Stove in my hometown
Text/Han Young-min
(Web Photo)
There is a custom in my hometown, except for the noble relatives (son-in-law), who are not seated, relatives, friends and the main family eat large pots of vegetables and steamed buns, and what supports this matter is the stove that burns firewood. Some time ago, I attended the funeral of my friend's mother and relived this scene, and the story of what happened around the stove came to my eyes.
When I was a child, every time I came to dinner, smoke rose from every household, and the air was mixed with the smoky smell of firewood and the rich smell of rice. There is the smell of sweet potatoes, the fragrance of corn, the occasional sweet and soft noodle smell, accompanied by the rhythmic sound of "grunting" and "grunting". One is to improve the food at home or to come to relatives.
The bellows is a booster for the stove. Generally it is a wooden structure, a wooden handle, two square sticks above and below, connecting a wooden board, placed in a wooden box, used to carry the wind, the front of the wooden box leaves an air inlet, the lower right end has an air inlet, slightly protruding, inserted into the hole at the bottom of the stove, by pushing and pulling the handle, the wind is brought into the stove. When cooking, the left hand usually pulls the bellows and the right hand adds firewood. The stove plate is not good or connected to the kang, it is easy to smoke, and the firewood grass is damp or it is more likely to be stuffy on rainy and cloudy days.
I remember once my mother pasted a cake and asked me to help pull the bellows for a while. As a result, I helped backwards, self-defeating and backfired, because the firewood and grass were wet and put more, forming a stuffy smoke, choking mother and I only shed tears, the more urgent the more to pull the bellows, the more the bellows smoke, then the mother opened me, and soon the flames in the stove came out. My mother gave me the opportunity to teach me: "To be a man is to be real, and to burn fire is to be vain." The only reason for the smoke is that you put more wood and grass compaction, and the more urgent the bellows, the easier it is to blow out the open flame, and the more smoke there is. My mother taught me a lifelong benefit through burning fire. This is also the main reason why I have been insisting on "doing things in a down-to-earth manner and being honest" for decades.
The stove has also undergone several periods of evolution. In my impression, at the beginning, most of the people's stoves were connected to the earthen kang, mainly for heating in winter, and the stoves were also built by adobe. The deepest memory is that the chang grandmother who did not take five clothes burned the hottest kang, willing to burn firewood, there is another reason, there is no farm work in the winter field, the adults eat dinner early, gathered at Chang Grandma's house, sat around the kang, leaned on a kerosene lamp, began to read the old cards, played until late at night, our family and Chang Grandma are neighbors, my mother often takes me over, most of me sleep in Kang Jiao, to the middle of the night confused and woke up, and then go home to sleep. Subtly, I also learned to look at the old cards early, the favorite is the "old thousand" in the cards, what cards can also be top, just like the big and small kings in the playing cards.
Every few years, the kang and stove are replaced. Over time, the adobe turned black, covered with thick tar, and the stove and the clay kang were dismantled and smashed, and pushed into the ground for fertilizer. This work is usually carried out in late summer and early autumn, through a cool dry autumn in preparation for the winter to be reactivated.
The spring breeze of reform and opening up has blown all over the motherland, and my hometown has also undergone earth-shaking changes, and the living conditions of the villagers have been greatly improved. All kinds of novel styles, soft and comfortable beds replaced the earthen kang, the stove was also moved from the house to the courtyard kitchen, after several changes, the stove was replaced by adobe to brick, and invented a chimney instead of a bellows, and the stove was tiled, which was beautiful and clean. The bellows disappear from people's lives forever. What the attentive people left behind has also become the exhibits of the Folklore Museum.
Nowadays, every household uses natural gas, according to the installation of natural gas has a hard requirement, that is, the gas stove can not be in the same room with the stove, the stove of the villagers is basically demolished, and what is preserved is very few.
I miss the smoke that disappeared, and I am more nostalgic for the fragrant cauldron dish, and after flipping the house left by the old man, I specially bought a mobile stainless steel stove, pushed it into the courtyard, and put it in the door hole when not in use. Every week at church, with grandchildren and granddaughters back to their hometown, sometimes stewed ribs, sometimes stewed stupid chicken, sometimes stewed large pot dishes, the family is hot to eat a meal. My grandson and granddaughter happily rode their bicycles back and forth in the courtyard, and although my family and I were tired physically and mentally, we were happy and harmonious. More importantly, pass on the good family style to the children and be an honest and trustworthy person.
I have a friend who starts a business in a foreign country and every time he comes back, he has to go to his hometown to rub a meal. He brought his own lamb (more than 30 pounds) and it was a little fatter, and there were various spices, he cooked it himself, stewed a pot full of lamb, invited a few relatives and friends, ate meat in large pieces, drank wine in large bowls, and drank until late at night. That feeling of beauty cannot be described by words.
【About the Author】Han Yingmin, a gaotang from Shandong, a member of the Chinese Essay Literature Society and a member of the China Collectors Association, likes to collect pots and literature, and "pot words and pot language" in the text.