343 Remember the things that ate lobster in Angola, Africa
I came to earth for a trip, and I wanted to swim against the current. More than forty years of hard work, in exchange for half a life of confusion. He once went to a foreign country and returned with bruises all over his body. Looking at the past now, it is only a big dream.
The hardest thing in Angola in Africa is not the difficulty of work, nor the hot weather, but the pain of homesickness and the inability to eat. Although all companies have their own canteens and have special people to cook, it is inevitable that they will get bored of eating day after day, year after year. Because of the fear of danger, you can't go out casually in Angola, let alone ask a few people to find a restaurant to drink, so it has become the norm to get some small dishes to drink in the dormitory.
In Angola, not all people love to drink, the price is very high to get a la carte drink a lot of money, across the sea to work abroad to earn money, so look for those cheap things, such as black people do not eat lobster, crabs, turtles these shell things are very cheap at the beginning, as well as sheep water, sheep heads, cow heads, cattle water and so on these things are very cheap.
Black people don't eat these things, so it was really cheap in the beginning, it was said that $10 could buy a large pot of lobsters (that is, the largest pot, more than a meter in diameter and more than 30 centimeters deep), well, that's what the colleague who has been in Angola since 2008 told me, and said that it was not a flat pot, it was a pot with a tip, and the big one was more than a foot long. This big pot of three or five strong men steamed and boiled and drank wine for two days and could not finish eating... Later the Negro looked at us with pity, and then the price of these things that we liked to eat slowly increased.
Well, I admit that I didn't catch up with that wave of benefits and didn't eat such cheap lobster. I went to Angola to work in 2011 and didn't eat such a cheap lobster, but I ate cheap haggis and beef offal or something. From the beginning of not wanting money in vain to the later asking for money, and then after the Chinese to ask for these things later, the black profiteers who killed in heaven actually got the same price as the serious lamb. Originally, they threw away these things, and when they saw Chinese they ate, they needed money, and these black-hearted black profiteers who were killed by heaven were killed.
Because there is a period of time to do nothing, so usually every Saturday and Sunday to go to the beach bar to play, listen to music and drink some beer to see the black people dancing to enjoy the exotic seaside wind, not a professional dance to come to life, although occasionally there is an urge to dance with black people, but as soon as they lift their arms, the wind is full of fishy, strong, smelly elbow nest smell that can be smoked by the wind makes me daunted, or pull it down, I can't enjoy this strong African flavor.
I went to the bar just to wait to buy lobsters, because there were often black people going out to fish in the bar not far away, and every time I went there, I saw the black fishing boat fishing back, so we bought some by the way.
The most bought or lobster, colleagues after seeing the lobster has not seen the world's look, shouting a hug to start watching, the elated look is painful, alas, these children may have only seen cooked lobster, have not seen the live, right?
Usually, we buy according to the number of people, one for each person, and once when we worked in Soyo, we once bought a large lobster that was a foot long, and after steaming, each of them held one and ate it. Everyone was very happy, there was garlic soup, there was mustard, and there were lobsters in the photo... It was a lot of fun anyway.
Later, lobsters became expensive, about 20 yuan a piece. At the same time, because we eat every week, everyone is bored, or because we don't do a good job. So there are always people who say that this lobster is not as good as haggis soup, so slowly it will eat less.
In 2016, due to the company's driver resigned, he returned to China to marry his daughter-in-law. The Beijing headquarters recruited a 48-year-old driver from China. When the driver arrived, he showed a strong interest in lobsters. At first, I thought he was a coastal hometown and used to eating seafood, but it turned out to be Shandong.
On an outing, the driver saw a black man walking on the road carrying a pot of lobsters, waving at us as we passed, and the driver asked me: Is there money? I'll exchange rmb for your kwanza. I asked him: Why? He said that the black man was not a lobster in the basin? Want to buy something to eat.
Heck, I thought he wanted money for other purposes, like going to heaven and earth to consume, and the result was simply to eat some lobster, so to speak, just stop the car and buy it.
We parked the car and waited for the black woman to come over, and when we parked, the black woman showed her white teeth and smiled like a flower, and came over in three steps and two steps, breathlessly took the basin off her head and put it on the ground and said: Amigu, A give, make a fuss, jump. The driver asked me what this black man was saying? I told him the Negro was saying: Friend, this, new, very good, you can understand it as: Friend, this is fresh, delicious...
The driver crouched down to pick out the lobster and suddenly asked me: How do you smell the smell? Is the lobster broken? I told him it wasn't the bad smell of lobster, it was the smell of black women's stinky elbows. The dude looked at the black woman doubtfully and then at me, a look of confusion on his face. The black woman was also looking at me, and I felt like she was thinking: What are these two people muttering? Do you want to be beautiful?
The driver, a frugal man, chose a few small crabs and crayfish and told me that was enough. I asked him why he didn't choose a few bigger ones and buy more?
He laughed and said that it was enough to eat a rarity, and that working abroad was to earn money, not to consume. Hey, what a family man. He asked me to ask the black woman how much money these were, and after asking the black woman, she said to give 1,000 kwanzas, and I told the driver: I want 1,000 kwanzas, and the driver asked me how much 1,000 kwanzas are equivalent to.
This can make me embarrassed, I haven't asked about the market situation for a long time, but I remember that it is 500 kwanzas or 600 kwanzas for 1 DOLLAR, I told him about 12 yuan or so, maybe less. The driver listened to the music and happily said that it was not expensive.
I didn't pay right away, I told the black woman about the price, it was nothing more than complaining about the small size of the lobster, the crab is not beautiful, 500 wideza, right? Black women refuse, saying 800 widezas, 800 widezas is 800 widezas, which is about 8 yuan, it is indeed not expensive.
After returning to the company, we did not go to the canteen for dinner, but just came back with a few dishes and rice, washed the lobster and small crabs, and then found a pot to start cooking, in my experience, slow cooking on a low heat to cook the pot.
While cooking the lobster, I ran to the kitchen to find a head of garlic and got some sour juice, and when I came back, I waited for the pot to open. It didn't take long to open the pot, and the driver asked me if it was cooked? I said rest assured, with my experience eating lobster for five or six years, it will be no problem.
After fishing it out, it was placed in a bowl, and we had such a condition, and the lobster with the big flower bowl was so simple and unpretentious.
Drinking from the kitchen to ask for a bottle of two pot heads, the driver was very satisfied with the lobster drinking wine, told me that the lobster at home is very expensive... Cheaper to eat here...
I peeled a lobster and put it in a bowl, looking at the white rice and lobster meat, it felt that it was not as good as braised elbows and rice!
Later, the driver worked for more than a year and resigned to go home, as if his mother was not in good health. Every time I think of him, I always think of the scene where he carefully asked me to borrow money. The driver does not use WeChat and QQ, is a very responsible person.
This life is long, treat everyone well, do your best, life is a trip that cannot be returned, may the mountains have fog lights, and the fluttering can also return to the boat. I wish you all goodness and a smooth path. Come on, bro. Fox Fairy 2022.7.7