Qin Official

For six-and-a-half-year-old Yang, the winter solstice in the 21st year of King Qin's reign was something he would never forget.

Yesterday, my father-in-law and his uncle pounded a stone of rice in one go with their newly made "treading rice." Two-thirds of it was indica rice and one-third was glutinous rice. It was not enough to pound the rice into brown rice. It was pounded until evening and sifted several times before all the rice bran and bran were removed, and white polished rice was obtained.

Father Zhong took two buckets each of the pounded indica rice and glutinous rice, put them in a pottery basin and soaked them in cold, clear well water. Then he picked up Yang and his sister Yue one by one, and kissed them each. Boasting that he would make delicious food for them tomorrow...

Just because of Zhongfu's words, the greedy Yang stayed up very late, wondering what the delicious food Zhongfu mentioned was.

"It must be caramel! I heard that Father Zhong sent my uncle to go to the market to buy caramel!"

His sister, Xiaoyue, who was only five years old, opened her eyes wide, and Yang seemed to be able to see stars in her eyes under her forehead-length hair. They can only eat the sweet and delicious caramel two or three times a year.

"It must have something to do with those rice." Yang Ze thought so.

In his eyes, the pounded rice was already delicious. Yang is at an age when hunger is easy. When eating rice, you can swallow it in big gulps without worrying about getting a sore throat from the rice bran. But on weekdays, my father has to drag an injured leg to the ground, and my mother is also very busy. She has to clean up the housework and I have to weave and take care of my eldest mother, so there is no time for fine work.

Full of expectation, the two children fell asleep in a daze. When Yang opened his eyes again, it was already dawn the next day, and the winter solstice had arrived...

For their family, the winter solstice is not only a solar term, but also a special day.

The kind aunt (grandmother) always likes to hug the sun and the moon and talk about the past.

She said that Father Zhong was born on the day of the winter solstice. Coincidentally, my uncle was also born two years later on the winter solstice. His birth was purely accidental. When my eldest mother went to deliver food to my eldest father, she was startled by a rabbit that ran past her and suddenly came to me. this world……

So my eldest mother often joked about it, saying that my uncle was born in a hurry just to be born on the same day as his father-in-law.

Every time they hear this, Yang and Yue will ask curiously, how is a child born? Does it pop out of a stone? Or fished it from the well? Or is it the rabbit?

In this regard, the adults all looked at each other and avoided talking about it.

But regarding the fact that Heifu and Jing were born on the same day, the aunt who lived in the countryside, who knew the "Rishu" although she was illiterate, and often set dates and times for people, believed that they could be born on the same day in the same month. People must be connected by lifeline. Heifu and Jing are not only brothers, but they are also destined to live and die together... It sounds like a fairy tale.

In short, the winter solstice is a bit special for their family, and this year it is even more special. All of this is because of Father Zhong!

When Yang rubbed his eyes and walked out of the room, he found his mother and aunt busy in the kitchen, lighting a fire and setting up a cauldron with a wooden steamer for steaming rice. After the water in the pottery cauldron boils, the rice, which has become swollen and white, is scooped into the steaming wooden steamer and steamed over a high fire.

Soon, steam was billowing in the kitchen, and the thick aroma of rice continued to overflow from the kitchen, making Yang drool at the smell.

At this time, Father Zhong also bent down and entered the kitchen. Their family had been poor for generations, but they didn't know the weird rules of "a gentleman stays away from the kitchen." Father Zhong ignored the smell of fireworks and stifled the fire, squatting by the stove and fanning the fire, paying attention at the same time. On fire.

When he shouted yes, his uncle and others came in together, lifted up the wooden steamer, poured the steamed rice into the clean stone mortar while it was still hot.

Next, it was the funniest moment for Yang, when he saw his uncle Citron taking off his winter clothes, shirtless, and holding a big mallet, while his father stepped on the newly-made "treadmill".

The two of them smashed the rice in the stone pestle first, and then the uncle raised the mallet and pounded it vigorously. The father-in-law also noticed his rhythm and stepped on it. You hit me, the stone hammer and the wooden mallet fell one after another into the mortar, constantly pounding the hot rice, making a "bang dong, bang dong" sound, turning it into a sticky rice ball...

Oh, it shouldn't be called rice balls, Zhongfu said to Yang, this thing is called "rice cake".

"I didn't eat it during the Chinese New Year, so I had to eat it during the Winter Solstice." Father Zhong said with a smile, but Yang didn't understand. In this case, why wasn't it called "winter cake"? .

During this process, Father Zhong also allowed Yang, Yue, who had just woken up, and his uncle's four-year-old daughter "Chen" to grab a handful of glutinous rice from the stone mortar and run to the side to eat it with relish. The three siblings' hands and mouths were covered with sticky rice grains. Finally, they pointed at each other, giggled, and started chasing each other in the yard. Later, the big yellow dog in the front yard also joined. Come in.

Uncle Jing looked at them and smiled. Normally, this little boy would have come over to play with them, but at this moment, he was assigned a task by Father Zhong. Squatting beside him, every time the mallet fell, his uncle would quickly wet his palms with water, put his hands into the stone mortar, turn over the unbeaten rice balls, and cover the beaten parts.

The cycle goes on like this, and finally, it is pounded into a big solid ball, which is considered good.

By this time, Yang saw that his uncle was out of breath and said that the work was really tiring. His arms were sore and his mouth was numb. On the other hand, Father Zhong, who was operating the treadmill, was neither blushing nor out of breath, just like a normal person.

But I saw Father Zhong continuing to direct everyone, kneading the large rice cakes that had been pounded and placed on the long chopping board several times, then kneading them into several long strips, smoothing the wrinkles on them, and evenly applying a little hot rice cakes. paste. Finally, I personally cut the long strip into dozens of roughly equal pieces with a knife, and then pressed it with a cutting board, and each round rice cake that resembled a dish appeared in front of me.

Father Zhong was even interested in carving a seal with Haitu (radish), holding Yang and Yue, and asked them to use their little hands to hold the seal, and put it on the New Year cake hard, making a round and moon-shaped seal. Poke, it appears on the rice cake...

"I also want."

Xiao Chen from her aunt's house was also carried to the table. Father Zhong made one for her, covered it with rice cakes, and left a five-pointed star...

"The round one is the sun, the curved one is the moon, and the five-pointed star is the chen. Isn't it fun?"

"Fun!"

Yang Heyue sat in Father Zhong's broad arms and couldn't help but widen their eyes. Chen Ye rode on Father Zhong's neck and screamed happily.

For the first time, the children discovered that the rice they eat every day can become so interesting!

"Not only is it fun, it's also delicious." Heifu laughed with three children hanging on his body.

Over the next two thousand years, the diet of China will gradually change, and millet will slowly retreat from its leading role. Eventually, the north will become a world of wheat, while the south will always be a kingdom of rice.

Chinese people like to unify. The country does not divide the north and the south, but when it comes to food, they divide the north and the south and fight against each other.

In the eyes of northerners, southerners "have rice and fish in soup". What a hard life it is, and they may even feel sympathy for them.

But if we let the southerners speak for themselves, eating rice with delicious fish soup makes life enjoyable, but eating steamed buns and steamed buns every day is boring!

For southerners, steamed buns and noodles can be used as breakfast or late-night snacks, but the main meal requires a bowl of hot white rice to keep them full for the day. In their eyes, rice is like an old wife, who comes to the house hand in hand and can eat it for hundreds of years; rice is like a concubine, who is waited on in the outer room and can be tasted occasionally. Northerners think that this relationship may be reversed...

To put it bluntly, the difference in diet is just that the soil and water support the people of the same country. No matter what is grown in the ground, it must be made flavorful and colorful. This is the true nature of a foodie country.

In the same way, northerners have their own way of celebrating the New Year, and southerners have their own way of celebrating the New Year. Northerners have dumplings, while Southerners have New Year cakes that are indispensable.

Heifu was an authentic southerner in his previous life. It just so happened that Anlu, the southern county, was also the southernmost county of the Qin State. In a thousand years, this place would be "Huguang familiar with the world", and it could also be considered a land of plenty. The crops are evenly divided between corn and rice, and even some glutinous rice, but wheat is rarely planted.

So Heifu recalled the New Year celebrations in his hometown when he was a child in his previous life, and copied the lively scene of pounding rice cakes to more than two thousand years ago...

It's a pity that he didn't have time to make it. He couldn't grind the rice into powder first and then steam it, so he couldn't make a serious rice cake. These things in front of him were not so fine, so it seemed more appropriate to call them "獍粑" .

However, the New Year scene that Heifu wanted, with the whole family working together to chop rice cakes, old and young, laughing and noisy, was real.

The children especially liked this scene. The three of them were chasing each other in the yard, shouting at each other, eating and playing, and they were so happy.

A family must have real warmth and unity in order to make sticky rice cakes!

"This is the life I want." Heifu couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

…

By this time, the physical work was almost done. Heifu picked out a part of the rice cake and asked his sister-in-law and sister-in-law to go back to the kitchen to steam it. After the hot rice cake came out of the cauldron, it was soft and could be easily rolled into rice cake dumplings. eat.

I was so frightened and impatient that I pulled a bunch of it and stuffed it into my mouth. It was so hot that I screamed. Heifu slowly blew it to cool it down before putting it in his mouth. He couldn't help but close his eyes. The soft and waxy feeling made him extremely familiar and attached to it.

In addition to vegetarian food, you can also dip it into the malt candy that he bought at the rural market. It is so sweet in the mouth. The three children especially like it and eat it from ear to ear.

Xiaoyue still held a piece of rice cake dipped in caramel in her hands and handed it to Heifu's mother. She said in a sweet voice, "Mom, eat it." Her mother took it happily, but the rice cake was a bit sticky to the teeth. The vacillating old man is not very friendly. My mother just ate some casually and continued to serve the porridge. Looking at the scene of family reunion, this is the best delicacy for a mother...

Of course, rice cakes can also be dipped in sauce or salt, but Heifu does not advocate eating them that way.

"Sweet rice cakes are orthodox, salty ones are heresy!"

Heifu started to pull his nephew and niece, and said some strange things, but in front of him, he ate a piece of rice cake cooked with oil and salt in one bite, and said with a smile that it tasted sweeter. Good...

Others also had full stomachs and praised the taste of the rice cake, saying it was glutinous, fragrant, and refreshing.

In the past, they enjoyed happiness in the midst of hardship, but today, they enjoy happiness in the midst of sweetness.

The whole family sat together to finish the meal. Although the nobles in this era all practiced the meal sharing system, each had a table in front of them and the bell rang for the meal. But Heifu's family has been poor for generations. They don't even have a table to eat. They put a wooden block in front of them and squat on the ground to eat. How can they be so fussy?

Heifu actually likes this kind of atmosphere. This is probably the deep-rooted thinking of people of later generations. He thinks it is good to sit together in groups. It is lively and intimate. After eating, they can sit and chat with each other. The sense of alienation and feuding between brothers in a noble family does not exist here.

The poem says:

The beans are the best for drinking. Now that the brothers are here, they are happy and happy.

My wife is a harmonious couple, like a drum, a harp and a harp. Brothers are both peaceful and harmonious.

Although there are no bells, cauldrons, or wine here, the laughter and laughter of the family are more beautiful than any other instruments in the world...

The night is getting darker, and Heifu is happy today, and is still educating his brothers on various ways to eat rice cakes.

"The remaining rice cakes can be stored in the sun for a long time if they are dried in the winter. You can slice them into slices when you want to eat them, boil them, or grill them. You only need three or five slices, and you will be full for the whole morning."

Heifu was talking here with great interest, but unexpectedly his eldest brother smiled heartily and listened for a long time, and suddenly said with some melancholy: "My family has not been so lively for a long time since my father passed away..."

For a moment, the whole family was silent. Indeed, in the past few years, many things happened to their family, and in the end, they fell from a good middle-class family to a life of food and clothing.

Then, Zhong stood up and bowed to Hei Fu!

"Brother Zhong told me that day in the county that it would make our family's life better and better. I didn't believe it at the time, but now, brother Zhong, I really believe it!"