What snacks do you need to go home during the Spring Festival?

My family's Chinese New Year snacks are three sets that will remain unchanged for ten thousand years: peanuts, melon seeds and frozen pears.

I think this may be a must-have snack for most families in Northeast China. In the northeast countryside where I lived when I was a child, almost every household planted several ridges of sunflowers and peanuts in their yard. When the harvest comes, grandparents will put away sunflower seeds (called Maoke or melon seeds in the northeast) and peanuts, dry them and seal them. Wait until the Spring Festival approaches. There will be a big iron pot full of sand in the country. The fire in the wok is blazing, and the melon seeds or peanuts in the wok are mixed with sand, tumbling between the shovels of the roasted seeds and nuts master. When the melon seeds or peanuts are ripe, sieve them with an iron sieve, and the fragrant melon seeds and peanuts can be separated from the sand and bagged, which has become a home-cooked snack for the New Year. At this time, grandparents will take out the collected melon seeds and peanuts and carry them to the market. Let the roasted seeds and nuts master process them and take them home at a price of ten cents a catty. By the way, buy a big bag of frozen pears and a bag of candy. This Chinese New Year snack is still alive. When we were young, a few days before and after the first day of junior high school, our pockets were full of peanut seeds. As for frozen pears, they must be supplied in limited quantities. Otherwise, when we were young, we could not resist the sweet temptation. Once I secretly ate five frozen pears a day while grandma was not looking. Forced the old man to move a box with a lock and put it in the yard to store frozen pears.

With the growth of age and social progress. There are more and more kinds of snacks at home. These snacks have also become very easy to obtain, and online shopping and supermarkets can buy them at any time. But in our family, although the variety of snacks at home has increased, melon seeds, peanuts and frozen pears have never been absent in these years. In our family, we insist on processing ourselves as much as possible. We all bought raw seeds and peanuts. Add five spices to a large pot and cook thoroughly. Then put it in a small cloth bag made of cotton gauze. Then put these packets on the radiator. Dry these snacks with the heat from the northeast heating pipe. The melon seeds and peanuts made in this way will not get angry after eating. As for frozen pears, it is even simpler. When it's over 20 degrees below zero, just buy a few boxes of big Pak Lei and put them outside the balcony. When eating, put it in cold water and slowly bloom. It tastes as sweet and moist as when I was a child.

Spring comes year after year, and now I have taught my children to make their own melon seeds and peanuts as family snacks for the Spring Festival. From time to time, I still miss the scene of Chinese New Year when I was a child.

Melon seeds and peanuts

Frozen pear