Haggis Soup Text/Zhang Dulong

In the winter, come to a bowl of haggis soup, which is now a common meal. But more than 40 years ago, being able to eat a dime a bowl of haggis soup was an absolute luxury.

　　At that time, Gaoling County was not big, just a north-south main street, lined with a building photo studio, a watch shop, a Xinhua bookstore, a state-run canteen, and there was no decent façade in the impression. Daily necessities are supplied by a supply system, and grain, cotton, oil, sugar, cloth, and so on are eaten and used, and large and small pieces are supplied by ticket. The most memorable memory of the county town when I was a child is the bowl of haggis soup.

　　The county seat is a state-run canteen, located in the northwest corner of the intersection of West Street And North Street, the door faces east, the façade is not large, the green brick wall is built, and it is tens of centimeters higher than the street surface. Picking up the stairs to enter the interior of the canteen is also a bit grand. It seems that there are the words "state-run canteen" on the front of the door, and I can't remember it clearly. Behind the canteen is the City God Temple, and the green brick lotus relief on the roof of the main hall of the City God Temple is still clearly visible. Every morning, the chef prepares a large tube of iron pot haggis soup, pushes it to the street to sell, and sells out. The barrel pot is steaming hot, and the aroma of haggis soup floats far away, attracting passers-by. This haggis soup was a dime a bowl, without food stamps, and was the most affordable and popular meal at that time. At that time, the haggis soup was far worse than the current haggis soup, cabbage radish tofu noodles a pot of brais, a few points of haggis, occasionally a piece of sheep blood, is a pot of smorgasbord, but at that time it was a hearty diet. The pot of stewed vegetables is rich in color and umami, the oil flowers are floating, and the refreshing feeling behind the sweet fragrance has long aroused people's appetite. When I think about it now, I am still full of mouth and salivating at the corners of my mouth.

　　LiGuansu Village, twelve miles west of the county seat north of the pass, is our village. Some people travel more than twenty miles to the county town, often to eat a bowl of haggis soup. After returning home, I was reluctant to rinse my mouth, and the fragrance would last for many days. It is not easy for children to go to the county town once, there is no transportation, and they have to go back and forth. At that time, the farm was tight, and adults rarely took their children to the county. If a child wants to go to the county to play by himself, he often has to ask his parents a few days in advance. After getting the acquiescence of the parents, the child will be excited for a few days, and will also consciously do more housework, pluck enough grass for the pigs and sheep, clean the yard, and rush all the able housework to do it, and perform well to the parents, for fear of upsetting the parents, cancel the plan to go to the county.

　　I didn't go to school on Sundays, got up early in the morning, and after getting my parents' consent, I grabbed a dime or two that I had saved for a long time and went on the road to the county seat. A dime or two was the money of some production teams in those days. Our production team was a well-known good team in the county at that time, the county gave awards to the army retired jujube red horses, the team every year there are new recruits of young men, are wearing big red flowers, riding jujube red horses, by the villagers beat gongs and drums to the brigade assembly, that is called a mighty wind! Later, the county also gave the team a black-and-white TV set, and at night, the whole team gathered in the square in front of the team headquarters to watch TV, which was called a hilarity! Even so, we earn 5 to 7 cents per working day. In some neighboring villages, sometimes only one or two cents a working day.

　　Not far north of the village, there is a Gaoyong Highway leading to the county seat, this road is a gravel road, potholes, in the rainy day, tractors outdated, splashing muddy water, people can not hide. In summer, the sun is shining and the dust is flying. I thought to myself that I wanted MeiMei to put on a bowl of fragrant haggis soup, so I didn't care about anything, and trotted all the way to the county seat. Running to the north street entrance, I was already gray-headed and hungry, and seemed to have smelled the aroma of haggis soup. Seeing the steaming iron pot, He could not hold back his beating heart and ran to the haggis stall, staring at the haggis soup in the pot without blinking. I handed the dime note that I had grabbed all the way to the master's hand, and when I saw that someone in front of me had bought a bowl with a five-cent coin, I said, "Buy me two bowls!" The master looked at me and said that he could only buy one bowl for a dime. Originally it was a dime a bowl, who really only had five cents, the master also gave a bowl, but a little less than a dime. I really wanted to get a dime back, pour it into two five-cent coins, eat it twice, regret that I didn't prepare it in advance, and have been struggling with this in my heart for many days.

　　The haggis soup bowl is not large, it is the kind of black porcelain skimming edge of the burning bowl, bumping and bumping, the edge of the bowl has been scarred, and a stack of stacks has been stacked on the side. The master skillfully takes the bowl and scoops the vegetables, and as soon as the hand of the spoon is turned over, a bowl of steaming haggis soup is handed to you. This scoop dish is also exquisite, meet acquaintances, see a pleasing eye, or a beautiful face of the little daughter-in-law big girl, the master is happy, scoop the bottom of the pot fishing, is a bowl of thick sac, vegetable soup less and less sheep blood of the haggis soup. We didn't have that blessing, my dirty hand took the porcelain bowl, the piping hot vegetable soup dripped a hand, I bent over, lowered my head, my mouth could not wait to suck up the edge of the bowl, and the open teeth on the side of the bowl could not be taken care of. Standing on the street, a bowl of haggis soup was pulled into the stomach without any water left, and it felt like it had not yet had time to taste the bottom of the bowl. I was still not exhausted, I was eager to change another bowl out, but I was shy in my pocket and only had to slowly taste it.