"Millet thick rice, beetle, sweet potato shredded and others"
During this year's Qingming Festival, I went back to my hometown in Wu'an, Hebei Province to visit the tomb, and turned to Lucheng to stay for a few days. When I returned to Beijing, my friend gave us the local millet and beet vegetables (also known as red silk vegetables) in Lucheng. These two things now seem to be rare. Of course, when I say "rare things", I don't mean high value, but that they have evolved from the kinds of home-cooked food in Lucheng City and Countryside to the special food that is occasionally eaten!
Today's lunch, usually not too much in the kitchen, I specially used the millet and beets donated by Lucheng friends to make an authentic Lucheng farmhouse rice: millet thick rice, egg fried beets and pepper potatoes (Lucheng called sweet potatoes) shredded. Of course, the meal was "improved." 50 years ago, when we In Beijing Zhiqing joined the team to work as farmers in the lucheng countryside, a person could only get one kilogram of hemp seed oil a year; the eggs laid by the farmers themselves were reluctant to eat. They would send eggs to the village supply and marketing cooperatives for large grains of salt, vinegar, matches, kerosene for lighting lamps, and so on. Therefore, at that time, the farmers in the village could not "fry" the beet vegetables, let alone add eggs to "fry". At that time, Lucheng was an arid area with a serious shortage of water. The main dish of urban and rural residents throughout the year is white radish, carrots, pumpkins and a little sweet potato. Even Chinese cabbage is transported from Hebei and Henan for a long time before the Spring Festival, not to mention tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, peppers, eggplants, garlic and other "fine dishes".
At that time, the average farmer's three meals were breakfast with jade noodles (often mixed with grain bran) and "pulp water dishes", lunch was millet thick rice (often pasted jade noodles) and beets, and dinner was mixed rice (of course, it was also necessary to paste jade noodles; some places in Lucheng called it "Heze rice" or "vegetable soup"). That's because in the rural areas of Lucheng at that time, a person distributed more than a dozen catties of wheat a year! The croppers of Taitung Village use jade noodles, millet and zizi (sorghum) noodles as their main rations throughout the year. Those precious wheats, the villagers all hold them in the urns, only in the New Year to steam some white bread, eat a "flat food" (dumplings) and "meat and qie" (qie). Usually, only when relatives and farmers are busy, they make a meal of pure white noodles for the men in the family. So this ordinary pure white noodle noodles has become the best meal for the farm!
At that time, the peasant family in the village also paid attention to the noodles, that is, whether you were an uncle or a son-in-law or a couple, no matter how honored you were, you did not eat more than two and a half bowls. Housewives first put some crushed salt at the bottom of the bowl, a little vinegar, and then put half a bowl of hot noodle soup on top, then fished on top, and then poured a little "cheek" (usually fried potato shreds or fried tofu, scrambled eggs). On the table was a small plate containing slices of vinegar-pickled mustard that you would not normally want to eat.
When the guest finishes eating the second bowl of noodles, the housewife will politely ask, "Another bowl?" And the word "one" bites very hard. At this time, the guests will be busy saying: "I can't eat a bowl, half a bowl is enough!" "Actually, it's no problem for him to eat three more bowls!"
Whenever we return from a visit to our relatives in Beijing, we bring some stuffed coat collars, nylon socks, flower turbans, "slacker shoes", nylon horde fabrics... When we are in short supply, the villager will invite us to his house to eat noodles. Because we have been in Beijing for a while, our stomach is not very "vegetarian", so we will not gobble up and drink, eat a bowl and a half is enough. Because we know that the peasants in the village are suffering!
Later, we Beijing Zhiqing left Taitung Village, and we always remembered the "cheeky noodles" in this mountain. Sometimes I want to make a meal, but no matter what good ingredients and noodles I use, I can't make that taste! We know that this is the authentic farmhouse meal!
Note: First, millet thick rice: a kind of meal food species in urban and rural areas of Changzhi district, Shanxi, between millet porridge and millet dry rice. Second, beet vegetables: a kind of meal food species in urban and rural areas of Changzhi region, Shanxi, white radish is rubbed, dried and stored. When eaten, soak in boiling water and stir-fry. Stir-fry with eggs and leeks. Third, the mixed rice: a kind of meal food in urban and rural areas in Changzhi area of Shanxi. When the millet is eight ripe, add potato pieces, pumpkin pieces, beans, etc. to continue simmering, and finally add a little miscellaneous noodles and remove from the pot. This is the typical product of "melon substitution" in that era fifty or sixty years ago. Fourth, boiled soup: a kind of meal food species in urban and rural areas of Changzhi area, Shanxi. Blanch the cornmeal in boiling water, knead it into a burnt cake shape, and cook it. Fifth, pulp water vegetables: a kind of meal food species in urban and rural areas of Changzhi area, Shanxi. Rub the white radish into strips, cut the white radish into small pieces and marinate. Also known as "sauerkraut". 6. Meat noodles (local accent pronounced qie): flat ramen. Other parts of China are also known as rolling noodles, dragging surfaces, plate surfaces...
