Text: Li Jiuhong
Figure: From the network
Before going to elementary school, I was "sent" to the homes of my grandparents in the countryside for more than half a year. Grandpa and grandma live in Pei County, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, a simple folk custom, talking and non-complacent, like to drink, eat fried buns, steamed steamed buns, steamed bun rolls of scallions; locals like to raise dogs, more famous for Peixian brine dog meat, customs are very close to Shandong Yutai and Weishan County small villages.
I remember that my grandfather and grandmother were both in their 80s at that time, but they were still very strong. As soon as the village bell rang, they carried farm tools, and like strong laborers, went down to the fields to do farm work and earn work, without showing weakness at all. Sometimes my grandmother didn't trust me to be at home alone, and she would take me to the field and work with her.
I remember picking cotton peaches during the cotton harvest season. The cotton peach was sharp and pointed, small, and the cotton peach shell was hard and hard, and if you were not careful, it would sting your hands. After the cotton balls are plucked, we pick them up and tear them apart to form a large loose cotton.
My grandmother was a three-inch golden lotus, and when she put on her pointed shoes, she really looked like a thin triangular dumpling. In addition, she used a long black cloth to tie the hem of her pants tightly at the bare feet, wrapped around in circles, tight, very spiritual. There is a saying about it: "The little foot lady's foot wrap is smelly and long". Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Of course, with such a pair of small feet, walking can only be upside down, very slow.
Therefore, every time I went out, I had to pull a shelf car, that is, a flat car, make a bed and quilt on the car, push Grandma and me, and walk all the way.
In the countryside, there are many human affairs, what red and white happy events, marriage and children, building a new house on the beams, Tim Ding's birthday, all have to call the seven aunts and eight aunts, distant relatives and neighbors, eat a meal, they are called to eat a feast. My grandparents were very senior in the village and in the clan, so they were always invited to eat a big table every three or five minutes, and of course I followed.
For grandparents, the share of money is a big expense, although not much each time, a few pieces, a dozen pieces, but accumulated over time, a year, is also very impressive. And for me, a little furry child, at that time, except for the New Year, eating a big feast was the big thing I was most looking forward to.
I would keep asking who was getting married, where to eat, and not far away. If it is far away, ask Grandpa to prepare the big car early, and pray that Grandma will not get sick when the time comes, and that it will not rain and give a beautiful good weather.
As long as the weather permits, the place to eat the big table is generally outdoors. The master borrowed the large dining table, all the chairs, and the dishes and chopsticks of the neighbor's house, propped them in the courtyard, and set up several large tables. Usually, the host family will invite a chef, and then build a simple stove outside, set up a high chimney, and rise the steaming heat.
The women of the neighbors gathered in piles to help wash the dishes, pick vegetables, cut vegetables, wash dishes, and some gave the chef a hand. The men smoked cigarettes while helping to set up tables and chairs, sit down to drink tea, eat melon seeds, and pull.
Finally, the meal was fully prepared and the host announced that the table had begun. In our case, women cannot eat at the same table as men, and they must wait until the men have finished eating, and women and children can eat. The men always shouted loudly and toasted each other, and some of them were good at guessing their fists, making people boil, chickens flying and dogs jumping on the ground.
Every time after eating a big table, there are always a few men who are greedy for cups, drunk and drunk like mud. I remember that my eldest cousin-in-law, the eldest son-in-law of my great aunt, was a man who was drunk every time, and who always played drunk every time, and always loved to chase and beat his wife all over the village, and the wine was extremely poor. In the end, because he drank too much, he got throat cancer, which was also self-inflicted.
Every time, Grandma took me with me to eat. The dishes on the table are nothing more than cold dishes, hot dishes, and soup. I remember at that time, my favorite cold dish was cold garlic minced kelp shreds.
Grandma first put a lot of kelp silk on me, and I ate it slowly, one by one. At that time, the people in the village were still very poor, and there were no big dishes on the big table, whole fish, whole chicken, whole duck or whatever.
The most eaten are crispy vegetables, what crisp yam, crispy potatoes, crispy radish balls, and the most advanced is crispy small fish. Wrap flour and spices in fried crispy vegetables, and then braise noodles, tofu, Cabbage, spinach, etc. when eating, steaming bowls and bowls, the aroma is fragrant. Whenever the dish came up, everyone snatched it up, and even the vegetable soup was dipped in steamed buns, and there was not a drop left.
The last soup, called soup, is the most delicious soup that I still remember and remember. Usually the host family will kill one or two old hens, just to boil soup. In fact, the soup is a chicken shredded sour and spicy soup, but there is no chili powder, only a large amount of white pepper.
Inside the soup there are torn chicken shreds, tender tofu shreds, yellow cauliflower, kelp shreds, fungus shreds, egg skin shreds, etc., and then hooked, dripping with home-ground sesame oil, vinegar, hot and fragrant and numb and sour, incomparably delicious and cheerful. Every time, as long as the soup is on the end, everyone will take turns to pick up the bowl, and on the side of the bowl, one person will take a big sip and pass it on to the next person, and no one will feel dirty. Until I drank to the bottom, drank all over my head and sweated, and was full of blood.
The feast was over, Grandpa was slightly drunk, and I ate well, sat on the big car, and went home shaking.