□ Hu Huajun
In the 1970s, the god of first destiny brought me to Ningbo on the Yongjiang River, giving me a taste of Ningbo's customs and customs. After more than ten years as a soldier in Ningbo, this city has become my second hometown.
Ningbo's local specialty is the Ningbo Soup Dumpling, which is hidden in the inconspicuous small shops deep in the streets and alleys of Shijing. It doesn't show the mountains and dew, but its unique production method and sweet taste have resonated with us foreigners, which makes me inexplicably like it.
At that time, our hospital was stationed in Jiangdong District, close to the Dongfanghong Street in the city center, and it only took more than 30 minutes on foot, and it was also possible to take a ferry from Jiangbei, and if you did not take a ferry, you could walk from Lingqiao. Every Sunday or my night shift off, I will meet a few comrades to go to the street together, and when I am tired, I will find a storefront in the city to sit down and fill my stomach, and I heard that the Ningbo soup dumplings are delicious, which has become the food that my comrades and I have been addicted to.
At that time, our soldiers had a six-yuan allowance a month, and in addition to buying towels, toothpaste and other necessities of life, there was not much money left, and we had to save it. In that era, the price was not high, the price of a bowl of Yangchun noodles was a dime, and the Ningbo soup dumplings were five cents a bowl, which was much more expensive than Yangchun noodles, but the delicious taste of the Ningbo soup dumplings made me unstoppable, its sweet, slippery, sticky, and the feeling of eating in the mouth was unforgettable.
It is said that the soup dumplings existed in the Song Dynasty, and the Mingzhou during the Song Dynasty was in our current Ningbo City, and the local people were happy to eat an original food, that is, using black sesame seeds, lard, and a little white sugar to make a filling, and the outside was rubbed with glutinous rice flour into balls, and after cooking, it was sweet and delicious, full of raw flavor. Because this kind of glutinous rice balls will float and sink when boiled in the pot, so the Ningbo soup dumplings were first called "floating yuanzi", and later people evolved the "floating yuanzi" into a must-eat food for the Lantern Festival, which is called soup dumplings. I think it is the most famous specialty snack in Ningbo, which is a delicacy for entertaining guests. In today's Ningbo, the soup dumplings are the first day of the Spring Festival and the Lantern Festival, and it is a traditional custom for the whole family to eat soup dumplings on the morning of the first day of the New Year.
Our troops are located in Ningbo, so they follow the customs of the countryside, and eating soup dumplings on the first day of the Chinese New Year and the Lantern Festival has become a festival that cannot be moved in the gang room. When it's time to eat the soup dumplings, my comrades-in-arms and I will definitely go to the gang room to help cook. In order to let the comrades eat the soup ball, the comrades in the gang room soaked the glutinous rice and soaked it in water for one night, and the next morning when our female soldiers arrived at the gang room, they saw a large stone mill placed in front of us, and a large cloth pocket was hung in the grinding mouth. After 7 or 8 hours, the comrades in the gang room took off the stone, and the cloth bag was half dry and half wet glutinous rice flour. If you need to save, the ground glutinous rice flour is dried, and then mixed with water when the soup ball is wrapped, which is the water mill glutinous rice flour.
Water-ground glutinous rice flour is more delicate than dry-ground glutinous rice flour, and the taste is obviously different from dry-ground glutinous rice flour, and the taste is quite good.
In the early morning of the first day of the New Year, the comrades in the gang room made a filling with lard, sesame seeds, and cotton sugar, put them one by one in the face plate, and then kneaded the glutinous rice flour with water to form a flour ball. We took out the flour dough, dug out the glutinous rice flour dough the size of a cinnamon ball, dug a hole with our index finger, put in the lard sesame filling that had been prepared, kneaded the seal, and then put it into the palm of our hand to roll into a small ball, and put it in the large bamboo grate next to it. The military cauldron in the gang room was steaming, the water was boiling, the cooking squad leader was holding a one-meter-long spatula in his hand, and we threw the wrapped tangyuan into the pot one by one, and when the tangyuan floated up, then added cold water, and three times back and forth, the pot could be eaten.
Because I had helped the cook, my comrades in charge of the house allowed me to serve myself a bowl first. wow! Take a bite of the soup ball, and the fragrant, full of stuffed sesame seeds will flow out. At this time, the black filling and white noodles are really delicious, sweet and delicious, oily but not greasy, and the thick sweetness flows into the heart.
As a soldier in Ningbo, all who go to the homes of relatives and friends as guests, the host brings up a bowl of Ningbo soup dumplings, I went to my uncle's house and I can't remember how many bowls of Ningbo soup dumplings I ate, its sweetness, its fragrance, full of family affection and friendship, its afterscent has always been entangled in my heart.
When I returned to Hangzhou, I always remembered the soup dumplings in Ningbo. When the Spring Festival is approaching, I will try to make some soup dumplings by hand, but no matter how I do it, I can't make the taste of the year. Later, I simply went to the supermarket to buy some quick-frozen "Ningbo soup dumplings".
Nowadays, no matter where I go, as soon as I see the soup dumplings, I think of Ningbo, and I think of the happy scenes of making soup dumplings and eating soup dumplings with my comrades-in-arms. Ningbo soup dumplings have the imprint of my youth and my good memories.
After serving as a soldier in Ningbo for more than ten years, I not only remembered the soup dumplings here, but also increased my longing for my second hometown, and let me remember the people of Ningbo who lived endlessly in that fertile land.
Oh, this soup dumpling is the name of Ningbo, other places, more often called tangyuan. (Caption image courtesy of CFP)
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Source: Qianjiang Evening News Hourly News