<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" > (prose) Yang Baosen</h1>
The summer night was cool, sitting by the side of the road, and overheard the selling voice: "Who buys pea cake...". After a long time gone, pea cake, I subconsciously called the old man, "Come a piece of multi-flavored pea cake", "There is sweet, light, no multi-flavor", the old man said, "Then come to a piece of sweet". Seriously, since I left my hometown for more than forty years, I have not eaten pea cake. Chewing on a sweet pea cake, reminiscing about the taste of childhood, my thoughts suddenly took me to that distant hometown, and the sweet, spicy, bitter, salty, and spicy multi-flavored pea cake made by my unforgettable mother.
My childhood was in the late '60s, during the period of large groups. Every summer, the pea green waves planted by the production team are wave-by-wave, the summer wind is accustomed, and the flowers flow one by one, such as colorful butterflies flying, and the fragrance of flowers is overflowing, refreshing. Idyllic scenery, picturesque, like a fairyland. Beautiful scenery in summer, full of flowers. Every time I see this scene, I am overjoyed. Pea, an annual or biennial vine herb, pinnate compound leaves, apical leaflets, deformed into tendrils leaflets, ovate. The flowers bloom in April and May, the flowers are white or lilac-red, butterfly-shaped, fruity, commonly known as beans, edible. At that time, rural life was very bitter, usually most of them were "nest head dipped in peppers, the more you eat the more fat", it is rare to eat white noodle steamed buns, only every New Year's Festival can eat fritters, white noodle buns and other fine grains. Therefore, picking beans in summer is our beautiful vision to improve our lives.
In my childhood, every time I thought of eating pea horns, I salivated. When the peas are ripe, the fields are peas except for wheat. Walking on the side of the road, you can pick it up at your fingertips. At that time, it was a collective, and the production team was very strictly managed, and it was not allowed to pick it until it was mature. However, for us children, some policies are relaxed, but they can only be picked on the side of the road, not in the field. At that time, most of us received "communism", "patriotism", and "collectivism", so we children were still disciplined, only picking roadsides, and did not dare to cross the thunder pond for half a step. When the beans are not ripe, they can be eaten raw, gently peel off the skin, and gently squeeze two rows of tender beans into the mouth, and the beans fall into the mouth, and the taste is extremely sweet. The horns are crisp and tender, the head will be broken, and then the skin will be peeled off by hand and gently chewed in the mouth, crisp and smooth. When the beans are ripe, you can cook the beans. After the beans are cooked, place on ice in cold water for a while, and then eat. Just put the beans in the mouth, gently squeeze with your hands, the beans stay in the mouth, crisp and tender, fragrant and sweet.
I remember once, a few of our friends combined, on the pretext of hitting pig grass, secretly ran to the shore of the shooting lake, drilled into the pea field, and gave a fierce hand. Then, put the stolen peas under the pig grass and wait until you get home to secretly cook and eat them. I remember that time, my mother finished work early, as soon as she entered the house, she saw that we were eating happily, and did not scold us immediately, but only did not see it, but went to the housework. Only when we were finished enjoying ourselves and destroying the scene, our mother suddenly called us, gathered and stood up, and started a political criticism meeting. We know that we are wrong, so we "confess and be lenient" in order to seek the leniency of our mothers. My mother scolded us fiercely and told us to always remember: "Don't take a match for collective things, don't ask for other people's things no matter how good they are, and can't do bad things no matter how small." This is my family's "three noes" principle, and I have learned it many times. But this time it was a first-time offender, and my mother finally forgave us.
But the most memorable thing is the multi-flavored pea cake made by my mother. There are many ways to make pea cakes. Sugar can be put into the sweet, salt can be put into the salty, but nothing can be put into the light. But the mother's method is very special, the peas are mixed with flour, which is filled with some peppers, bitter melon puree, peppercorns and other spices, made into a flatbread, put in a pot and steamed on high heat. After steaming, remove from the pan and place on the board to cool. After cooling, use a knife to cut into boxy pieces. Cut-out pea cake, white as powder, uncut yellow as gold, mixed with the face, can be described as innocent, clear, that is, beautiful, delicious, tasteless sour, sweet, bitter, spicy taste. In my childhood memories, on summer nights, the family sat around the earthen table, talking and laughing, eating the multi-flavored pea cake made by my mother, and listening to my grandmother tell the story of the cowherd and the weaver girl was the most beautiful, warmest and most entertaining time.
Happy times are always too late to taste and rush through the long years, making people nostalgic and reminiscent. Today, I am middle-aged, my mother is full of flowers, and even the younger generations have a long childhood. But whenever I remember the pea cake in my hometown, the deep hometown feeling makes me cry. After the ups and downs of life and the ups and downs of life, I really understood my mother's good intentions in making multi-flavored pea cakes. Taste the multi-flavored pea cake and understand the philosophy of life: be innocent and upright.
Ah, the pea cake of my hometown, accompanied by my taste and taste of life, walked through a wonderful life.