Fireworks in garlic
Yang Feng
"Garlic, count it out! You have to be careful to live a long life..." This is what my grandmother said 30 years ago. In the open space of the hometown stove, the mortar socket made of stone, rough and clumsy, the surface of the mortar fossa has been oiled, the garlic hammer is tsubaki, which is different from the general stone garlic hammer, the bottom of the garlic hammer has cracked, the color inside the crack is the same as the outside, and now it seems that the mortar socket is exactly the same as the garlic hammer. Old Garlic sat silently, guarding the cold ash on the stove, but chewing a trace of poverty, half a wisp of cooking smoke and the fireworks that could not be forgotten for a long time.
In 1990, my parents separated from my grandparents "gloriously", saying that it was "glorious", because there would be basically no family base, some were just a few earthen tile houses, a kang, a wooden bed and a wheat cabinet where you could take wheat, a muddy stove, a new pot, and then an old garlic mortar. In my mother's words, there is no decent possession, this old garlic mortar can be regarded as ancestral. Old garlic mortar is different from other possessions, because of all the families, only garlic mortar is given by grandma.
The courtyard of the grandmother's house is a simple courtyard, there is a main house, there are south and north houses, the south house is a house, the stove with earthen kang, is reserved for late autumn and early winter to live in the next spring, the main house is only in summer and autumn, because only the floor of the main house is marble, in summer there is no need for a mattress mat, spread a coarse sheet to sleep, especially cool. Because of my schooling, I spent most of my childhood with my grandmother.
On winter mornings, I often choke on the spicy smell of my grandmother drying chili peppers on the stove. Grandma knew that I liked to eat oil and spicy seeds, so she put a lot of dried chili peppers in the small cave of the stove, took out a dozen and began to pound with garlic. Grandma is not tall, wrapped in a turban, slumped over, covering the mortar socket with one hand, and skillfully pounding the dried chili peppers in the mortar socket with the other, afraid that the peppers will pop out. After pounding for a while, put a pinch of fine salt into the mortar socket, like an old Chinese medicine pestle grinding medicinal powder in a pharmacy, concentrate on it, garlic hammer and mortar nest singing and harmonizing, "咣咣咣", the rhythm is very strong, unhurried. After a while, the dried chili pepper becomes chili noodles, and the grandmother will drop two drops of sesame oil and vinegar in the garlic mortar, and then cut some minced garlic and put it in, saying that it is to prevent the chili batter when the oil is splashed, and then pour it into the garlic mortar with hot oil along the edge of the mortar socket, and immediately the garlic mortar collapses, and with a sigh, along the edge of the mortar socket, white smoke rises, and then a strong aroma of oily spicy seeds fills the whole room, so that I choked on tears, kept sneezing, and my grandmother laughed. The strange thing is that I never heard my grandmother choking on spicy seeds and coughing, nor did I see my grandmother sneezing and shed tears, but I saw the chili noodles on the palm of my grandmother's hand when she covered the mortar socket, and my grandmother would sweep into the mortar nest little by little with a small cooking bamboo.
At noon in summer, nothing compares to a bowl of cold noodles. Grandma and noodles can be at least 2 hours together, the surface of the noodles is smooth, and even the sides of the basin are clean. Cook the noodles in cool water and dry. Garlic is the soul of cold noodles. Prepare the garlic mortar, put the chopped green and red pepper grains in the mortar nest along with garlic cloves and roasted sesame seeds, and when you hear the rhythmic sound of "咣咣咣" sound again, the rallying cry of the dry rice will be blown out. I have a large amount of rice, use a large bowl, multiply more than half a bowl of noodles, put some chopped green onion on top, then dig two spoonfuls of mashed garlic and chili pepper and put them on top, and then pour some cooked hot oil. Often at this time, in addition to hearing the sound of gobbling up noodles, there is also a more pleasant sound, that is, the sound of picking minced garlic little by little with a spoon in the mortar socket, which echoes in the garlic mortar socket for a long time, and the incense seems to have been engraved in the mortar socket for a long, long time and cannot be dispersed.
Today, although I was not "gloriously" separated, when I moved to a new house, my mother-in-law also gave a set of garlic mortar, the surface of the mortar socket is very smooth, the shape is relatively beautiful, the mortar socket is relatively deep, with a girdle and base, the garlic hammer is also new, as if it was pulled out of the mortar socket by a skilled craftsman, and the crisp sound of "banging" is also heard incessantly. It's just that I don't make oily spicy seeds in garlic mortar anymore...
Garlic mortar is not just what my mother said, "Garlic mortar is ancestral", grandma said "Garlic mortar, count it for a long time!" days, you have to be careful to calculate in order to live a long time...", the mortar is more full of the sour, sweet and bitter life of a generation, and witnesses the poverty and hardship of their lives, but what I want to say is that no matter whether the garlic mortar is rough and clumsy on the outside or smooth and exquisite, its heart is quiet, chewing a trace of poverty, half a wisp of cooking smoke and the fireworks that cannot be forgotten for a long time; Its heart is solid, and it adheres to this warmth of life and the hope for a better future.
Yang Feng, pen name Rui Chuan, the owner of Wei Xuan Pavilion, ancestral home in Ruicheng, Shanxi, now lives in Yantai Haiyang. Vice Chairman of Haiyang Writers Association, Vice Chairman of Haiyang Hard Pen Calligraphy Association, Member of Yantai Writers Association, Member of Yantai Prose Literature Association. In 2003, he began to write and publish works, and his poem "One Leaf Maple Love" won the rookie award in the poetry group of the National Literary Works Grand Prix held by Hubei Publishing House in 2003; In May 2019, he won the Excellence Award and "Most Beautiful Poet" in the third national "New Literary Poetry" Grand Prix; His works are mainly modern poetry, prose and new style poetry, and he has created more than 100 works such as the prose masterpiece "Sour Noodle Soup", the poem "Trilogy of "Flow"", "The Sea in the Morning Light", "Falling Peanuts", "Youth, Fence, Autumn Fence Flower" and so on.
Editor: Liu Xueguang
One Point Yantai Essay
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