I can't forget the old Beijing New Year's Box, and I can't forget the "big eight" in my heart.

Speaking of old Beijingers celebrating the Lunar New Year, there are indispensable "big eight pieces". In the past two or three decades, people's lives have become better and better, and the days are like sesame blossoms. There are countless kinds of New Year's food, so many people don't know what the old Beijingers commonly call the "big eight pieces" of the dumpling box. In the past, the "big eight pieces" were a must-have gift (souvenir) for people in old Beijing when they visited relatives to visit the New Year.

As a person of my time, I have a strong affection for the "big eight pieces", because I have always believed that I can only see them in the New Year, and I can only eat the delicious "big eight pieces" in the New Year.

"Big Eight Pieces" or "Kyo Eight Pieces" are eight kinds of Beijing-style pastries with different shapes and tastes. The "Big Eight Pieces" were originally Ming and Qing court pastries, and later spread to the people, with eight kinds of raw materials such as date paste, green plums, raisins, roses, bean paste, sugar, bananas, pepper and salt as the filling, made of lard, water and noodles as the skin, stuffed with skin, baked.

I can't remember when it started, but when every Lunar New Year came, our family would buy a box of "big eight pieces" of dumpling boxes, and this unwritten custom continued until a few years ago. In the eyes of today's Beijingers, the "big eight pieces" from the past New Year's essentials, with the improvement of living standards, has long ceased to be a unique food of the Spring Festival, but more of a ritual, a kind of topic and memory that everyone recalls when they gather.

When I grew up, I still lingered on the old food boxes, and the work of buying "big eight pieces" every year at home was mine. I remember that in the 1960s and 1970s, buying "big eight pieces" was still a relatively luxurious thing, and not everyone would buy a whole box of dumplings. Speaking of which, I still remember going to the store every year to pick pastries. The whole family sharing the "Big Eight Pieces" pastries together during the Spring Festival is a beautiful memory that can never be forgotten.

A few years ago, when I last saw "big eights" in the supermarket, I was at a loss. In addition to a warm feeling that arises from this, it also reminds me of the past, but also accompanied by a bitter feeling. Because today it is already a thing and a person, the person who once shared the "big eight things" with me is no longer there. This time, I did not buy the "big eight pieces", but just took a photo of the food box as a memory and souvenir.

This photo has been with me for several years, and seeing this photo again this year, the five flavors and miscellaneous old things came to my mind, and there was an indescribable feeling.

Since that time, I have never bought a "big eight" of the dumpling box. Because I'm sometimes afraid to touch my thoughts about the past.

The box contains too much of my emotions, my memories. "Big Eight Pieces", as the pastry delicacy of the old Beijingers during the Spring Festival, will continue its story.

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