Let's go, go to the Lingtai to eat slender noodles and walk
Author: Li Manqiang
Gansu is the kingdom of noodles, in addition to the well-known Lanzhou beef noodles, slurry water surface, fried guns, caviar rubbing, Ga noodles, mixed noodles, lentil noodles, etc., are very characteristic noodles. Of course, in this fragrant territory, Lingtai handmade noodles are indispensable.
Lingtai is located on the Longdong Plateau, the unique geographical environment has created the winter wheat gluten here is large and thin, and Lingtai is known as the "granary of Longdong". I am a native of Pingliang and know that Lingtai handmade noodles are delicious, but I have never had the opportunity to taste them. In the summer of 2016, Pingliang City held a literary creation revision meeting, and most of the invited guests were editors of southern publications. After taking them to taste mutton steamed buns, finger meat and other delicacies, I took them to taste handmade noodles. At that noodle eating, everyone was very happy, saying that they had never seen such a formation in the south. Friends said that if they want to eat authentic Lingtai handmade noodles, they will also have to go up to Shaozhai Plateau. Years have passed, and I have been thinking about it in my heart.
In August of the year of Renyin, a few friends crossed Liupan Mountain together and went to Lingtai to play. One night, I drank a few glasses, and the next day the stomach was still full of wine, thinking that it would be good if I could eat a bowl of sour noodle soup at noon, so I drove to Shaozhai Town, and the handmade noodles I had been thinking about were finally on the field. First it was "soup thin", then "soup wide", then "wide dry", and then "soup thin...... The noodles are gluten and refreshing, and the soup is sour and spicy, which makes people dazzled and eaten heartily.
Lingtai handmade noodles are also called "saliva water noodles" or "dragon whisker noodles", commonly known as "a mouthful of incense". It's delicious, and the core is the word "handmade". In our Longdong area, mixing, kneading, rolling, and cutting noodles are the housekeeping skills of many rural daughters-in-law. On a huge apricot wood board, a lump of kneaded dough is rolled out until it is as thin as a cicada's wings, the thickness is uniform, and it is cut into strips about two or three millimeters wide and about two feet long. In today's industrialization, many traditional crafts have been abandoned, but in Lingtai, handmade noodles have been preserved, and to a certain extent, it also reflects the love of noodles and a kind of food culture confidence here. The noodles rolled out and cut out in this way, and then accompanied by the "five-colored" soup - red (carrot), white (tofu), yellow (daylily), green (green onion), black (black fungus), a bowl of "thin, tendon, light, sour, spicy, fragrant, fried, thin, wang", the color and flavor of the handmade noodles, do not let your appetite be great!
The handmade noodles of the Lingtai have different names depending on the occasion. The elderly eat "longevity noodles" for their birthdays; eat "auspicious noodles" when the child is born for 100 days or when the full moon is born, which means that the child lives a long life; eat "New Year's noodles" on the first day of the first month; eat "soul noodles" on the seventh day of the first month, which means happiness for a long time; eat "hanging sickle noodles" after the wheat is harvested; eat "happy noodles" on the second day of the wedding, which means that the newlyweds are in constant love; the noodles made by the new daughter-in-law on the fourth day of marriage are called "trial knife noodles", and the wider this noodles are, the more generous the daughter-in-law's heart is; when the guests arrive or friends get together, they eat "hospitality noodles" , implying friendship lasts forever, and whether it is a wedding banquet or a funeral banquet, the last staple dish is called "four happy noodles", and those who have eaten it will be auspicious. Even the name "a mouthful of incense" also reflects the delicate thoughts of Lingtai people. In the past, the rural life was hard, and the peasant family was very able to eat, if it was a big bowl, the host could not provide it, so it was replaced with a small bowl with a diameter of two inches, and then the person who could eat ate a few bowls, even if he was not full, he was embarrassed to continue eating. Now, it's a different situation - after tasting various dishes and pasta, there is not much room in the stomach, and a small bowl of noodle soup is the finale, the most appropriate comfort for the stomach.
A seemingly simple bowl of noodle soup strings together the lives of ordinary people, and also reflects the changes in life.
About author:Li Manqiang, a native of Jingning, Gansu Province, began to write when he was in middle school, and has published four poetry collections, including "Painting Dreams", "Fireflies and Lightning", and a collection of essays "Longshang Food". He has won many awards such as the "Dunhuang Literature and Art Award", the "Yellow River Literature Award", the "Flying Sky" Ten Year Literature Award, and the Qu Yuan Poetry Award. Selected for the 24th Youth Poetry Meeting of the Poetry Society. He is a member of the Chinese Writers Association.