The original pan Kui purchased online is back, simple and simple packaging, translucent reflects the pot Kui inside, the color is golden, and the shape is flat and long. Opening the bag, four golden pots jumped into the present, the high fragrance of flax oil floated in the air, the taste buds also followed the foolishness, and the long-lost hometown feelings came to the scene.
My hometown is in Yuanping, Xinzhou, to be precise, it is my grandfather's hometown and my father's hometown. And I was born in Huozhou, grew up in Huozhou, studied in Lüliang, and worked in Hejin. For me, yuan ping, to a large extent, comes from the memories on the tip of the tongue and the narration of grandma and dad.
It is said that my grandfather was an authentic Yuanping person, and my grandfather was also a businessman who went south and north, and there were large reed villages in the family, Xinzhou, Taiyuan, Datong, Baotou... There are shops, the old man is usually very frugal, but every New Year's Festival will always feast on the long and short work of the family, kill chickens and sheep, fry oil cakes...
Whenever she talked about this, Grandma was always very proud, saying that as a daughter-in-law, she was always directed by her mother-in-law, that is, my grandmother," to work in the kitchen. Between words, recalling the past, she always showed a look of joy, like a capable daughter-in-law of a large family.
Later, it was the family road in the context of the big era. My grandfather went to Datong to work as a worker, perhaps young and intelligent and had studied in private school, and soon became the captain of the construction team in the Datong Mining Bureau at that time.
Later, in 1959, the Huozhou Mining Bureau was established, and he led a cadre of people to the Mining Bureau to engage in infrastructure construction; later, Grandma also came with his father, and the family set up camp in the small town of Huoxian County, which was a wild place at that time, and opened a new "entrepreneurial history". Come to think of it, it was also a hot time, right?
Our sisters were born in the 80s as a small city girl in Huo County, and when we were in elementary school, "Huo County" became "HuoZhou", but those had nothing to do with us.
Childhood memories are a simple and nutritious breakfast in the morning, a companion home at noon, and a leather band in the family compound of the unit after school at 4:30 in the afternoon, chasing the time of fighting, and these times are accompanied by a variety of delicacies on the tip of the tongue:
Bean noodles are sharpened, sorghum noodles are sharpened, plucked fish, bean carob stewed noodles, potato "grain barriers", noodles are sharpened, fried oil cakes...
Among them, there are many local delicacies in Huozhou, and more are the characteristics from Xinzhou Yuanping.
Of course, the "Mining Bureau" is a large unit, the sky, the south sea, the north, all kinds of people gather here, between the collision, "Mandarin" has become a conventional communication term; all kinds of cuisines are also magically learned and borrowed among the housewives.
At that time, Mom and Dad were busy at work, and the whole family's life was entrusted to Grandma. Grandma is a woman with experience and happiness, the wind and frost of the years cannot overwhelm her, the experience of life nourishes her, and the natural wisdom is strong and lets her wash, cook, sew clothes, knit sweaters... Done with homework and excellent grades!
The deepest memory is that every meal grandma cooked, even breakfast, was never sloppy:
Monday's tomato soup, roasted steamed buns;
Stir-fry on Tuesday, salted eggs and small flower rolls;
Dragon's whisker noodles on Wednesday;
Big buns on Thursday;
Friday's rice pour...
For example, a girl like me, who was spoiled by her grandmother since childhood and was jokingly called "ignorant of numbers", actually judged the day of the week from the change in breakfast.
Of course, this is an afterthought.
The deepest impression is still the noon meal, mostly the original flat flavor of the northwest of Jinxi ——
The bean noodle tip, which I call a "tadpole," originated from a wooden structure that could be placed on a pot front and back, with a piece of iron in the middle, and a "sift bed" with many round holes drilled into it.
Only to see Grandma mix the white noodles and bean noodles into a relatively soft and thick dough with water in the ratio of 1:1, put a piece on the iron sheet in the center of the bed, and then hold the bed with one hand, and use a small pusher with a handle in the other hand to push the noodles back and forth on the iron sheet, along the thrust, the soft and thick dough, it turns into a strip of "tadpoles" from the bottom of the bed, swaying in the pot water, and soon transforms into a group of white and tender and slim "small silver fish", and finally is fished into our bowl, handed over tomato soup or other side dishes, and eaten!
And then there's that "sharp edge." The method is similar to "tipping", except that it uses "wiping the bed" instead of "sipping the bed". That is to say, on the basis of the same wooden handle as the front and back of the bed, the middle iron is not drilled into the eye, but a flat and long hole.
The noodles used for wiping the tip are white noodles and sorghum noodles, and the noodles should also be relatively rough and hard, and they should also be wiped with a small fader on the "wiping bed", and finally from the wiping bed, it is no longer a small "tadpole", but a small "shrimp rice", because of the sorghum noodles, so after cooking, they are more pale brownish red.
There are also two kinds of "toppings" to pour "sharp points": tomatoes or lamb, the former is refreshing and fragrant, and the latter is mellow.
In addition, there are chestnuts. This is to use boiling water and noodles, put the prepared noodles into a large basin, evenly piled up left and right into a hilly shape, leaving a small "basin" in the middle, and then injecting boiling water, when the height of the boiling water is the same as the "hill", you can use chopsticks to mix them together, and then take advantage of the heat to quickly and quickly knead the dough into a smooth dough.
Then the dough was kneaded into a number of equal "small doses", and then these small agents or rolled into thin slices the size of the skin of the dumplings, and then put the two fingers in the middle, and the other hand pinched them left and right, in the shape of a roll, so that one by one placed on the grate, on the pot to steam, about ten minutes or so, a grate of the noodles was steamed, from a distance, like a group of quite imposing Yulin army.
All of the above are the most common delicacies on the tip of the tongue when you are young. At that time, the economic conditions of the family were not very good, and in the earliest days, grain and oil had to be supplied by tickets. So in addition to the fact that our grandmother made us a variety of hometown delicacies, there was no shortage of fresh agricultural products brought by the "old family" - freshly rolled flaxseed oil, freshly picked melons in the field, a wild chives called "picking twist flowers"... One of the things that makes me most happy is the "original pan helmet".
This long, yellow, crispy "pot helmet" gave our sisters too many warm and fragrant memories in the barren and sweet childhood. It was the anticipation of "coming from the hometown"; it was a bowl of millet porridge and the sweet fragrance of a pot helmet in many mornings; it was the "hometown gift" sent by Grandma when she visited friends...
Most of these pot helmets were sent by "Ge Min Brother" or "Second Brother", who were also teenagers at that time, adhering to the teachings of their grandmothers at home, and sent these simple hometown specialties to their "old aunt", that is, my grandmother.
And Grandma always brought them some sugar cubes that were only sold in factories and mines when they were leaving, beautiful hair cards brought by children, and even some "polyester card" fabrics that were very popular at that time... Family affection has become more and more cordial in the walking, and our family, which is thin and thin, seems to have flourished in these "walking".
Holidays are made of years, and years become songs. Unconsciously, we have walked through the youth, walked through the youth... Nowadays, it seems that we no longer need to go somewhere to buy so-called "specialties". A treasure opens, suddenly, all kinds of food are under the present, there is price comparison, there are praise messages, really convenient. For example, the original rustic but delicious pot helmet also has the elegant name of "pot kui" and has Zhou Zheng's "exterior".
The times are progressing, enjoy the speed of us while tasting the food of various places, will we have a trace of nostalgia for the fireworks of the past?
It was almost the thickness, simplicity, kindness, warmth, fragrance, and golden of the handicraft era.