Chicken Qu Wang Shi

Chicken, once the "tail of capitalism" (1)

1

I often see such a scene: every farm yard has the lowest hut with several chickens in it. In the morning, the rooster crows loudly; After noon, the hen proudly declared "lay eggs, lay eggs …", which smelled like a farm yard. This is a scene that every household used to in the 1970s and 1980s.

The earliest impression of chickens and eggs began when I was just three years old when I was a child.

One morning, I was still lying in bed with a quilt, and my mother had got up early to prepare breakfast for the whole family. At this time, I saw my father coming home from the night shift and mysteriously took out an egg and handed it to my mother. Mom immediately looked nervous, looked around and asked, "Where did you get it?" The father whispered to his mother, "It was laid by a chicken in the forest at the head of the house." Mother asked again, "Did anyone see it?" "No" "Hide, stop calling for discovery!"

I don't understand why an egg makes my parents so nervous. At that time, at my age, I would never have thought that this egg was my dad's "capitalist tail."

Since then, things about chickens and eggs have kept coming into my memory.

In the spring when I was 4 years old, our four or five children, led by my sister, played under the woodpile outside the company barracks. At this time, my sister suddenly took out a chicken wretched to show us. We were all surprised. I said loudly, "Sister, is this our family?" My sister sealed her mouth with her fingers and stared at me severely. I suddenly felt uneasy, as if I had made a big mistake. As we all know, the company is not allowed to raise chickens. I heard adults say it was a "capitalist tail". I know that if I speak so loudly, I will be heard, and then our family will suffer. Not long ago, an aunt's chicken was cut in front of the capitalist tail.

Later, we moved to a new home, and the era of "cutting tail" seemed far away from us. My father built a chicken shed in the head of the household aboveboard, and the chickens that were sleek and smooth became our "family members" openly. Feeding chickens is a mother's business, and it is also one of her most fulfilling things. Whenever someone visits, she proudly shows people around her chicken coop. "This chicken is a hardy chicken, and that chicken is a Lu Hua chicken ..." Most of my knowledge about chickens was acquired at that time.

Mom will also give her chickens a beauty contest, judging one, two, three. The most beautiful hen is Tian Zi No.1, a beautiful woman in the eyes of her mother, who was crowned as "Lin Daiyu", and the most beautiful rooster was naturally named "Jia Baoyu". The chickens she keeps are by no means simple A, B, C and D, but twelve famous women with surnames in the Grand View Garden. Although my mother always tells her guests about her beautiful chicken, she always attracts my disapproval, but she still enjoys showing off her achievements. In the end, it always costs a chicken's life. The guest house has guests who have visited her henhouse.

Whenever there is a chicken "disaster", my mother always grabs this one, weighs it, and then picks it up and touches its chest and back to see which chicken is the heaviest. Although it is reluctant, there will eventually be a chicken that will become delicious on our plate. We try our best to be polite in front of the guests, and my mother sings to us. Only the guests eat well first, but after all, it satisfies our desire to eat chicken with frequent guests.

I can't remember when raising chickens became a fashion. In every yard and on the way to school, cocks and hens can be seen everywhere, seemingly doing nothing and pecking around. Apart from a few simple things at home, chicken is the greatest wealth at home. After visiting the host, the guest said, "How many chickens have you raised this year?"

Beautiful brocade-like key hair! (2)

2

The most striking thing in a flock of chickens is the big cock with its head held high in beautiful clothes. The majestic rooster, whose claws are rough and hard as eagle's claws, has a fat and brilliant red comb, swaying overhead, and its black and shiny tail feathers are bent behind him, so it looks like a hero.

There is no doubt that such a rooster deserves to be the "leader" in a group of chickens, and there must be such a rooster in each group of chickens to order chickens.

The rooster spends most of his time wandering around the yard, as if he were the owner of the yard and the yard was his territory. It stood there majestically, patrolling around like a guard and never giving way when someone came. If someone doesn't respect it, it will rush forward, stand up to defend its territory and inviolable dignity, and pose as a duel with you.

The rooster is the most discerning person in a group of chickens. It first found the insects in the grass and the surrounding risk factors. Once it is delicious, the rooster will "goo goo" and call the hen to eat. When the family feeds, the rooster also lets the hen eat first, and guards himself to prevent other chickens from stealing food, so he faithfully and dutifully guards his "harem concubines". Hens, on the other hand, are willing, afraid and comfortable to accept the strong protection of the "general" who commands them.

The most common are white cock and Lu Hua chicken. And a rooster with red hair and golden hair. The rarest is colorful chicken with red crown, green ears, gold back, green tail and brown belly. A beautiful rooster is often the object of our pursuit, and the key hairs hanging on both sides of the tail like brocade are our goals. Drive out a big rooster, pull a few down and put them in the key, and take them out to compete with the students in class to see who has the most beautiful chicken feather key and the most unique design. This is what we are most proud of. At that time, everyone had several unique chicken feather keys in their hands, which were our "property".

Carefully put all kinds of key hair into the book. After class, students will compare who has the best color, unique pattern and complete variety, which everyone likes after class.

I love to keep that colorful rooster at home. I can envy a person to death just by that colorful key hair. A beautiful key often makes me miss it for several days. Beautiful and colorful key hairs often make me dream for days. If anyone has such a colorful key hair in his book, even other people's eyes will show admiration.

Early in the morning, the sky in the east was a fish-belly grey, and the roosters began to crow. One by one, each rooster joined the chorus. The crow from far and near made the next morning tremble. My parents have a good command of the crowing and rest time of every rooster in the community. As soon as my rooster crows, my mother will tell my father that it's half past seven and it's time to get up.

Hugging chick woman and chick baby (3)

three

If one day you behave well and adults are happy, you will take advantage of the good job of picking eggs. The cat hunched over, carefully walked into the shack that smelled of chicken excrement, took out warm eggs from the basket covered with wheat straw and held them in her arms. The eggs laid by the new chicken are still covered with fresh blood.

The henhouse should be cleaned every three to five times. Usually busy with homework, my mother does it herself, which doesn't distract us from our study. Only on holidays will we take the initiative to clean the yard. During the holiday, I waved a broom and spent the whole morning cleaning the yard. The chickens woke up, too. They went out for food and shit in the yard I just cleaned.

Mother's mixed chicken food is sometimes placed on the floor at home. Chickens can't find snacks in the yard When they see food at home, they will open the curtain and go home to find food for themselves. In the face of this "uninvited guest", my mother usually coaxed it out rudely, but after tasting the sweet chicken, she remembered to eat it but not hit it, and still repeated the old trick again and again.

As soon as spring comes, some hens begin to fidget. Mom says this is the baby of an old hen. So, in the past three days, all the eggs laid by hens have been taken away. Mother found a big wicker basket, padded it with clean wheat straw, and then put the eggs on the wheat straw. After cleaning up, she put the basket in the corner and brought the hen to hold the chicken. When the hen saw the basket in the corner, she jumped up gently and sat motionless on the egg.

At this time, you can see the maternal nature of the hen. In addition to turning the eggs, the hens almost fell on the eggs like sculptures. Sometimes we deliberately tease the hen to distract it. The hen made a low "goo goo" sound, and her face was red with anger, but she never left the egg.

After hatching for a few days, my father put the eggs under the lamp and picked them up. On day 19, the chicken broke its shell. First, I made a small mouth, just enough for the chicken's head to stick out, and then I exposed half of my body. Finally, it took off its eggshell and a clean fluffy chicken looked at us with a pair of black eyes. 2 1 day, all the chickens came out. At this time, the woman holding the hen began to leave the basket and look around for food to feed the chickens. During the lunch break, we brought the chicken back to the nest. The tired chicken poked its head under the hen's wings and looked around with curious round eyes. We teased the chicken, while the old chicken clung to the naughty chicken without emotion.

A chicken with goose yellow fur is the cutest. Naughty, we often catch a chicken to look in the mirror. When we first saw ourselves in the mirror, the chicken was very curious and pecked forward. The chicken in the mirror is pecking at itself, the chicken has retreated a few steps, and so has the chicken in the mirror. I don't understand what this is all about. Chicks simply avoid, simply don't look in the mirror.

Or we can catch a chicken and let it walk on a glass plate to see its embarrassment. Small chicken feet can grasp branches and sticks and walk freely on the ground, but not on the glass plate. The more they try to grasp, the more they slip, the more they try to move forward, the more they lean, stumble and stand unsteadily.

Seeing that the chicken began to be full-fledged, my mother began to identify it. This chicken's round ass is a hen, and that chicken's pointed ass is a rooster. None of us agreed, but in the end we had to be persuaded. Nine times out of ten, my mother is right.

Fight with the rooster (4)

four

Although people and chickens live in the same hospital, most of the time, chickens can live in peace, except that there was a fierce rooster at home that year, which was a big rooster of various colors.

One day after school, I pushed open the gate and walked home as usual. The rooster suddenly jumped out of nowhere, flapped its wings and arched its neck around me, stirring the dust and smell of chicken feathers all over the floor. I was scared out of my wits by this sudden attack. Just as I was about to fight back, the rooster stopped attacking again.

For the sudden attack of the rooster, which is usually very friendly, my father explained that it may be that the chicken is eating centipede with heavy yin, which leads to strong hostility and shows strange behavior: fidgeting and violent tendency.

From then on, I began to be cautious. Before opening the gate, I observed the direction and movement of the rooster. If the rooster is not in the yard, I will walk in slowly. If I am busy greeting hens, I try to stay calm and pretend as if nothing has happened. Several times, the rooster noticed my movement and left the hen to drive me away. I walked quickly, quickly opened and closed the door, and escaped the rooster's raid. I secretly pleased at home, opened the door and looked out. I saw that the unsuccessful rooster was annoyed and stamped his feet and shouted "Oh, Oh ……" outside.

For a while, the rooster seemed to forget my existence, so he lived quietly for a long time.

I began to relax my vigilance against rooster hostility until one day, I forgot to observe the situation, so I pushed open the courtyard door and went home. Just as I was about to enter the house, the rooster suddenly rushed in front of me, bulging his neck, bowing his neck, trying his best, spreading his wings and fanning wildly, and a deep "whoa, whoa" broke out in his throat. I put my head in my hands and shrank back. Seeing this, the rooster became more and more puffed up, jumped up, hooked its iron mouth and pecked wildly on my head, body and legs, flapping its wings constantly. I was caught off guard and had to fight back. When it was resting, I quickly rushed into the room and closed the door. The rooster is still shouting "oh, oh, oh" at the door to demonstrate.

"That chicken is so hateful, grab me and call it Bao!" I complained to my mother angrily.

"Kill that chicken, it dares to bite, and it will bite next time." Mother gave orders to her father.

"That rooster can still eat chickens and manage them well." Father was very reluctant, and it took a long time to say a word.

Since the victory, the rooster has become more arrogant. When he sees me, he will come screaming. And every day when I open the door after school, I have to be uneasy and secretly bypass the arrogant rooster to go home. After a few weeks of this stressful life, I finally couldn't stand it, and decided to answer blows with blows.

One day after school, I opened the door and the rooster jumped on me, as if waiting for a long time. I am also fully prepared mentally. I grabbed an iron mill and went to the nearby Big Rooster Wheel. The shovel fell heavily on the rooster, and the rooster fled. I pursued the victory and drove chicken feathers all over the yard. I fought and fought, and the more I fought, the braver I became. The rooster hid in the coal shed, and I jumped into the coal shed.

From then on, the convinced rooster flinched at the sight of me, and I could swagger in and out of the house every day.

The rooster, who had rested for half a month, began to retaliate and launched a big counterattack when I was unprepared. It sneaks up behind me, jumps up, slaps my head hard with its wings, pecks my bare skin with its sharp mouth, and it still vents its anger in its throat. In just a few seconds, the pain spread all over the body. I ran into the house.

"I mean, the rooster can't stay. If you don't believe me, kill it. Kill it. "

Because this rooster is very strong and brave, and it's not bad to take a chicken, my father is always unwilling to do it, so I'm in trouble again, and my mother keeps blaming my father. I also felt that the rooster's "doomsday" was coming, so I kept silent.

After school in the afternoon, the rooster turned into a pot of oily chicken soup, but I lost my appetite for chicken. ...

"Thief" who steals chickens (5)

five

At that time, chickens were free-range, scattered along the road and in the river dam, all over the world. Only when they are full or at night do they go home.

Occasionally a chicken was run over and killed on the road. The children saw it and quickly reported it to the adults. The chicken lay on the side of the road, waiting for the adults to identify it. Mother knows this chicken best. Whose family is it? You can recognize it at a glance from its coat color.

Once, a car ran over the strongest hen laying eggs in the neighborhood. Aunt was so distressed that she cried on the side of the road and started her "national scolding" until she lost her voice and was persuaded to go home.

My mother counts her property every night. She walked into the henhouse with a flashlight and counted "service, evil, dispersion, four, service, roads, membership, withdrawal, death ..." In Sichuan dialect. Inevitably, it will be lost or returned late. Mom must find out which chicken it is and how to find out.

""Goo Goo Tou "didn't go back to its nest." Mother immediately asked his father to look for it, so on the highway, in the river dam and in the yards of nearby people, his father made an inspection one by one. My mother is a very serious person. She looks very eager to see a "chicken".

Without chickens, mother must analyze whether she was run over by a car, eaten by a weasel or stolen by a thief. If you are run over by a car, there will be dead chickens on the road, at least there should be blood. If the weasel caught it, it should be done at night, and the weasel dared not come during the day. If the chicken is lost at night, it is either taken away by the weasel or stolen by the "thief wretched". If the weasel eats the chicken, there will be a big noise in the henhouse at night. If there is no movement, it will be stolen by the "thief".

At this time, my mother was like Sherlock Holmes, reasoning step by step, and I followed my mother's train of thought to find it. I have seen a weasel, an animal that looks like a mouse. It is brown and bigger than a mouse. It doesn't sleep during the day and goes out at night. It is famous for stealing chickens.

For a while, either this chicken was left in the neighborhood or that chicken was left in the neighborhood, so everyone got together to analyze the "case". Finally, according to the "crime scene", everyone agreed that the chicken was a thief. There are three reasons: first, the chicken was lost at night; Second, the chicken lost nothing in the henhouse; Third, no one has seen a weasel recently.

I have never seen a "thief wretched", but from what everyone said, I drew a picture for my "thief wretched". First of all, he is an animal; Secondly, he can steal the chicken quietly, which shows that he is more cunning than the weasel; Besides, he loves stealing chickens, which makes everyone gnash their teeth. Then he must be a bad man and extremely ugly.

With the increase in the number of chickens lost, I decided to have someone look after the henhouse at night and catch the disgusting "thief wretched" to ease my hatred.

One day near the early morning, I was awakened by a noise and got up and followed everyone to the yard. A group of people had gathered outside the chicken coop, and someone was loudly denouncing: "That's him, I caught him, and he was still hiding in the chicken coop in the morning ..." I rubbed my loose eyes and looked through the gap in my head and saw a man holding the collar of a 17-year-old boy. It turned out that the so-called "thief wretched" was caught.

I was shocked. It turns out that "thief wretched" is a person with a nose and eyes like me! It looks like a sly look, which is not good-looking.

Some people in the crowd want to report the case, and some people plead, saying that it is the first time to see the child, let him go, and don't do this again. Finally, the good-hearted man released the "thief" and never lost a chicken at night.

The story of salted eggs (6)

six

Since raising chickens at home, I can pick up a few eggs from the shack every day. The following eggs, such as egg beater, steamed egg cake, poached egg, fried egg and scrambled egg, have become the most important nutritional supplement in my family. When entertaining guests, it is the highest treatment to beat a few poached eggs wrapped in albumin in the soup. On the birthday, parents will boil a white preserved egg, which means rolling safely and smoothly for one year.

Gradually, with the growth of the chicken team, there are more eggs. Except for dozens of eggs left by hens in spring, the rest can't be eaten at ordinary times. So my mother began to pickle eggs, a white porcelain basin, put more than half of the water in the basin, sprinkled a lot of salt, threw a few pepper and star anise, and gently put the washed whisked eggs into the basin. My mother pushed the washbasin under the shop.

Mother guessed that when the eggs were salted, they were taken out to eat. Salted eggs are cut in half neatly, the yolk is preserved, and Huang Chengcheng oil is bright. A circle of egg white is wrapped in golden yolk, and the plate is full of beautiful patterns. Everyone grabbed the biggest yolk and ate all the eggs, but everyone didn't eat enough.

Once my mother was lying on the bunk and said to me playing in the house, "Do you see if the eggs at the head of the basin are salty?" With this command, I quickly got out of the shop and fished out an egg from the basin, but how do I know if it is salty?

Looking at the eggs completely wrapped in round eggshells, I can't find the answer. Yes, I picked up the egg and knocked it on the table, and the egg white flowed out along the broken skin. Oh, no, why not bring it to us like mom usually does? What if I waste my eggs? I had to pack my things, go out of the house and bury the broken salted eggs quietly in the sand. Back in the house, my mother asked, "Is the egg salty?" I faltered and didn't know how to answer.

From then on, I realized that salted eggs can only be eaten if they are cooked.

Fried Chicken with Green Pepper (7)

seven

At that time, the life cycle of chickens was relatively long. It took almost more than five months from the furry chick to the cock crowing for the first time, while the hens laid eggs for the first time almost until late autumn, and some even gave birth to "virgin eggs" in the next year.

Mother is very experienced in picking eggs, and she can roughly judge whether she will bring out a rooster or a hen from the shape of the eggs. Nevertheless, there will still be a few cocks in a nest of chickens. One or two cocks in the group is enough, and most of the cocks will not stay for the next year. When the cock began to crow, the chicken just grew out, the tail feather and key Mao Gang grew out, and the thigh was strong.

At this time, the first wave of green peppers just came out of the family plot. Mother began to choose and kill the cockerel, leaving a cockfight, which has the best fighting capacity and the strongest fighting capacity. The second strongest rooster was first fried by green pepper this year.

Killing chickens is a father's business. The stove cooks a pot of boiling water, and mom and dad go to the henhouse to catch chickens. Mother pointed with her hand and said, "That one." Both father and mother embraced the chosen chicken with open arms. My father grabbed the cock that wanted to flutter, lifted its two wings, left the hospital, squatted at the dam head outside the hospital, grabbed the comb, grabbed it with his wings, took out a freshly ground kitchen knife, rubbed it on the chicken's neck, let the blood flow out, and took it in a bowl full of salt water. After the blood flow is clean, throw the chicken on the ground and let it die.

After a while, the rooster stopped moving. Mother took it to the basin full of boiling water. Father put the chicken in the pot, turned it over a few times, and then quickly pulled out all the feathers. The new rooster has a lot of fluff. Father poured white wine on a plate, dipped it into a piece of paper, and lit the paper. When the blue flame jumped, he picked up a white cock and burned it on it, emitting a burnt smell of protein. The chicken skin was also burned golden and tight.

After slitting open the belly, my father put the chopped chicken pieces in the largest enamel plate at home, just piled up in a sharp plate. The chicken pieces were amber and translucent, and they began to attract attention before they were put into the pot.

Pick the first hawthorn green pepper from the vegetable field and cut it into small pieces. The spicy taste of the pepper is distributed on the chopping board.

Fried cock with green pepper is my father's specialty. My father cooks. First, I pour the green oil into the pot. When the oil foam disappears, I add chicken pieces and stir fry them repeatedly, then add ginger, pepper and star anise one after another until the blood runs out. Meat and spices are mixed together, and the room is full of fragrance. I couldn't help taking a deep breath and looking down through the lid. The red flame licked the bottom of the pot.

Finally, when the chicken is fried tightly into a ball, and the color is golden and shiny, add the pepper pieces, stir-fry in the pot for two minutes, and sprinkle with minced garlic to serve. Stir-fry the rooster with two plates of green peppers and serve immediately.

Before the staple food was served, the three of us couldn't wait to reach out and grab the chicken thigh that we were staring at. Before chewing carefully, the newly mature cock has a small piece of meat. Stir-fry a few times, and all kinds of flavors of oil, salt, sauce and ginger will penetrate into it. The meat is tender and spicy, fragrant with meat and vegetables, which is exciting and enjoyable to eat.

We grab the thighs first, then eat chicken wings, and finally the chicken neck. Every time the head, feet and tips of the chicken are dad's, dad always chews up the most difficult feet.

The food on the plate was swept away before the meal was swallowed. After eating, you should smack your lips and have an endless aftertaste.

Fried cock with green pepper is the favorite of all chicken practices, but because of its strong seasonality, it can only be eaten in just one or two months every year, so it has the deepest memory.

postscript

These chickens and their delicious food run through my whole adolescence, and chickens and their stories have become an inseparable part of my life.

Someone said, "The only thing in this world that will get better and better with the passage of time is memory." From banning farming to promoting farming, from free-range farming to captive farming, to large-scale farming, the memories of raising chickens, raising chickens and eating chickens at home are recorded in history as people go upstairs to live. After years of filtering, the story about raising chickens has become an "old story in the south of the city" and a beautiful memory.