Eat in Wellbeing
Text/Shi Changlin
A person's deepest memory of eating is that of eating in his hometown.
When I am well-being, I eat and drink, or when I am at home, I do not tire of eating, or when I am on the road, I am haunted by dreams. It is a broken thought that comes to mind inadvertently, and it is a sweetheart who cannot be abandoned for a lifetime.
Qin Bahan water, selenium-rich land, a good water and soil. Good mountains and good water produce good food. For any foreigner who can eat, to come to Ankang is to go to the land of food and the land of blessings.
Some people say that the highest state of being able to eat is being able to do it. Not at all, ankang people will not only eat, but also do.
For any native-born well-being, no one's taste memory will leave a sour word. My earliest taste memories start with sauerkraut – stir-frying sauerkraut, stir-frying sauerkraut, sauerkraut rice, sauerkraut soup, sauerkraut noodles. When I was six or seven years old, in the era of large collectives in the mid-seventies of the last century, in the early winter, the fog was thick, my parents got up early to dig sweet potatoes in the production team's fields, and they had to come back at noon for breakfast (there was no breakfast at that time, lunch around 11 o'clock in the afternoon was the breakfast of the rural people). I was the eldest of the sisters, so I tried to make the simplest sweet potato porridge and sauerkraut as my mother cooked. After Mom and Dad returned, the family sat around the table and took a bite of sweet potato porridge with sauerkraut. After the meal, my mother smiled and praised me.
Nowadays, a popular dish in restaurants is called sauerkraut stir-fry. Stir-fried bean sprouts with sauerkraut, stir-fried konjac with sauerkraut, stir-fried soft cake with sauerkraut... Every restaurant does it, which can both lose weight and sober up, and is deeply loved by consumers. I can't help but think of my mother's cooking in the 1970s and 1980s. A small amount of rice and more than half of the coarse grain are boiled in a wide pot of boiling water, and when they are still away from the soup, they must be quickly fished out with a fence, dried up, and placed in a two-sided basin (a kind of black clay pot with a large mouth and a small bottom). The rice served in the two-yang basin is yellow and white, and now it is fashionable to call it "golden rice" - the name is really appropriate. After all the rice is fished out, use a horse spoon (large spoon) to scoop out the steamed rice soup, put it in a clay pot, put it on the stove, then wash the iron pot and increase the firewood in the pot hole again. When the iron pot was red, the mother slipped a shovel of lard and smeared it on the iron pot, and there was a loud "bang" in the pot, followed by billowing green smoke. It was too late, it was fast, the mother quickly poured a small pot of cut sauerkraut into the pot, after a burst of emergency stir-frying, the Martian splashing pot finally calmed down, and then evenly sprinkled ginger and green onions, and then poured seven or eight ripe rice into the pot, stir-fried evenly with a shovel, covered the lid of the pot, and removed the firewood in the pot hole. After half an hour, the lid of the pot was lifted, and after a steaming hot air dissipated, the mother used the back of the shovel to pat the rice in the pot, and if the shovel could be bounced up, a delicious rice bowl was made. A pot of yellow and white rice dotted with green sauerkraut, drums, oil is bright, standing several meters away to take a breath, the sour and refreshing aroma will go straight to the nostrils, deep into the lungs, directly to the teeth of the people.
In the Qinba Mountains, the slopes are steep and the ditches are deep, the agricultural work is arduous, and every household cooks rice; after collecting rice, it is the food of strong labor. Eat rice, preferably with spicy seeds. The spicy seeds are simple to make, the garlic green spicy seeds and tender ginger are put into the hot nest (small nest) and mashed with a spicy hammer (small stone pestle), scooped out and put into a small porcelain bowl, mixed with some salt and hot oil, and the spicy seeds are made. When the man returned home after a tiring day, the woman brought rice to a bowl of rice, poured some oil on the noodles and poured garlic and spicy seeds, and the man ate with sweat on his forehead and was comfortable. The delicious belly of the two sea bowls of dry and loose lisa, the fatigue of the man's body is gone. After the end of the bowl, there is a bowl of steamed rice soup, which is both nutritious and thirst-quenching.
My mother must have told the villagers about my sweet potato porridge. Every time the villagers pass by my door: Ah, this baby can cook?! In the future, I will not be hungry, not to mention my daughter-in-law. My mother heard the compliments of the villagers and smiled closely, with a proud expression, while I was blushing with shame. In the praise of my mother, I decided to let go of the courage and try to make a hand rolling noodle. That time, my parents were not at home, so I moved the chair against the big cabinet in the hall, and under the surprised eyes of my brothers and sisters, I scooped up a scoop of water, tentatively stepped on the chair with both feet, opened the cabinet cover on my head, and began to learn the appearance and face of my mother. I kept adding water to the dough bag with a scoop of water in one hand, and kneaded it in the dough bag with the other. Kneading and kneading I felt bad things, mother and noodles, a little kung fu a white good-looking dough was kneaded, but now, no matter how and how I kneaded, I can't knead out a dough, I am sweating profusely, helpless. When my mother returned, she saw me with flour on my face and body, both angry and funny. My mother brought a two-yang basin from the kitchen, poured out most of the bags of gnocchi that I kneaded, re-added water and kneaded them into a dough, and the family ate rolled noodles for several days.
The opportunity to make hand-rolled noodles has come again. The day of the primary school examination in the junior high school was pouring rain (in the early 1980s, the fifth grade of primary school was full to take the junior high school selection exam, just like the current middle school exam), in the morning after the Chinese exam, I went home to eat breakfast, but the family meal was already eaten by the younger siblings, and my parents were not at home, so I decided to make a hand rolling noodle by myself. I cooked the dough, kneading the dough, waking the dough, sautéing the water, rolling the dough, and cooking it in a pot of boiling water. When the hand-rolled noodles were ready, I suddenly found that my homeroom teacher had flashed into the house with a body of rain. Oops, I have to take a math exam in the afternoon. On the way, the homeroom teacher thought I was walking too slowly, and carried me on my back and ran all the way to the examination room. Nearly an hour late, I was still allowed to take the exam, and more than half a month later, I was still waiting for the acceptance letter in a state of anxiety.
On the southern slope of Qinling, at the foot of Niu Mountain, that is where I was born. There are mountains and water, the water is paddy fields, and the mountains are slopes; paddy fields grow rice, and slopes produce wheat. But in my hometown, there are far more slopes than paddy fields, so I grew up snacking on pasta. Speaking of pasta, it must be hand-rolled noodles, it must be sauerkraut noodles, and it is the kind of sauerkraut hand-rolled noodles that every household in the Qinba Mountains and rivers make. In the Qinba Mountains, the soil quality is not fertile, and most of the plants that grow sauerkraut do not pick the ground, and see the wind. Some people have summed up such a sentence to this end: spring cabbage dish, gray leaf old celery, summer long pumpkin (pole) taro (pole) red amaranth pole, autumn (radish) tassel to see the wind green, winter mustard (nest sauerkraut) is strangely beautiful. All these superior raw materials for making sauerkraut naturally and casually grow behind the front and back of the main house, on the edge of the ditch, without waiting for anyone to serve, they grow up to the wind, hula a large piece. To nest sauerkraut, pick a bundle of sauerkraut, wash and dry (semi-dry), boiling water in the pot after a period of cooling, layer by layer into the crock pot and then drizzle some old pulp water corners, and finally on the surface with stone slabs to press the porcelain solid, a few days of kung fu a jar of fragrant sauerkraut nest into a vessel.
In the twilight, the man carrying the plough and leading the cattle on the path home saw the smoke rising from his roof in the distance, and the smell of sour water wafting in the air. Hanzi knew that it was his own woman making sauerkraut rolling noodles. Smelling this familiar sour taste, after swallowing several mouthfuls in a row, the man raised the whip in his hand to catch the cattle and sped up the pace of returning home.
In Guanzhong Xi'an, the old Qin people also nested sauerkraut. However, the taste of sauerkraut in Guanzhong is weak, far less mellow and long than the sour taste of Ankang sauerkraut. This is related to the climatic environment, the Qinba Mountains, the climate is warm and humid, most suitable for plant fermentation to become acidic. Eight hundred miles of Qinchuan, is the place where lamb steamed buns are brewed. Ankang people also eat lamb steamed buns, but the practice is very different from the lamb steamed buns in Guanzhong. Ankang sheep is a Qinba goat, eating mountain grass to grow up, can climb mountains and mountains, so the meat is delicate and delicious. Every morning or afternoon, in Ankang Dongguan, the whole street is engaged in the business of lamb steamed buns. The whole piece of lamb is simmered in a large pot with bones, stewed until the flesh and bone are separated, until only a pot of boiling powdery white sheep soup is seen. Lamb haggis is fished out and cut into thin slices or pieces and piled on the board. The guests came, the boss put vegetarian meat or haggis in the bowl according to the needs of the guests, or both, the vegetarian meat or offal with hot soup back and forth after a few rounds, and then filled the bowl with hot soup, evenly some ginger flowers watered, sprinkled with green onion and coriander, finished taking a piece of freshly baked dead noodle steamed buns, a bowl of healthy flavored lamb steamed buns was placed in front of the guests. Lamb warms the stomach, and mutton soup is a great supplement. In autumn and winter, people with weak spleens and cold bodies come to a bowl of lamb soup steamed buns every day, and it will not be long before their faces are rosy and good-looking, and they walk briskly and powerfully, which is more effective than eating slag medicine.
When ankang people talk about ankang and talk about ankang eating, they can't avoid ankang steamed noodles. In Ankang, the streets and alleys, the alleys, the alleys, almost everywhere are small shops selling steamed noodles. In the years when I was in Xi'an, every time I returned to Ankang, I would go to Peixin Street to eat a plate of Wang family steamed noodles. At that time, my home was in the school, ten miles west of the railway station, and Peixin Street was in the south of the railway station, separated by a Han River. In order to eat a plate of Ankang steamed noodles, I took a bus in the opposite direction of home, crossed the Han River, ate a plate of steamed noodles, and then poured the bus home. Ankang steamed noodles, popular cuisine, good business or not, the doorway is all on a vinegar soup, on a spicy sauce. Steaming noodles, blanching bean sprouts, and making tahini sauce are simple enough to be copied. Can be modulated vinegar soup, oil spicy but hidden mysteries, who can make the vinegar soup to the sour taste moderate, fragrant and refreshing, can make the oil splash spicy both spicy and enjoyable, but also does not hurt people's spleen and stomach, whose business is bound to be hot. In those years, a plate of steamed noodles poured with garlic juice, tahini and spicy oil was always mixed by me and finally there was no vinegar soup left, and when it was finished, I was still reluctant to go, and I had to sit at the table and reminisce for a little while. It was as if after eating this plate of steamed noodles from the Wang family, I could truly return to my hometown.
Lamb steamed buns and Ankang steamed noodles are just the food of the people in Ankang City, which is a snack, and cannot treat distinguished guests, and cannot be on the big table. To see the big scene of eating, you have to go to the north and south of the two mountains. After graduating from college, I was assigned to teach at a middle school in Beishan, and every time during the planting season in May and June or the threshing in August of the lunar calendar, colleagues who have paddy fields at home must invite us bachelors who are far away from home to help. That time I went to a colleague's house to help plant seedlings, a dozen young and strong laborers, a few small pieces of paddy fields, and after a while, the kung fu was finished, and the main family had not yet laid down the field. The lord's family stood on the field and kept telling: Don't leave, the daughter-in-law has made all the food. It turns out that planting seedlings is a temptation, and inviting us to eat wine is the original intention.
This wine is called seedling wine. A plate full of dishes, full of local table. Konjac tofu, dried tofu, sweet potato noodles, brine eggs, chicken, fish, beef and sheep, pork head meat, all these ingredients are cold cut on the plate and then placed on the rice table with meat and vegetables, and then put a vinegar dish in the middle, and when eating, use chopsticks to dip (vegetables) into vinegar. Ten plates of cold dishes, followed by ten hot dishes, pay attention to a perfect one. These ingredients are planted in the owner's own field and produced in front of the house, and they are almost natural.
Eating rice plant wine, the kitchen is more lively than the hall. The hostess was too busy to come and asked the sisters to come and help. Those who are responsible for cutting vegetables, responsible for frying, and responsible for going in and out of serving vegetables are responsible for their duties and orderly. The male owner's family kept persuading the wine and dishes, the hostess wasted no time in coming out to help, and the young face smiled into a peach blossom in March.
The sake is the main family's own brew of BunGuyaki. Muddy points, but the taste is positive, and it will not hurt the body when it is drunk. In Beishan, every household has its own toast, pole wine, bun grain roast, and jujube wine. When drinking, pour it into the wine pot and simmer it near the fire, and the whole room is full of mellow and rich wine. After three rounds of wine, the dish reaches five flavors, and the lord's family begins to toast. First the man salutes, then the hostess respects, after the hostess respects, the woman who cooks in the kitchen comes out to salute, you don't drink, don't drink is to dislike people's dishes are not done well, is not to give people face. So three times five times, five times three times, you are drunk. It doesn't matter if you are drunk, the hostess has already prepared sauerkraut syrup water and hand-rolled two mixed noodles, just waiting for the pot. A bowl of two-mixed noodles from the soup away from the water is served, and your wine is half awake. Before a bowl of noodles is down, you are sweating profusely, your stomach is comfortable, and after a few full burps, the wine is completely awake. After drinking and eating, people take out the gongs and drums, plant the rice and the last ritual - knocking on the family and singing the flower drum play. In the room, gongs and drums shook the sky, and the songs were even singing. In this way, people pray for good winds and rains, a bumper rice harvest, and lively until the middle of the night before they leave.
When The Great Father repaired the third line, he recruited relatives at the Liulin Brigade in the Pingli Qiu River, and settled down in Liulin. The willow forest is a large dam, and a small river flows through the middle of the dam, flanked by large areas of fertile rice paddies. Willow forest is rich in rice, but also rich in rice flowers and fish. Every planting season, the small fish in the river flowed backwards down the river into the rice fields, and since then they have not left and settled down. These fish eat the ephemeral creatures in the water, eat rice flowers to grow up, and the meat is not to mention how tender and delicate it is. When it comes to harvesting rice, the larger fish can grow to a foot or two long, and the smallest ones are half a foot long.
Nanshan also wants to eat rice planting wine and eat grain wine. Most of the wine in Nanshan is pole wine and Bao Gu yaki, and the aroma of the wine is not lost to the north mountain. It is also a table full of plates and bowls, and it is also a continuous hot dish from the kitchen. People in the mountains rely on mountains to eat mountains and rely on water to draft water. Just one rice flower fish can make different flavors of dishes. Half-length, fried in oil and dipped in pepper noodles to eat; a long one with hot oil, plus sour spicy fungus fried to eat; a foot or two long cut into a hanging jar, add half a jar of water and then put in tofu sour and spicy yellow cauliflower together to stew the soaked white rice to eat. Drunken people, come to a bowl of rice flower fish soup, both antidote and nutrition.
I had a threshing in Nanshan. Golden rice paddies are piled up like mountains in the yard, women cook in the kitchen, and men sit around the table to eat wine. In the large field of one or twenty people, in order to drink the thresh wine out of the atmosphere, people began to carry out the liquor order. The punches that can be punched, the levers that can't be punched, for a while, the room is staggered, the laughter is jubilant, and the people's faces are full of happy smiles, celebrating the harvest to the fullest. Suddenly, the house was quiet, people looked up at the outside of the house, it turned out that a bright moon rose from the top of Nüwa Mountain at some point, the moonlight sprinkled on the grain piles, sprinkled in the rice fields, the earth instantly became quiet and warm. At this time, from the direction of the river dam came the sound of singing the flower drum play, babbling and pulling the long tune, brother and sister singing. It was the rice keeper who was bored and lonely, who sang such a melodic flower drum play, a gentle and melodious long tune, singing so that the young daughters-in-law bowed their heads and blushed, and sang the men with their eyes straight to their own women.
My hometown is rich in rice, and there is no pleasure in eating rice planting and millet wine, but there is rice wine. Because rice wine always has some rice grains floating in it, the wine juice is yellow and strong, so it is also called thick wine or rice wine. In the planting season of Wuhuang and June, Wuli Hengkou, YueheChuan Road, every household will choose a good old paddy field to plant wine grain, harvest or use a machine to beat glutinous rice or scoop up a full grain of glutinous rice in their own nest.
On the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, the elderly or women at home steamed the clean glutinous rice in a steamer basket, and then put it in a large basin to cool, and then add the sake koji to ferment. Nowadays, people try to save trouble, and most of the wine koji used for fermentation are bought on the street; there are also those who are not troublesome or used to making local wine koji at home. Herbs such as Teresa, Terrestrial Red, and Iron Rod Mallets were dug up in the mountains, dried at home, mashed, and stuffed into a wine mold (a kind of movable wooden frame specially used to step on sake koji) with steamed rice bran (grain bran) and a little sake koji. The wine brewed from such a local wine koji is strong, and simmering hot drinking can cure fatigue.
When the fermented glutinous rice can smell the wine, it is necessary to put it into the tank in time and add an appropriate amount of pure and sweet deep well water according to the amount of glutinous rice. It's a mental arithmetic. The water is less wine taste is too strong, drinking hurts, there is a possibility that the fermentation is not sufficient, can not brew wine; more water wine taste will inevitably be weak, can not drink wine to treat guests. Generally speaking, it is best to brew 120 kilograms of rice with 100 kilograms of rice. The wine has a long taste and a good taste. After the well water is mixed, the lid is covered, and then sealed with mud, only to wait for a year, when the family is reunited.
At the end of the year, the man who worked outside the home returned. Soaked their own soybeans, or pressed in the frame to grow into bean sprouts, or ground the pulp to make tofu, and then slaughtered the New Year pig, killed the native chicken. The woman laid out a table of good dishes, the old father caged a pot of charcoal, and the hanzi called the uncles and brothers of the family to open the thick wine that had been sealed for a winter in public, and the house was suddenly overflowing with wine. Rice wine, like baogu roasted pole wine and other wines, should also be simmered and drunk, so that it can absorb nutrients and not hurt the appetite. Between the cups and cups, when the wine was hot, the hanzi (wine) was on his face, his heart was hot, and he talked to his uncles and brothers about the thoughts he had of his relatives this year, about the hardships and grievances of a person going out, said that the old father ate dry cigarettes and took the dry tobacco bag, said that his own woman turned her back to wipe her tears, and after finishing, she did not forget to move the copper pot containing wine to the fire and move it again.