A bowl of the world
Lan Ruoyu Gansu Zhouqu.
The small county town is surrounded by mountains on all sides, it almost does not snow in winter, and the Bailongjiang River passes through the border, like a brocade belt, long and elegant. There is a cooling from time to time, but only see the sharp tip of the mountain fall a piece of white, and there is not a single star and a little flying flower in the city, known as "the second Yangzhou" and "Tibetan Jiangnan" reputation. As Lao She wrote about Jinan, "Please close your eyes and think: an old city, with mountains and water, is all basking in the sun under the sky, sleeping warmly and comfortably, just waiting for the spring breeze to wake them up, is this an ideal realm?" ”
The small county town is lively in winter, and all kinds of merchant stores seem to have opened the door, and the goods are placed at the door for you to choose; The fruits and vegetables on the small tricycles parked around the corner of the street are cheap and fresh; The backs lined up in the "one" line near the Chengguan Bridge are full of various local "characteristics"; The cries of the vegetable market are full of fireworks.
In spring, the swallows murmur, the flowers bloom in summer, the colors fade in autumn, and the snow in winter is resting, and the ninety-nine springs nourish the children of Tibetan townships with a gentle personality. I live and work in this small county, and I slowly integrate myself here.
The winter night came very quickly, and it was already dusk around the end of work today, and the navy blue curtain was pulled from the top of the east mountain to the foot of the south mountain. "The lights are on the four sides of the city, and the galaxy is a water**" Walking alone on the riverside road, watching the endless flow of vehicles, pedestrians coming and going, time flowing in the river, although the cold wind is blowing, I don't feel how cold. I was in a hurry to go home, because my mother had come from her hometown in the countryside to visit her children, and it was already past dinner time, so I must have been hungry, so I quickened my pace.
Knocking on the door, my mother quickly greeted me, took the bag in my hand and told me to sit down and eat, saying that she and the child had already eaten. When I came to the kitchen, there was a full plate of dumplings on the board. My mother hadn't been to the supermarket to buy anything, and she didn't know how to use the gas stove, so what did she find these guys? In the few seconds when I was in a trance, a steaming bowl of dumplings was served in front of me. I was amazed at how my mother knew when I was coming home and put the dumplings in the pot the time I walked in the door.
Eating this hot mouthful, I can't help but have a different kind of warmth in my heart, and the fireworks in the world are the most soothing to the hearts of mortals. Dumplings are not an uncommon food today, and the freezers of major supermarkets, small shops, and grocery stores are filled with dumplings of various brands and fillings, which can be described as dazzling and everything, but the beautifully packaged quick-frozen dumplings always feel a little missing when they are cooked and eaten. I know that making dumplings is a "big project", from mixing noodles, chopping filling, adjusting filling, rolling skin to wrapping, a whole set of "assembly operations" must be meticulous and taken seriously.
I remember when I was a child, in that era of scarcity of materials, dumplings were a rare delicacy on the dinner table of ordinary farmers, and the family only made dumplings to eat during the Chinese New Year. I am most afraid of rolling the dumpling skin, after the dough is raised in advance, knead it into a dough of uniform size, stick dry flour on both sides and flatten it with the palm of your hand, hold a rolling pin in your right hand, and quickly turn the dough with your left hand, and you can roll it into a small round cake with a thin edge and a little thick in the middle in seven or eight strokes, and I always roll the skin into an irregular shape with a thin middle and a thick edge. My sister laughed at me for not having the right posture: "I want to hold the rolling pin in my left hand, the rolling pin is slightly tilted, and the strength is all in the palm ......of my hand.""I don't care, I can eat it! "I didn't accept my sister's hands-on teaching, but I sprinkled flour everywhere, and my mother was not angry.
The custom of eating dumplings in Chinese has a long history, and it is a delicacy that cannot be replaced by any mountain and sea delicacies on the table. As the saying goes, "It's not as delicious as dumplings, but it's not as comfortable as upside down." According to the "Guangya" written by Zhang Yi of the Wei Dynasty of the Three Kingdoms, there were already foods called "wontons" shaped like crescents at that time, which are basically similar to the shape of dumplings today. By the time of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the wonton was "shaped like a glaive moon, and the whole world was eating". Around the Tang Dynasty, dumplings had become exactly the same as today's dumplings, and they were fished out and eaten separately on a plate. The Song Dynasty called dumplings "dumplings" and "jiaoer", which is the etymology of the word "dumplings" in later generations. The Yuan Dynasty called dumplings "flat food". The increase in the name of dumplings indicates that the area and influence of their circulation are constantly expanding.
Zhang Zhongjing, the medical saint, once served as too punctual in Changsha, visiting patients and administering medicine, and practicing medicine in the lobby. When he returned to his hometown once, he saw that the villagers on both sides of the Baihe River had yellow and thin faces, hunger and cold, and many people's ears were frozen and rotten, so he gave up the "cold and Jiao'er soup" for treatment. People ate the "delicate ears" that resemble ingots, drank the "cold soup", and the whole body was warm, the ears were hot, and the frostbitten ears were cured. Therefore, there is a ballad of "Don't serve a dumpling bowl on the winter solstice, and no one cares if you freeze your ears" to commemorate this great benefactor.
Among the people, the custom of eating dumplings during the Spring Festival is widely spread. Every year in the thirtieth year of the Chinese New Year's Eve, the Chinese call it "Jiaozi", which is the replacement of the old and the new. In the Spring Festival of bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new, dumplings are homophonic with "Jiaozi", so they have more auspicious cultural meanings. The custom of eating dumplings on the winter solstice and the Spring Festival is also fixed in people's impressions.
My mother saw that I was eating and laughed: "You usually go into the restaurant and often eat delicious food, don't dislike the ...... I make."The bowl is not enough to add it yourself, I have cooked the garlic and spicy seeds, and I will not fry the meat and vegetables, you will eat ......”
Will? "This is clearly the best delicacy in my eyes!
Nowadays, the food no longer appears on the table with the effect of the stomach, and people have given the dumplings more meanings: fortune and treasure, everything is as expected, reunion, five blessings, etc., the emotions contained in dumplings are beyond the food itself, but the warmth contained in it has never gone far.
A bowl of seemingly ordinary dumplings can wrap everything in Vientiane, encapsulating different tastes into similar skins, which is more in line with the Chinese aesthetic concept of "not focusing on appearance but on the inside". Those unspeakable care and love mixed into the food also reflect the Chinese's euphemistic and subtle expression and humble character.
The meaning of the cold may be to bring us closer to the warm people and regain the hopes and dreams in our hearts. Just like the steaming bowl of dumplings brought to the table by my mother, it not only nourished my blood, but also gave me the courage to smile and welcome the new year and go to thousands of mountains and rivers.