With the rise of people's pursuit of healthy eating habits, the concept of eating more coarse grains is accepted by more and more people, and Bao Gu Can has gradually come to the table from roadside snacks, as a local specialty snack, compared to the common big fish and meat, Bao Gu Cang seems to be more pleasing.
Bao Gu Cang, as the name suggests, is a rice dumpling made of Bao Gu as the main raw material. Compared with grains such as rice, beans and wheat, baogu is obviously a little bit worse in price, and the deep-processed foods derived from baogu on the market are not as rich as the derivatives of grains such as rice, beans, and wheat, but in Huili, Baogu is famous in Huili because of its unique flavor.
There are many famous snacks in the ancient city. Every morning, people wake up in addition to the morning sun, there is also food. Iron dumplings, oil cakes, puff pastry buns, thin bean flour... These are authentic breakfasts, and mainly sold in the morning, lamb powder, chicken fire bait can be used as both breakfast and lunch, generally in the afternoon to choose not many guests, in contrast, Bao Gu Can be regarded as the longest love of the ancient city and the ancient city of Huili, whether it is breakfast, lunch or dinner, Bao Gu Can be a concern on the tip of people's tongue.
When I was a child, Bao GuShu had to wait until the harvest season to eat, which was also the hardest and busiest time of the year for adults, but it was also the time when children looked forward to it the most. Select the grain sticks that are ripe and full and are about to dry the pulp, use a knife to carefully xuan the lower layers of coats, rinse and spare, take off the grain and wash them and grind them into a pulp with stone grinding, these tasks are done by the mother late at night, the mother has to be busy harvesting corn during the day, only at night can we take time out, knowing that the mother is going to make the bag of grain, we are so excited that we can't sleep, and then we have to guard her and urge her at night. After a busy day, my mother turned the stone mill in a circle until a large pot of corn kernels all turned into viscous corn syrup. We couldn't resist stirring and stirring with a spoon, eager to scoop a little right away. The mother could not unload the exhaustion of her body, she searched out a crumpled small plastic bag full of dust from the old cupboard, twisted out two pieces of saccharin and put it at the bottom of the bowl, added a little water, while using chopsticks to stir in a circle, while solemnly saying: "This is saccharin, adding a little bit of rice dumplings will be more delicious, but eating too much is harmful, you must not take it randomly, let alone steal it!"
I remember the story of saccharin told by my mother the most: a filial daughter-in-law of a poor family, because of her heartache and illness of her mother-in-law, used saccharin instead of sugar to boil a bowl of poached eggs for the weak mother-in-law to eat, who knew that the mother-in-law died quickly after eating. Every time my mother talked about this, no matter what she was doing on her hands, she would definitely stop, look at us with a solemn look, and once again warn us not to eat it casually, and if we ate too much saccharin, we would be poisoned. It was almost a warning, as if she had seen us sneaking saccharin and drinking it. After she poured the saccharin water into the corn syrup and stirred well, she relaxed after a hard day and told us to wait for the slurry to ferment before steaming. We all knew it was the next morning, and we went to bed at my mother's urging. Now that I think about it, the fresh bun grain itself already has a sweet taste, but in the years when "bitterness" dominated the tone of life, people seem to have a more urgent expectation of sweetness.
The next morning, as soon as we opened our eyes, we couldn't wait to yell at our mother in our throats, ask her if she was ready, stop shouting for a few seconds, prick up our ears to hear if our mother responded, and if there was no response, we continued to shout. "Eat well, don't get up yet!" Finally, I waited for my mother's response, and my words were full of happiness. We rushed into the kitchen like hungry wolves, only to see that my mother was still busy, and the narrow kitchen was filled with the fragrance of baogu, and in the bamboo sieve, the green baogu leaf stall was wrapped in steaming buns, one next to the other, golden and yellow steaming. We couldn't care less about the heat, and we picked up one and tossed it between our hands, and our hearts were simply happy. For several days to come, the children were happy and well-behaved because they could eat a mouthful of grain dumplings at any time, and the adults were more energetic in harvesting corn.
Nowadays, we have grown up and lived in the city, and eating baogu has become a very common thing in life, as long as you want to eat it, you can get it at any time. However, the main ingredient of the bun grain sold in the city is the flour made of bun grain, which is not easy to bond due to the rough fiber, usually add some rice flour or wheat noodles to help form and enhance the taste, and then add white sugar or brown sugar to increase the sweetness, because of the particularity of corn flour, it is still necessary to steam the powder in the leaves of the bun grain. If you really want to find out how the childhood Bao Gu Can is similar to the Bao Gu Tang sold all over the street today, I think it may be the fragrance of this Bao Gu Leaf.
Unlike other snacks in the ancient city, which are mostly sold at fixed points, mobile sales are the main sales method of Baogucang, and can be sold from morning to night. A battery car is tied to a square storage box or foam box at the rear, covered with a cotton square towel, the front of the car is tied to a loudspeaker, the loudspeaker loops "Bao Gu Cang, Fresh Bao Gu Cang" shouting, this is the most common way to sell Bao Gu Cang, the car rides all the way, the shouting sound also drifts all the way, customers stand on the side of the street and follow the shouting sound far back: "Buy Bao Gu Cang!" The car stops nearby, and a transaction is done. Sometimes sellers will also park their cars in places with more traffic, such as squares, hospitals, residential area entrances, etc., leaning on the car to rest, allowing the loudspeaker to mechanically solicit, and sitting leisurely waiting for customers to come to the door.
However, whenever strolling through the streets, hearing the shouts of selling bao gu can in the ancient city, remembering that my mother's health is deteriorating, I have not been doing bao gu tang for many years, a complex emotion gushes into my heart, I can't say whether it is regret or sadness, but there is always the impulse and helplessness of tears wetting my eyes.
Lu Jincui will manage tourism