Where are the twelve bowls of Mianyang banquet?

There are always twelve bowls on the banquet for weddings and funerals in Mianyang countryside. This not only reflects a folk custom, but also shows that Mianyang people have a good face and don't want others to gossip behind their backs. Therefore, the richer the banquet, the better, and the weight of each bowl is quite sufficient. As far as the contents of the bowl are concerned, it is basically the same. The order of serving is also very particular:

The first bowl: fried meat with bamboo shoots or thousands of fried meat, which is called "greeting dishes", that is, congratulations on the New Year.

The second bowl: fried peanuts, which is a good dish with wine. People who like to drink in Mianyang have a soft spot for peanuts. In a two-part allegorical saying of Miyang, it is "to coax the nose into a happy event-hum!"

The third bowl: fish balls. Its production method is very particular. Choose a fat fish, mostly grass carp, cut it open, wash it and divide it into two halves, scrape it along the fish with a knife, add egg white and trace starch to the scraped "fish paste", mix well and knead it into a small circle, and put it in a basin for soaking. If it floats, it will be in place. Then, pick up the jiaozi and put it in the pot until the water boils. Adding seasonings, especially vinegar, is fresh, tender, sour, fragrant and refreshing, and it is also a good dish for hangover. But there are several fish balls, and each person can only eat three. Therefore, there is a proverb in Mianyang that "the blind eat fish balls and know what they are".

The fourth bowl: cake. Specific practice: soak fresh eggs (usually eight in each bowl), add ingredients such as onion and garlic, put them in a pot to make a dry block with a thickness of about 2 cm, pick them up and cut them into squares, put them in a bowl, and pour hot soup on them. The cake made in this way is nutritious and delicious.

The fifth bowl-the seventh bowl: three steamed (steamed meat, steamed fish, steamed vegetables). In Mianyang, a banquet can't be called a banquet without three steams. These three dishes are the absolute main courses, among which steamed vegetables can be steamed potatoes or steamed lotus roots, which is the majority.

There was an episode when the banquet reached the sixth bowl, that is, the person who served the food would bring a small dish of melon seeds. The vegetable receiver gave melon seeds to the guests present. Everyone should express himself and throw a little money on the plate. Generally, guests at the table should throw more, but they are not required to throw. The money in this dish is not for the host, but for the chef. If a table loses a lot of money, the chef also specially adds a bowl of dishes to express his gratitude.

The eighth bowl: slippery fish. Sliding fish is actually fried fish pieces. After the fish pieces are fried with flour, cook them with soup and seasoning for a while.

Bowl 9: vermicelli chicken soup. This kind of chicken is generally domesticated and rich in nutrition, so Mianyang has the saying of "eating powder chicken". Now some people switch to carrot roast chicken, which tastes good.

The tenth bowl: slippery fish head. Wash the fish head, fry the grey noodles, and mix some soup and seasoning. It's also a delicious bowl. It is said that eating more fish heads can make people smarter.

The eleventh bowl: meatballs, also known as meat pieces. Chop fresh pork into minced meat, add appropriate amount of salt, chopped green onion, ginger, monosodium glutamate and a small amount of flour, mix well, knead into meatballs, walk in the oil pan, pick them up, and add them to the retort together with three steamed meats, which is more delicious than pure frying. After all, there is a smell of three steams in it.

The twelfth bowl: "Serve". The content of this dish is different, because every family does things in a different way. Some people will eat fried meat with green peppers, while others will eat shredded pork with sauerkraut. But generally speaking, this dish should be spicy and convenient for eating.

Twelve bowls were served, and finally one or two dishes of pickles were added, such as pickled shredded radish, pickled leeks or milk tofu. This is good for appetizing and making people full. For drinkers, it's like giving charcoal in the snow, icing on the cake.

Although the twelve bowls of Mianyang banquet are not as good as delicacies, they have strong local flavor characteristics, and some of them still occupy a place in the national flavor food culture.

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