door and must give the cloud cake to the guests, the old man said, this is called a gift, the New Year can not let the guests go back empty-handed.
Every year, I not only habitually wait for the cloud cake, but also inherit the old tradition, and on the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, I quietly stuffed the cloud cake under the pillows of my husband, daughter and nephew, wishing everyone peace and happiness in the coming year.
My daughter went on a long trip, whether she went to study or went out to work hard, before leaving, in a simple bag, she always had to secretly stuff the cloud cake sent by my grandmother and me, and at the same time, there was a silent worry in our hearts.
The deepest memory is the day I sent my grandmother to heaven, my heart was suddenly hollowed out as if it hurt, crying and chasing and shouting not to let my grandmother go out: "Who will send me cloud cake next year?" ”
My aunt heard that, and she dragged me and said, "There's me!" But she didn't have the patience to do it to the end, and she insisted on it for a few years. My father did not express his attitude, but silently took over the class. Every year after the 20th of the lunar month, he would brave the cold to line up at the Hejialong Pastry Factory in Zhenjiang and carry back a large bag of cloud cakes.
In addition to the pillows, we usually put cloud cakes and candies on the stove and the iron pot on the night of the Chinese New Year's Eve, hoping that the king of the stove will be sweet and sweet, say good things, say good things to heaven, and return to the palace to descend to peace.
Three years ago, my father went to heaven, and my mother has been fulfilling the family's ironclad promises.
Every year before the New Year, my mother would help us choose the celery and pea seedlings, wrap them in newspaper, stir-fry the assorted vegetables, and make them one by one, among which the indispensable one was the cloud cake — she knew we didn't have time to do these chores.
After the demolition of the old house, the mother's residence is far from the Hejia Lane Pastry Factory, coupled with the inconvenience of legs and feet, climbing on the bus is already a very tangled and difficult thing, the annual queue to buy cloud cakes, a bit like Shu Dao is as difficult as Shu Dao...
With this in mind, sometimes everyone will joke together that they will not send cloud cakes again this year, and last year's ones were still at home and no one was eating them, so it was a pity to throw them away. Listening to this, my mother didn't say anything, but my heart was a little cold.
How can I count the New Year without cloud cake? The Custom of the Year can be simplified, and the ritual sense of cloud cake must be preserved. Some people worry about the day of sending cloud cakes, which means that our lives still have a source.
Life should be cherished.
Zhenjiang people call dim sum tea food, and used to visit relatives and friends to carry tea bags, which is a high-standard etiquette. Cloud cake, big Beijing fruit, small Beijing fruit, small hemp cake, "sparrow head", egg yolk crisp, peach crisp, Beijing fruit powder... We often call the alley of Hejia Lane passing by, across the gate, you can see the workers wearing white overalls in and out, more attractive, is the smell of sesame oil floating above the alley, can't help but stop and smell for a while.
Later, I specially went to visit the pastry factory in Hejia Lane, which is the old brand in Zhenjiang, the old factory area, the old workers who are not good at words, and the traditional craftsmanship: honest people do honest things.
This cloud cake is made of glutinous rice flour, sugar, and vegetable oil as raw materials, and there is no tall foreign equipment, and it is processed by semi-mechanized and semi-manual methods. If you have eaten this cloud cake, and then change the brand to eat, you will definitely not want to touch other people's...
Every year when I receive the cloud cake, I rejoice in my heart, because that is called reunion and reunion, the days increase the life expectancy of people, and I wish the mothers and elders who send us cloud cakes every year, high happiness and high life.
Original text
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