China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Zhang Qian
If reunion is the essence of the Spring Festival and Lantern Festival, then the reunion dinner may be the soul of the festival.
Food is the most important thing for the people. For the introverted Chinese people, "eating" has become an important expression of emotional externalization. If you encounter parents who are not good at words, "eat well" is their most "explicit" "blessing" to their children. And tourists who are out for the holidays can really "break their guard" in an instant just by eating one more bite or one less bite of hometown food.
Due to the epidemic, many Taiwanese tourists were unable to go home and have the familiar reunion dinner this year. They discovered that when they took a bite of pearl meatballs they felt nostalgia, when they mixed it with a bowl of rice with dried hoof and bamboo shoots, they felt nostalgia. When they steamed a basket of black grass cakes, homesickness entered their noses unceremoniously with hot steam. inside.
Pork stuffing is rolled into small balls, wrapped in glutinous rice, and steamed in a steamer - Wang Youxin, a Taiwanese student at Xiamen University , remembers that at home in Taiwan, when he was a child, he often saw his grandfather making this very complicated dish, and it cost a person to make it. long time. "I heard that this dish is called Pearl Meatballs, and it's my grandpa's specialty," she said.
Due to the epidemic, Wang Youxin has not returned to Taiwan for the past two years during the Chinese New Year, but has returned to his grandfather’s hometown of Hubei. Specifically, this year we celebrate the New Year at the house of my grandfather’s brother’s daughter, my aunt in Honghu , . Last year, we celebrated the New Year at my uncle’s house.
Wang Youxin’s New Year’s Eve dinner in her hometown in Hubei. (Photo provided by Wang Youxin)
There is a dish on the New Year's Eve dinner in my hometown. Pork meatballs are full of fragrance, and the glutinous rice wrapped on the outside is crystal clear. Wang Youxin recognized it at a glance, "That's my grandfather's pearl meatballs." She suddenly realized: "In Taiwan, grandpa probably did it because he missed home." As she spoke, her voice became hoarse, and she told reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily: "Suddenly I wanted to cry."
Wang Youxin's grandfather Born in Yanwo Town, Jiayu County, formerly Mianyang City, Hubei Province in 1932, he came to Taiwan when he was a teenager. It wasn't until 1988 that my grandfather finally returned to his hometown to visit relatives. She said: "I wasn't born yet, and it was said that grandpa was very excited. He should have come back again after that."
Wang Youxin remembered that grandpa's pearl meatballs were famous for their "steaming", and the signature move for making this dish was Find the steamer basket. "Steaming" is one of the characteristics of Hubei cuisine. In the Jianghan Plain, there is a custom of "no guests are invited if they don't put the grid (referring to the steamer grid)". Pearl meatballs, which symbolize happy reunion, are very common at parties and banquets.
Later, grandpa got old and couldn’t make pearl meatballs anymore. 6 years ago, my grandfather passed away. The old man was unable to go home and take a bite of the pearl meatballs, so Wang Youxin tasted them for his grandfather.
Many relatives in Hubei heard that Wang Youxin returned to her hometown and wanted to meet her. "I probably met hundreds of people during my New Year greetings." She said that they were very happy when they first met, but when they parted, everyone had "tears in their eyes" "because they didn't know if they could see me again." Wang Youxin's hometown in Hubei has a thick family tree, and she discovered excitedly: "I am the 34th generation of the Wang family!"
Wang Youxin received a lotus pod from her relatives in Hubei. (Photo provided by Wang Youxin)
Since studying in Xiamen in 2019, Wang Youxin has always received "delicious food" from relatives. The first "famous food" was a bag of fresh, green lotus pods. "To be honest, I have never eaten them before." She peeled the lotus seeds out and ate them, and found that the lotus heart was really bitter. Later she learned that Hubei is rich in lotus roots.
Later she also received hot and dry noodles , hot and sour noodles, snail noodles , and various snacks. Wang Youxin didn't expect these "heavy-flavored" foods to be so delicious. What surprised her even more was that there were many friends in Taiwan who had the same taste as her. While browsing the forums of Taiwanese college students, she found that everyone was enthusiastically discussing whether they could only order hot and sour noodles at the Haidilao hot pot restaurant. On a Tainan street corner not far from her home, a snail noodle shop recently appeared. She also heard that near the high school, the spicy hotpot shop called "Xiao Chi Lao" still had long queues.
She came to Hubei during the Spring Festival these past two years, and her relatives seemed to want to take her to taste Chinese food.Taiwan is surrounded by the sea, but Wang Youxin has never seen "a river as wide as the Yangtze River." She knew about lobster, but she had no idea how amazing crawfish could be.
In the past, when she was in Taiwan, her friends in Taipei often joked that Tainan people’s habit of eating beef noodles in the morning was a bit “heavy.” But when she arrived in Wuhan, she discovered that everyone was eating noodles without restraint in the morning. “My uncle also took me to eat Old Beijing fried noodles. Sauce noodles ".
Wang Youxin’s family members in Taiwan obviously feel the same as their mainland relatives. When she returned to Hubei last year, Wang Youxin's father specifically asked her to bring Taiwanese specialty mullet roe to her relatives. She said: "It is a relatively expensive ingredient in Taiwan. I usually only eat it at festivals and wedding banquets."
Wang Youxin brought Taiwanese pastries sun cake to her relatives in Hubei. (Photo provided by Wang Youxin)
During the Chinese New Year this year, Wang Youxin brought Taiwanese pastry Suncakes. She told a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily: "I told my aunt that grandpa likes to eat sun-cakes. My aunt's first reaction was, 'It must be because it tastes like home.'"
Perhaps sun-cakes are for grandpa It's another kind of nostalgia, and for Wang Youxin, it means grandpa's love. She will always remember that when she was a child, she once told her grandfather that she wanted to eat sun-cakes. "My grandfather bought me more than ten or twenty pieces the next day."
Many Chinese families are like Wang Youxin's family. The way the elders express their love for the younger ones is often focused on "eating", lest the younger ones have not eaten, not eaten well, or not enough. The respect and love of the younger generation for their elders grows from the vegetables and rice cooked by the elders. The meals cooked by the elders are a symbol of family.
When talking about the Spring Festival reunion dinner, the first thing Zhang Zheng, a Taiwanese Hakka , thinks of is his grandfather's favorite - braised pork trotters and bamboo shoots. "This dish must be on the table every New Year."
Zhang Zheng likes to mix the soup of this dish with rice, add a piece of pork that is simmered until tender, and add deep-flavored dried bamboo shoots. Every bite of it is full of happiness and reunion. On the morning of the Lantern Festival, Zhang Zheng’s mother will abide by Hakka customs, prepare rice cakes, and perform a "worship" ceremony.
After studying at Overseas Chinese University in 2020, Zhang Zheng did not return to Taiwan for the New Year for two years. This year in Xiamen, she worked part-time from the Chinese New Year to the Lantern Festival. Although she found that the tastes of Fujian and Taiwan are actually very close, her mother's taste cannot be found anywhere except at home. Without the taste of mother, the Chinese New Year seems to be less meaningful.
Zhang Zheng has only experienced this feeling in the past two years, but her mother has experienced it long ago. Zhang Zheng told reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily, "My mother is from Jiangxi and I haven't seen my grandma for several years."
Fortunately, Zhang Zheng has made many Taiwanese friends in Xiamen, and he is not alone during the New Year. Lai Shuzhen is one of them.
Lai Shuzhen came to Xiamen to start a business a few years ago. Now she has opened a cultural company. Its main business is to help Xiamen villages with cultural construction and promote rural revitalization. She said: "I am from the Ami tribe in Taiwan, and we have a tribal culture. Our other founder is also Taiwanese, and his family has a Hokkien culture. We hope that we can graft our entrepreneurial experience on the mainland back in the future and continue to develop." The culture of my hometown.”
Lai Shuzhen and her parents sent each other New Year blessing videos. (Contributed by Lai Shuzhen)
Because their daughter did not go home for the New Year, Lai Shuzhen’s parents in Taiwan were not at ease. They asked “when will you come back” in the blessing video sent to their daughter. Her mother said she "can't speak", and her father reminded her, "Just say Happy New Year." Her mother choked up after saying "Happy New Year," and finally told her with sobs, "Don't eat randomly."
Lai Shuzhen saw The video was very touching, and the mood of the parents was exclaimed: "No matter how big the world is, there is always someone waiting for you to come home."
In fact, in Xiamen Chengnei Village, Lai Shuzhen found many traces of home, such as Wucao, which is the same as Taiwanese snacks. Kueh.
"Grandma (grandma) makes rice cakes every New Year." Lai Shuzhen's team found a grandmother in the village in the city and specially filmed the complicated process of making black grass rice cakes into a short film, hoping that this craft would be passed down.
Soak, mash, and temper the dried koji grass , mix it with glutinous rice and knead it into a dough, then wrap it in the fried peanut filling and press it into a cake shape. Now pick off a few large pieces of banana leaves, cut them into small pieces, hold the noodles, and steam them in a drawer. Lai Shuzhen can enjoy home-style Q bombs on the other side of the strait. She and her friends thought: "A village like this makes us feel like we are home."
Talking about the taste of home, these young people who have not been able to reunite with their families seem to wish that the water in the Taiwan Strait could boil into a pot of homesickness. The soup allows people to drink it all in one gulp and temporarily relieve the pain of homesickness.
But who can say that it is not a kind of happiness to have someone waiting to cook a meal for you in a distant home and leave a light?
When he was a child, every Lantern Festival, Zhang Zheng and his brother would hollow out colorful bell peppers and make small lanterns. One person takes the red one, the other the green one, a lantern in one hand and a rice cake in the other, and goes to the village to play with the children.
The lights will be turned on again this year for the Lantern Festival. Recalling the Lantern Festival night in Taiwan, Zhang Zheng felt that the dotted lights in his hometown looked particularly warm. Now that she has grown up, she hopes to build a home for her parents. Her wish this year is to grow up quickly and bring her parents to the mainland for reunion.
Source: China Youth Daily client
