childhood cake
Chen Limin
Shaobing is often one of the breakfasts I used to fill my stomach when I was a child.
At that time, I was in elementary school at Chuqimen . In the morning, parents were too busy, so they would give me three or five cents coins and go to the tiger stove across the street to buy sesame cakes. While I was chewing on the sweet sesame cake, I went to school with my schoolbag.
My family lives on Jiefang East Road, Chuqimen. Across the street is a state-owned Qunli Hotel. Next to the hotel is a tiger stove selling boiled water, which also sells sesame cakes.
I remember that the boss who sells sesame cakes is surnamed Wang. He is of medium size, fat, with a messy hair on his head, and a blue cloth waist. White flour is often stuck to his waist and nose. A wooden chopping board, a coal ball stove modified from a used gasoline barrel and covered with thick yellow soil on the walls. Every morning, Boss Wang skillfully combines flour on the chopping board, kneads dough, and makes sesame cakes.
The sesame cakes made by Boss Wang are not only beautiful in appearance, but also have moderate texture. There are round sesame cakes, square sesame cakes, and oval sesame cakes; the sesame cakes are yellow, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, and have a good taste. When he was in a good mood, there were still a small amount of black sesame seeds in the pancake. In his spare time, he sat on an old wooden bench, crossing his legs and drinking tea and smoking leaves cigarettes.
Every time I go to buy sesame cakes, I throw the coins into the small wooden box on the chopping board. Three points are salty sesame cakes, five points are sweet sesame cakes (but the sweetness at that time was mostly edible saccharin), and then I lifted a layer of white gauze and grabbed a sesame cake in a large pot.
Boss Wang just stared at me and nodded and smiled.
Time flies, decades in a flash of fingers. Looking back at the past, it is vivid in my mind, as if it was yesterday.
Today, the old city of Chuqimen has been demolished and renovated, and the childhood Shaobing has long disappeared. I don't admire or compliment the cream bread, fried potato bars, hamburgers, fried chicken wings, pizza, etc.
I am still nostalgic and nostalgic for the sweet sesame cakes I used to be.
Although I am not a genuine foodie, I also understand that Confucius' "The Analects of Confucius: Township Party" says: "I never tire of food, and I never tire of fine meat."
Indeed, compared with foods similar to Shaobing, I have traveled around the world and learned a lot from the convenience of reporters' interview work. For example, Guokui, in my hometown , Nanchong , is a delicacy. The round pots include brown sugar and white sugar; some are covered with spicy couple lung tablets, and some are covered with spicy Sichuan jelly, which makes people happy and beautiful. For example, Xinjiang's naan is sweet and delicious, with a unique flavor, but it is hard after being cold and will make you feel tooth-bumped. For example, Shanxi steamed buns are economical and nutritious. Henan has all kinds of noodles, which is dazzling and has a huge appetite. There are egg pancakes, scallion pancakes, meat pancakes, vegetable pancakes and , etc. As Zhuangzi said: "The five colors are confused, making the eyes unknown; the five flavors are turbid, making the mouth refreshing."
One year, I went on a business trip to Shijiazhuang, Hebei and had a meal at a snack shop. I found that the locals cut pancakes into thin strips and stir-fry them with scallions. This was not only their staple food, but also their dishes. It seems simple and ordinary life, but their happy atmosphere is also enviable and moving.
Liang Shiqiu once said: "We Chinese people pay attention to eating, and we are the best in the world." It is true that today's beautiful life should also be a kind of dietary art and a state of life.
So, Wang Guowei said: "Those who have realm will become a high level."
Until today, whenever I think of my childhood sesame cake, I still remember it freshly and never forget it. After all, that is my memory of my poor life and my nostalgia for my happy life. I think that a deep impression of a food is the fit of the times, the precipitation of emotions, and the specimen of history.
Editor: Luo Yuxin
Editor: Chen Taiyong
Review: Wang Cheng
