Old people eating seriously

Wen/Zimo

In the countryside, the elderly are extremely serious about eating.

Especially at wedding banquets, they wear clean and simple clothes that are considered outdated by young people. The old ladies wear straight collars and use hairpins to smoothly fix their short hair behind their ears. You will forget to trim your appearance. Most of the time you have to go to the barber shop to get a crew cut and shave your beard before the wedding banquet. Those who like to smoke cigarettes should restrain themselves and shyly take one when the descendants come to offer cigarettes. It is not used to it. The place is popular, and the elderly will try their best to keep their appearance in order, for fear of offending the host family with their words and deeds, so they are even more cautious when opening the banquet. They sit at the table early, but wait patiently for the young people waiting in the hall. Put sumptuous dishes on the table, and then distribute the dishes in a leisurely manner. Very few people drink alcohol. They may be afraid of making a joke due to drunkenness, or maybe the current blended liquor is no longer to their taste. As for beer, elderly people with gout People are afraid. Most people don’t drink red wine at wedding banquets in the countryside. They think it is a habit of city people. Before eating, every old man must have a full bowl of rice in front of him. Everyone interacts with each other happily and slowly eats to themselves. The movements of putting vegetables in the bowl and eating are extremely elegant. Although most old people are uneducated, it is difficult to see the vulgarity of country people. Although sometimes there are grains of rice left on the chin and grease stains flowing out of the corners of the mouth, they will soon be eaten by the other side. The elderly people told them that they would quickly dispose of it with paper towels, and then continue to eat with a smile!

They chewed the rice and dishes slowly, and even those with bad teeth would not spit out the mutton without a stew rake. They would also remind each other: "You can't eat it." So some people So I put away my chopsticks and looked for dishes that I could eat. The sweet roasted white rice was popular, the glutinous rice was very soft, and the pork belly melted in my mouth! The old duck soup is also good, probably because you don’t need teeth to drink the soup. The elderly are happy to use it to make rice. This is not a good thing, but they have long been used to it. This is also the habit of Sichuan and Yunnan people, but because of the old duck soup The soup is too hot and may burn their throats, so some elderly people have to give up. The most delicious one is actually the pea and pickled cabbage soup. It uses simple ingredients and is sour and appetizing. The elderly eat it with rice and can eat all the bottom of the bowl! Then they will continue to serve rice, still a full bowl. Amidst the cheers of the young people eating wine and guessing, the second bowl of rice will be destroyed by them in a good manner!

I have carefully observed the behavior of the elderly at wedding banquets, and I have never understood why they still love rice so much despite their good living conditions. Why don't they eat the dishes like rice like young people? They can feast on fine wines and delicacies, as well as big fish and meat, but their appetites are astonishing, and some old people can even finish their third bowl! The younger ones will keep picking up vegetables and serving rice for the older ones. What kind of temptation is there in the rice! They deserve so much love!

Later I asked my mother, and her explanation was: "When I was a child, many people didn't have enough to eat. They worked for a day and earned one work point, but only one or two meters a day!" My father often recalled the bitterness and sweetness: "I crawled out from among the dead - I had nothing to eat when I was a child, and I was half starved to death. I went to steal broad bean leaves and sweet potatoes from the commune at night. I almost got caught once, but I was caught. That child was beaten half to death just because he had half a handful of broad bean leaves in his hand!” When my father talked about his childhood, he would eat all the rice in the bowl, even if there was only a bowl of dipping vegetables on the table, a lump of milk tofu, and a plate of sour pickles! He said those were good things. He ate Guanyin soil when he was about to starve to death. As a result, he later suffered from constipation and later developed rectal cancer.

I didn't believe these stories at first, but then I read Mo Yan's prose, which said that in Shandong, in the early days of liberation, people ate coal. What would it taste like? How to swallow it! My aunt said that when he was a child, he lived in the mountains and ate bark and roots when he had nothing to eat. Later, he learned about many Chinese herbal medicines. Several cousins ??often recalled that when they were children, they had no food to eat, so they had to eat corn rice, which was very rough. Nowadays, most of the grains are only used to raise pigs. They said that the reason why their necks grow so long is because the rice is too choked and difficult to swallow. Belly, it looks a bit like an old goose eating! So the neck became longer!

Later, my understanding was that those elderly people actually suffered from a disease, a sequelae of hunger, a cherishment of rice and happiness after poverty and suffering, and a cherishment of a better life. They always maintain a feeling of respect, or it is a kind of defense. They are afraid that life will go against their promise, and that one day, the hard times will come back again!

Therefore, we can see the old people bargaining in the vegetable market, we can see the old people rummaging through the garbage, and we can see the old people quietly stuffing the leftovers into the refrigerator. Maybe we will no longer be short of money or hungry, but we will have to live a different lifestyle than young people! It is difficult for us to see old people sitting at the hot pot table or barbecue stalls with young people. They may not be able to enjoy this luxurious life, or they may not accept it. Every time friends and classmates come over, Every time when eating hot pot and barbecue, my mother would hide in the kitchen quietly and eat simple dishes quietly. The rice must be full! Every time I feel guilty, but I can't accommodate my mother's feelings!

A few days ago, there was news in the supermarket that the price of rice was going to increase. My mother nervously asked me to prepare a few bags of rice. I didn’t take it seriously. I said that the national news reported that grain production increased every year and that the national granary was full of rice. There will be no price increase! She said: "In recent years, the country has used land everywhere to build houses. More and more people are planting fruit trees, while the number of people growing food is decreasing. How can food production increase?" It's ridiculous to think about it. Even an old woman can't be fooled by such news. ! If you don’t count the food imported from abroad, you are probably just comforting yourself!

? Chinese people grew up eating white rice, but now they no longer love it. When they are drunk with wine and money, delicacies from mountains and seas are always more delicious than rice. How many people will still remember "Who?" What about the poem "Every grain of Chinese food is hard work"! When I see those old people eating seriously, I always feel guilty. It is a feeling of guilt. I am lucky to live in such an era, but I am also afraid of this era! Because the plague has not gone far, war may break out at any time, and more ordinary people are not yet rich. What is even more frightening is that we do not have the experience and courage to eat Guanyin soil, coal, bark and roots!