Ten pots of prose at the wedding banquet in my hometown

In our rural areas in the south of the Yangtze River, especially in my hometown in the mountainous areas of southern Anhui, villagers have happy events, funerals and birthdays. Or when Liang became the top scholar, he hosted a banquet at home to thank his relatives and friends and neighbors. The form of banquet is a "flowing mat" passed down.

The so-called "running water banquet" is a form of entertaining guests, which is the most common in rural areas. It is a folk custom handed down and a reflection of local folk culture. "Flowing water mat" is simply a farmhouse banquet. A roof was set up in our big yard, and a row of cookers were set up along the corner. Invite one or two skilled local chefs to cook. The characteristics of "flowing water seats", such as wedding banquets, are not like dozens of tables set in hotels by city people. They usually have three or four tables or five or six tables. There are eight people at the "flowing water mat" table. As long as there are eight people at the table, the arriving guests will serve immediately. This group of people finished eating, wiped their mouths and left, and another group of people ate again, so round after round, guests came to eat. The skills of the invited rural chefs are not inferior to those of professional chefs, especially some rural local dishes. Their cooking method combines local technology and is more authentic than hotels in the city.

A few days before the wedding reception, the host will contact the chef and the family will be fully prepared. According to the arrangement of the invited chef, buy the raw materials needed for the banquet. Of course, these raw materials are inseparable from chicken, duck and fish, and hooves are absolutely indispensable. I still don't understand this requirement. Why do wedding banquets have to have trotters? Take out a series of side dishes such as mushrooms, fungus, seasonal vegetables and side dishes. The affairs at the wedding banquet are complicated, and there are main arrangements for entertaining guests. Their division of labor is clear and clear: doing chores inside and outside, serving dishes, handing tea and cigarettes, distributing cups and chopsticks, washing dishes and helping the kitchen, etc. Most of these helpers, except my second cousin, are girls and boys from our village. They are simply doing their duty. After the wedding, the host will symbolically give a red envelope, usually 100 yuan, and then hand over a box of cigarettes, a generous host and some candy. Often at this time, it can better reflect the harmony and strong nostalgia between villagers' neighborhoods. Compared with the present city, people's feelings are indifferent. Even if I live in a corridor, I still don't know each other's names for several years. Every family is closed, and there is no intimate relationship between neighbors, let alone the comfort of running around with rice bowls like in the countryside.

Two days before the wedding reception, the chef will come to the main room and start preparing wedding dishes. There is a big iron pot on the stove. The red chestnuts in the stove are burning with charcoal fire, and the special pork belly is cooked in the pot. Stew pig's trotters in a cauldron; A group of women over there are busy rubbing jiaozi and frying jiaozi to prepare for the "floating seats" of the wedding reception.

Wedding banquets usually start around one or two noon. Those relatives and friends who arrive early can make full use of this festive time to catch up with each other and talk about their families, just like an intimate gathering of relatives and friends, thus bringing their friendship closer. The thick human touch of "Running Water Mat" makes you feel nostalgic, and it is swaying in your heart with a touch of homesickness, which makes people feel very cordial!

On the afternoon before the wedding, the groom took a red envelope, the amount of which depends on local standards, generally not less than 500 yuan, plus three or four Jin of pork ribs, commonly known as "ear-tied meat", and went to Yue's hometown to invite Yue Lao to his host's house for dinner. The host's house put on a sumptuous banquet. Yue Lao was respectfully arranged at the top of the dining table, accompanied by other elders, showing respect for Yue Lao and, more importantly, thanking Yue Lao for his happy marriage!

On the sixth day of the Spring Festival this year, I was invited by my cousin to attend my nephew's wedding banquet. Driving all the way from the provincial capital is very tiring, and it is already noon in my hometown. Far away, I saw many visitors gathered in front of my cousin's house, which was very lively. Four tables have been set in the middle of the hall, plus one table in the small living room and five tables for the first banquet. On the tables around, the guests are already laughing and laughing, and there are guests who have not sat in their seats outside for the time being, waiting for the next round of seats with a smile. In the center of each table, there are fruit bowls, cakes, cigarettes and tea. Looking at the full house, the host said "open the table", and then someone quickly took the fruit bowl tea off the table and brought it to a lit alcohol stove. At this time, the young man who specially delivered vegetables came to the table with a tray painted with red paint in his hand and put steaming pots on each alcohol stove.

In my memory, the original rural wedding banquet has always been ten white porcelain seven-inch sea bowls, collectively known as the "top ten bowls", symbolizing perfection. How did the plate become a pot? While I was wondering, the second uncle who sat first saw my doubts and said slowly, "Girl, you don't know, do you?" Nowadays, weddings in rural areas are all made of pots. The original' floating seats' used sea bowls, which is an old calendar. "oh! I see. The pot is much larger than the previous sea bowl. It is made of all copper and shiny. There is an ear on each side of the copper pot, which is convenient to carry. Looking at the size of the copper pot, coupled with the sincerity of the rural people, the dishes in the pot are full. Different from ordinary banquets, the "running water banquet" in my hometown serves all the dishes at once, but it is unique. A dish seems to arouse people's appetite. After eating one dish, the next dish is withdrawn, even before the dish is finished.

The first course is stewed mushrooms and fungus. Stewed meat has a unique flavor and is one of the famous dishes necessary for wedding banquets and festivals in hometown. First, remove the whole pig hair with skin and pork belly, scrape it clean, blanch it with cold water, skim the floating foam and cook it until it is 67% mature, let it cool, and then cut it into pieces of moderate size, slightly larger, otherwise it will be said that people are stingy. Then put it into a cauldron of marinade that has been boiled for a long time, and stir it slowly to make the meat pieces tightly wrap the juice. At the same time, add washed and soaked mushrooms, and then pour in a proper amount of homemade glutinous rice wine and a little refined salt. Finally, put the cauldron full of meat on the charcoal fire, simmer until the meat is soft and rotten, and finally add a little cooked fungus to match it. As soon as the banquet was opened, the lid of the cauldron was uncovered, and a strong aroma immediately grabbed the pot. The golden stew is rotten but not broken, square and square, with rich and mellow meat, and the faint and eye-catching leek powder, how can it not be mouth-watering and never tire of eating it? In the soft and delicious meat fragrance, there is also a faint mushroom fragrance, coupled with the thick gravy, which is simply delicious on the tip of the tongue.

Just when I was ashamed, the boy who delivered the food removed the unfinished stew and replaced it with a pot of meat. Looking at the clear soup, fresh and tender meat slices and the milky tofu skin, I suddenly felt a craving in my stomach. I put a chopstick head in the pot regardless of my gentleness. Next to me, my sister-in-law also helped me scoop some soup in a small bowl. I took a bite and it was really delicious. When I came that day, I went to the busy kitchen of the village chef and witnessed the process of the chef beating meat to make soup: I poured pure potato flour into a plate, cut the pork tenderloin into small pieces, then soaked the cut small pieces of meat in the potato flour, so that both sides of the meat slices were covered with potato flour, and then the chef tapped with a mallet with just the right strength, and then beat the meat slices into transparent slices. Add water to the pot here, and the fire will boil. Quickly put the sliced meat into the boiling water pot, and then put the shredded tofu skin into it. When the sliced meat floats, add soy sauce, chicken essence and salt, sprinkle a little white pepper, and finally decorate with green coriander foam, drop a little sesame oil, and a pot of cooked broth will be finished. This piece of meat is white and a little green. Those with bean curd skin are delicious and fragrant. The entrance is soft and smooth, and the taste is unforgettable, so I can't bear to swallow it. Now this dish is rarely cooked in my hometown, because it is time-consuming and laborious, but on the festive "flowing mat", this kind of popular broth is indispensable.

The third pot is chicken (shredded), and the fourth pot is boiled fish. The guests held a banquet and drank wine, just like flowing water, which was very lively.

Next, it's a broken belly. These dishes are inseparable from soup and water. Because of the custom of making soup and scooping the soup from the pot into a small bowl, my hometown calls this "small bowl soup", which is also a classic of "flowing seats" With soup as a companion, the freshwater couple said. The order of serving each dish is meaningful, so it must be strictly controlled in this order and must not be reversed. There are jingles in my hometown as evidence: one stew (meat), two pats (meat), three chickens (silk), four fish, five bellies, six circles, seven hooves, eight soups (and powder), nine stews and ten dishes. If you serve the wrong dish, you will be laughed at by the guests, saying that the host family has done nothing and doesn't know the rules! Since we are halfway through the ten courses, the sixth course below is Mariko. Mariko has always been a symbol of good luck and an indispensable dish at farmers' wedding banquets. The so-called "no rounds are enough" is also the same. Mariko at the dinner table means a happy marriage and a happy reunion.

I like eating jiaozi since I was a child, and I have a soft spot for jiaozi. I remember when I was a child, I was looking forward to the Spring Festival, that is, I was looking forward to eating glutinous rice balls made by my mother. In that era of material scarcity, a bite of jiaozi was a luxury food, especially in that unforgettable three-year difficult period. Young people dare not even think about it. They can only swallow saliva in their dreams, hoping to have enough to eat. At that time, rice balls were only made of glutinous rice. It was as simple as adding some salt to onion and ginger. Unlike now, at that time, the rice balls were mixed with fine pork belly stuffing, accompanied by mushrooms and winter bamboo shoots. The outer layer tasted crisp and a meat fragrance was wrapped around the tip of the tongue, which made people want to stop. Nowadays, the hometown people have made jiaozi to the extreme, and the varieties of jiaozi are also diversified. There are all kinds of jiaozi, such as meat jiaozi, vegetarian jiaozi, sweet potato jiaozi, mung bean jiaozi and dried noodles jiaozi. A jiaozi is a style, and a jiaozi is delicious. The villagers are looking forward to a good thing coming true. By tasting Yuan's son and drawing a good picture, they are pursuing the good wish of perfection!

Just when I was homesick, the young man who delivered the vegetables came to the table with a tray and gently took down a disc with a white background and blue edges from the tray. There are four round glutinous rice balls, wrapped in red paper with "Xi" written on it. Look at the other tables. They're all like this. A closer look reveals that these four balls are actually uncooked. Just as I was wondering, the second uncle sitting at one end of the table spoke again. Although the second uncle is over eighty years old, he is full of energy, ruddy face and bright voice: "This is the chef and chef in the kitchen, and he wants money from his master." Oh! I see! I saw the owner of the main house laughingly take out a few red envelopes from his carry-on bag and put them on a blue-edged white porcelain plate. It seems that this is ready. As for the number of lucky money in the red envelope, no one knows. The young man who delivered the vegetables happily put the plate in the tray and took it back to the kitchen in small steps. But after a while, the raw mariko covered with red paper with the word "Xi" was also sent. It seems that I have too little money to bring happiness. The shopkeeper put a number of red envelopes in the blue-edged dish and added an extra pack of Chinese cigarettes. This was repeated three times in a row before the kitchen stopped. A pot full of glutinous rice balls was served on the table, and the round and golden glutinous rice balls stood upright in the pot, just like golden mountains, which made the guests feel very comfortable. Don't bite down, the soft and glutinous taste on the tip of your tongue is enough to make your mouth water, just because of the meat and chives of the round balls in the hall.

Next, it must be hooves. Looking at the guests' eagerness to try, I raised my own doubts at the beginning of the article. Why must there be hooves at the wedding banquet? I have guessed that it is close. It turns out that this dish is the villagers' favorite! I saw the delivery man slowly pick up the pot from the tray, oh! Stewed soybeans with trotters! A rich fragrance, a gorgeous. This pot is like the protagonist in a play, making a wonderful appearance in people's eager eyes and cries. On the white hoof skin, scattered shallots are green and attractive, giving people a little green beauty and a touch of gold in the mountains, as if it were a changing scenery in late autumn, which makes people nostalgic! The clear hoof soup is steaming in the transpiration of the fire, the skin is crystal clear, and the hooves in the whole pot are trembling slightly, without any miscellaneous spices, showing the original color of the trotters. The gravy is tender and fragrant, and the soybeans soaked in hoof flower soup have a special taste and rich meat, without losing the original bean flavor of soybeans. At this time, everyone is not at all polite, and all the chopsticks are extended to it, which is much less than the momentum that the "enemy" will never give up! In a short time, the hooves of the pot were swept away, and some guests seemed to be still wanting more, still looking for something in the leftovers.

In the small town of Jiangnan hometown, this kind of pig's trotters is almost essential for every family to have a rich New Year's Eve dinner. Housewives try their best to go out of line, either braising in soy sauce or braising. For this, there is a popular saying in my hometown, that is, eating pig's feet on New Year's Eve can make a fortune, get promoted and make a fortune! I remember when I was a child at home, every time I ate New Year's Eve, my mother always picked up a small pig's trotter and put it in my bowl. She also smiled and said, "Look, my girl will definitely find a good husband's family after eating this meat." My brothers and sisters burst into laughter, and then my face became angry and blushed. Although this is only people's expectation for good wishes, it reflects the people's love for hooves in their hometown. This is an indelible nostalgia and feelings.

As soon as Batang (and powder) came on stage, it was not a simple soup, but diced bacon, small pieces of fungus, diced mushrooms and diced winter bamboo shoots. Cook the chicken soup slowly. It is best to thicken the soup, and then thicken it with wet starch. Before taking out of the pan, pour the broken egg liquid and stir it. At this time, the yellow and white egg flowers float in the soup of the big iron pot. Finally, this pleasing, light and smooth "harmonious powder" is called "fresh soup" by hometown people. Gently put a spoonful in your mouth, it is so smooth and refreshing, delicate and elegant, full of folk fireworks. It's the taste on the tip of the tongue of authentic hometown, especially the rich fragrance of farm pig bacon overflowing from "Wo Fen", which reminds me of my childhood memories and inadvertently reminds me of the delicious food cooked by my mother, which is the eternal warmth fixed in my heart.

Nine braised dishes, I guess it should be the eye-catching "threshold meat" at the hometown banquet. The so-called "threshold meat" means that the meat is honest and honest. When my brother got married when I was a child, I saw this kind of meat, but I never stretched chopsticks. Maybe the meat is very big, and most of it is fat, so it is enough to look at it. However, in the mid-1960s, farmers' lives had just improved, and there was a big piece of meat at the banquet, which was an earth-shaking change. It is made of fine pork belly and complicated technology. Scrape the pork belly with skin, put it in a pot and cook until it is 67% ripe, then take it out, then evenly spread it on the pigskin coated with soy sauce, then fry the pork belly face down in an oil pan until golden brown, take it out and cool it into small bubbles, cut it into long slices with a length of10cm and a thickness of 2cm, then put the pepper, onion and ginger slices into a bowl, and put the cut pork face down into the bowl. Steam in a steamer for two hours, then take it out. As soon as the meal is opened, it is warm. The bowl will be locked in a copper pot, and the onions, peppers and ginger placed at the bottom of the bowl will be removed. The color will be ruddy and shiny, and the soup will be sticky and delicious. Neatly packed pieces of "threshold meat" will rise high in the pot, and one or two parsley will be placed on rows of skins. Gently pick up a piece, it is shiny and transparent, and the entrance is soft and glutinous without losing its shape, which makes people have an appetite. Hometown people are named after their shape like the big threshold of the countryside. They are fat and thin, solid and smooth, just like simple and hardworking villagers in their hometown! This big dish is an indispensable ten-pot famous dish for our traditional banquet in southern Anhui.

Writing this "threshold meat", there is a legend in my hometown: According to legend, there was a prime minister Duan Wenchang in the Tang Dynasty. He was not only an official, but also a well-known gourmet. He has a good knowledge of food, and at the same time, he is a good cook, who cooks himself from time to time. This "threshold meat" comes from his initiative. During his stay in Tang Muzong, Duan Wenchang went back to his hometown to visit relatives and friends, and the chef cooked a table full of dishes, including a big fat dish shaped like a threshold. It's annoying at first sight. The whole banquet comes down and almost no one serves. After the banquet, Duan Wenchang found the chef and put forward some improvement measures for him: Ask the chef to change the fat meat into the first-class pork belly ribs, which are fat and thin, and the color is pink and tender, and the pepper is changed into lobster sauce, and several seasonings are added to demonstrate it himself.

In a few days, Duan Wenchang will leave his hometown. In order to thank the elders in his hometown for their kindness, he hosted a banquet for the villagers. The chef redone this big dish according to his instructions. This dish is golden in color, soft in meat, delicious, fat but not greasy. Although it is very different from the last one, the taste has been greatly improved. As soon as this dish was served, the guests rushed to taste it. Guests have asked, what is the name of this dish? Seeing that this dish looks like a threshold, Duan Wenchang casually chose a name: "Threshold Meat". At this point, this dish has gradually entered the dining tables of restaurants and folk people's homes, and has been continuously improved and spread to this day, becoming a popular food and deeply loved by people.

Lily symbolizes love. Which ancestor first thought of this wonderful and romantic language? It's perfect. I think it may be because Lily is white! Then the last pot, of course, is the popular seasonal vegetable, celery and lily. The green of celery and the pure white of lily are a perfect match! This dish is elegant and euphemistic, implying deep affection. There is white in the green, just like a woman in Jiangnan. Her bones contain graceful and restrained, as well as melancholy beauty! It seems that people are reluctant to pity. This is a common dish at wedding banquets, and so is the city! It means a hundred years of harmony! Draw a happy ending to the ten pots at this wedding banquet, and wish the bride and groom love each other! Happy for a hundred years!

Looking back at the "flowing banquet" at the wedding banquet in my hometown, ten pots of meat and vegetables and soup were light and delicious, oily but not greasy, and the taste was soft. It is an unforgettable delicacy on the tip of the tongue, a faint and quiet homesickness, an indelible feeling in my heart, and a deep plot in my hometown.