As autumn passes and winter comes, the four seasons of nature dress themselves up carefully and tell people about the vicissitudes of life and beauty. In the blink of an eye, the Spring Festival, imprinted with tradition and signaling new hope, is coming again. Whenever the New Year approaches, the unforgettable nostalgia of the New Year will fill my mind, and I will have endless aftertaste. I not only think of the long tradition of folk customs, but also feel the strides forward of human civilization.
Throughout the ages, the simple and peaceful countryside has paid special attention to the arrival of the Spring Festival as a symbol of nature's sustainability. Farmers who have faced the loess and turned their backs to the sky all their lives have worked hard to survive through hardships and hardships for their basic livelihood, all looking forward to a bumper harvest, family happiness, and social harmony. But no matter how busy or hard they are, they all look forward to celebrating the New Year happily. When the farmyard is full of harvests and the twelfth lunar month is here, they feel relaxed and relaxed, smiling, thinking about preparing new year's goods, and are all busy buying fried rice candies, tofu, rice flour cakes and other new year's food. But I have a special liking for fried rice candy. Because it’s crunchy and delicious, activates your taste buds, has an attractive aroma and has a long shelf life.
Fried rice candy is a food made of sugary and bulging fried rice . It is crispy and sweet, and can fill people's stomach anytime and anywhere, making you energetic and energetic. At room temperature, it can accompany people to eat until the Qingming Festival. In the past years, once the coldest nine days entered, the first thing farmers thought of was to quickly make fried rice candies. They pour their own grown or purchased clean glutinous rice into a pagoda-shaped steamer and wait for the right time to heat it. After the water in the large pot on the farmhouse's earth stove boils over the blazing fire of dry firewood in the stove pit, the steamer is carefully placed in it. After a while, taking advantage of the mist that was coming from the steamer, he poured the cooked glutinous rice into a large dustpan to dissipate heat. This cycle continued until piles of glutinous rice were squeezed together like hills. After drying, he worked tirelessly and patiently to separate the glutinous rice that was stuck together, and then let it dry in the sun for a few days. The bright world of white with yellow that appeared was really beautiful and touching. The master of
is skillful and unrestrained. He mixes the sun-dried glutinous rice and the stone and sand from Jinsuke rice into a large pot. With the help of medium firewood, he stir-fries the fried rice into a pile like a haystack. Then naturally enter the key step of boiling the syrup. The raw materials for making syrup malt in the farmer's firewood pot are mixed together with the water in the big firewood pot to boil, and the sound of "gurgling, gurgling" is made from time to time. This roaring and splashing lasts for about nine or ten hours. Some farmers have to cook it all night until the surface forms the shape of a crab shell and shrinks into a ball of red-yellow bright and thick syrup.
I didn’t expect that boiling glutinous rice wine also contained a story about my quick talk and the eye-rolling of the old man. It was a winter evening 45 years ago. As a teenager, I happily ran into the house of "Grandma Zhao" at the west end of the village to visit me. The scene of Grandma Zhao boiling sugar in the big iron pot in the kitchen made me stop and watch. Out of curiosity to explore the mystery, I watched for a while and saw that the water in the pot was getting less and less. "Hey, grandma, why is the water in the pot getting less and less?" I exclaimed out of curiosity. "Children, the Chinese New Year is coming soon, don't talk nonsense." Grandma Zhao immediately scolded me with a black face. When I got home, my grandma helped me figure out the mystery. She blamed me for not paying attention when speaking. I couldn't say the unlucky word "less" to the sugar pot. Of course, people would be unhappy. It turns out that the rule that has been followed for thousands of years is to say auspicious words such as "good, many" on the occasion of the prosperous New Year.
The sugar syrup is ready in the pot, and the fried rice like Saibeixue is waiting to show off its intriguing charm. The attentive host first poured the fried rice into a clean large wooden basin according to the proportion, then poured the sugar syrup into the fried rice with a bowl, stretched out his clean hands and kneaded it repeatedly to make it evenly mixed and sticky, and then hit it repeatedly with a special wooden hammer to make it solid and flat. After the heat dissipates, hold the candy bar with one hand and use the shiny kitchen knife with the other hand to "click, click..." the small pieces of fried rice candy fall into the dustpan below, and then put into bottles and jars for storage.
Some neighbors will take the initiative or be invited to happily go to other people's homes to help make fried rice candies.Don't look at this humble fried rice candy. Once you eat it, it will be full of fragrance and leave a fragrance on your lips and teeth. When guests come to your home, you can warmly entertain them with a plate of fried rice candy and make them return happy. Put the fried rice candy in your purse before going out, so it can satisfy your hunger and moisturize your belly anytime on the way. The whole process of making fried rice candy contains perseverance, shows endurance, exudes the light of wisdom, and overflows with happiness, joy, and contentment. It also implies the good wishes of good luck and happiness, and also bursts out the spiritual power of unity and cooperation.
It may be due to the progress of the times, or the change of farmers' ideas. The fried rice candy that these farmers were so busy with a whole set of complicated processes before has gradually faded out of people's sight. It has now become a patent for some large-scale operators to make it easier for the people to buy. Farmers can go to stores and supermarkets to buy back various kinds of fried rice candy at any time when preparing for the New Year. However, they can't create the atmosphere and taste of the fried rice candy produced by the large firewood stoves in the farmers. And making sticky rice flour cakes is still passed down from farm to household.
As time goes by, some of the eating customs that were mandatory years ago have gradually faded in the vast countryside, but I still miss those lingering and profound customs from the bottom of my heart. Because it is not only the inheritance of the Chinese nation's extensive and profound folk culture, but also the increasing progress of society, full of joy and celebration in the world, and a symbol of peace and prosperity for the country and the people!
Author: Yao Changsheng
