Editor's note] In the New Year, on the earth. From the perspective of young people, observing today's China, the "Green Pepper Project" of the red network has specially launched the 2024 "New Year 'Pepper' Symphony" Year of the Dragon**. What kind of Spring Festival picture does the lonely and majestic Hexi Corridor area in ancient poems have? Today, let us follow the footsteps of Zhang Guorong, a student from Jishou University, and walk into Wuwei City, Gansu Province, to explore the "New Year's flavor" in food.
Guorong Zhang (Jishou University).
The old year is twilight, and the new year begins. In the brilliant and noisy fireworks, we turned the year's expectations and hopes, wishes and fulfillment into dazzling light, which instantly bloomed in the night sky. The Spring Festival is of great significance and full of good memories for Chinese. Each region has different New Year customs, and the Hexi Corridor area, located in the northwest of Gansu Province, also has different customs.
The border city is finely grassed, and the pear blossoms of the inn are flying. Don't dream of the hometown, yesterday's family letters are scarce", "The desert is lonely, and the sun sets on the long river". In the poems of the ancients, the Hexi Corridor has always been lonely, majestic, and full of sadness for the parting of relatives. The Hexi Corridor is a scenic corridor integrating deserts, Gobi, Danxia, snow-capped mountains, glaciers, forests, grasslands and many other extreme scenery. Today's Hexi Corridor area continues to inherit the traditional New Year's customs in terms of food, forming a unique New Year's flavor.
I wish the Tibetan Autonomous County a snowy scene during the Spring Festival.
The taste of the New Year in memory is the taste buds of the tip of the wanderer's tongue.
When the wanderers return from all over the world and gather at the small dining table, those familiar tastes are the best consolation for a year of wandering. My hometown is Wuwei City, Gansu Province, one of the "Five Cities in Hexi", and it is also the "Liangzhou" often mentioned in ancient poems.
The "noodle flowers" are constantly tumbling in the oil pan, accompanied by the sound of "zizi" oil, and fried until golden brown in a blink of an eye. As soon as I took a bite into the crispy shell, the heat came to my nose, and when the thick smell of oil lingered between my lips and teeth, I knew that the Chinese New Year was coming. This unique "New Year's flavor", called "fried oil fruit", is one of the "staple foods" of Wuwei people during the Spring Festival. When making this delicacy, the whole family will come to help, adults are responsible for mixing the noodles in advance and frying them at the end, and children are the main force in turning the "noodles" and rubbing the twist flowers. Looking at the more and more golden fried oil nuts in the pot, my heart is also full of a sense of accomplishment. Due to the geographical environment of the Hexi region, fried food is easier to preserve. In the past, the elderly in the family would always prepare a few meals for their children to eat on the road, not only to fill their stomachs, but also to give their children reluctance, expectations and thoughts. Even if you are in a foreign country, you still have the taste of your hometown, which warms the heart of homesickness.
Wuwei characteristics - "fried oil fruit".
I once read a sentence, "The taste of the previous year was brought about by the sense of ritual of the elders." Now that I've grown up, it's time to pass on the flavor of the New Year. People can't just accept and not pass on, we have also changed from people who feel the flavor of the New Year to people who create the flavor of the New Year." Just like the "fried oil fruit" that needs to be made with the participation of the family, this New Year's flavor will continue to be passed on in our hands.
The "Tibetan" New Year's flavor on the snowy plateau.
From Lanzhou all the way to the west, flying over the Wusheling Mountains, there is a small city located in Wuwei City, called Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County, which is the "snowy plateau" above the Hexi Corridor and the first ethnic minority autonomous county in China. Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County, also known as "Huarui", means "land of heroes" in Tibetan.
Tibetan Spring Festival couplets. The unique ethnic minority customs here decorate the exotic customs of the Hexi Corridor. During the Spring Festival, Tibetan families will put Tibetan Spring Festival couplets on the door, sit around the reunion table in traditional Tibetan clothes, receive butter tea from Grandma, hold up barley wine from Abba and sing auspicious hymns to celebrate the arrival of the New Year.
Tibetan hand-grabbed mutton.
The white yak meat pressed from the pressure cooker is the main dish of the Chinese New Year's Eve meal, the meat is lean but not woody, chewy and tough. The boiled beef broth is even more delicious, with coriander and sweet white radish to get greasy, soaked in crispy fried oil fruits, and enjoyed with yak meat. There is also Tibetan hand-grasped mutton, no seasoning with big ingredients, a handful of green salt is enough to lock the deliciousness of mutton, ready to eat in the pot, the taste is fresh and crispy, it is a unique "boutique" of the snowy plateau.
In February 2020, Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County officially withdrew from the sequence of poverty-stricken counties, and the people of all ethnic groups living on the snowy plateau jointly painted a picture of national unity and progress.
The Hexi Corridor is a gorgeous and unique landscape in the northwest of China, the camel bell rings, playing a pleasant chapter of a better life, and the bonfire is burning, symbolizing people's expectations for a better life.
The "flavor of the New Year" during the Spring Festival is the embodiment of people's happy life, and the significance of the Chinese New Year lies not only in the gathering of family members around the fireplace, but also in the gathering of all good wishes. Say goodbye to the old year and enter the new year, let us carry the yearning for a better life, strive to forge ahead, and create a brighter tomorrow.