Prose of childhood stories on the tip of her tongue

Whenever I watch the feature film "China on the Tip of the Tongue", I will be moved by the profoundness of China's food culture and always think of the story on the tip of my tongue when I was a child. ...

In the 1970s, I was born in a remote village in the middle of Shandong Province. At that time, due to the influence of backward productive forces, the situation of lack of clothing and food in rural areas was very common. Although we are inexperienced and unable to understand and appreciate the hardships and helplessness of adults, the experience of greed has never stopped.

Spring has come, everything is revived and flowers are in full bloom. We children, like flying birds, jumped up and down, talking and laughing, came to the fields with baskets, dug up wild vegetables such as bitter vegetables, shepherd's purse, distiller's yeast buds and Artemisia annua, which grew on the ground, and put them in baskets scattered ... In this season of flowers and birds, the sweetness of wool needles evoked our aftertaste, so we ran from this mountain to that one in groups of three. On a green grass, the needles are tender and green, standing there like a big arrow. After seeing it, we squatted down in panic and pulled it out with our tender little hands. Soon our pockets were full ... The unopened wool needles were tightly wrapped in the skin and stripped of turf. The white flower core tastes tender and sweet, and it has become one of our favorite snacks when we were young. In the sunset, each of us took a handful of wool needles, ate and walked, and went home happily. Mother took the basket and picked the wild vegetables we dug. Bitter vegetables and koji buds were seasoned with garlic paste, hemp juice, soy sauce, vinegar and so on, and we ate them with relish; The dug shepherd's purse can be fried, steamed or packaged into shepherd's purse jiaozi, which is delicious and fragrant, and I will never forget it.

Since late April, Toona sinensis, elm, locust tree, etc. I have received the delicious baton and started to moisten the tip of our tongue. Every time my mother picks a few purple Chinese toon buds, puts them in the batter made of eggs and flour, stirs them and fries them in boiling oil, and the aroma suddenly lingers all over the house ... At this time, my sister and I watched my mother's every move eagerly. As soon as the fried Chinese toon came out of the pot, we scrambled to eat it, and everyone wolfed it down ... The freshly fried Chinese toon was crispy outside and tender inside, and delicious.

Summer is our favorite season. Of course, the greatest pleasure is catching fish, crabs and frogs in a nearby river. If you are lucky, each of your friends can get about two or three pounds of fish, shrimp and crabs. In the busy process, although I stained my clothes and tanned my skin, the thought of improving my food and solving the problem of greediness gave me endless motivation. At that time, our childhood laughter always rippled in the river. Accompanied by splashing water and swearing, it became a happy childhood symphony.

From the beginning of the wheat harvest, the feast on the tip of the tongue spread out again. First, Mulberry, I remember there is a tall Mulberry in my yard with purple mulberries on it. In our eyes, mulberries changed from green to yellow, gradually turned pale red to purple, and then matured. When picking, I saw my brother and sister climb the tree like clever monkeys and shake the branches. I kept picking it up below, and soon my pocket was full. Sometimes, I don't want to be lonely, so I just pick it up and eat it until my lips turn purple. The happiest thing is that sometimes, perhaps because of gluttony, my face and clothes are also dyed purple by mulberry juice. At this time, everyone looked at me and I looked at you and giggled with a bang. ...

In midsummer, the most exciting thing is to find the happiness brought by cicada pupa. In the evening, my brother and I took a flashlight and a small bottle and looked for a cicada hole under the tree. When we see a small hole, our little finger will dig it gently, and soon a golden cicada will climb out of it. Some of them have broken through the ground and are slowly climbing up the tree, while others need to be stabbed with bamboo poles, which is a great success overnight. As soon as we got home, we couldn't wait for our mother to cook for us. Mother fried these "trophies" in oil, which became our delicious food.

Autumn is the harvest season. At that time, no matter the radish pulled up from the garden, the sweet potato dug out of the ground with great effort, or the cucumber and tomato picked from the vine by the way, it was absolutely delicious. Of course, my favorite foods are sorghum stalks and corn stalks called sweet sticks. Every autumn harvest, after harvesting sorghum and corn, the straw in the field can be cut down by us, so my children and I volunteered to find the slender corn or straw with poor sorghum ears, cut it down and peel off the leaves, and peel it with our teeth three, five and two times from the root, revealing the whisked part, and began to drool when we ate it. Stutter into your mouth, chew it carefully, and follow it sweetly.

Jujube in my hometown is also my favorite snack. After August 15, jujube trees gradually turned red. From a distance, it is fruitful and charming, which makes us drool. While the adults were having lunch, I quietly climbed to the top of the tree with the children, regardless of the stabbing pain of the jujube tree. After I picked the dates and filled them in my pockets, I ate a chubby belly, but sometimes I was accidentally stung by a green domestic cat with black eyes, and my body suddenly swelled up, which often outweighed the gains. When I got home, I had to eat a big meal. ...

Winter is the season of depression, and it is also the month when children eat the least snacks. In order to improve my food, my mother always cooks a sweet potato in the stove every time she cooks. When I came out, I couldn't wait to hold the sweet potato in my hand, flip it up and down and blow it gently. That kind of hot, sweet, continuous smell is still flashing in front of my eyes. ...

Of course, the feast on the tip of the tongue in winter is also related to killing pigs. I remember that every year approaching, agricultural society always likes to kill an old sow, although each villager can only get a few pieces of pork belly, which is the most beautiful food in our year. After my mother came back, my sister and I followed my mother's ass like puppies, watching the blue flame add to the bottom of the pot, and the smell of meat overflowed along the hot air, even arousing our appetite. When I saw that the cooked meat was not out of the pot, I shouted, I want to eat meat! I want to eat meat! Eager emotions spread far from our crying. Maybe in my childhood, I could eat pork and be the happiest person in the world!

When the snow closes, catching sparrows is also one of our ways to solve the problem of abundant food. In the cold winter, sparrows have no place to feed. At this time, we swept a piece of snow in the yard and sprinkled corn, wheat, rice and so on. And set up a big sieve with a small stick. There is a rope tied to the stick, and people hide in the house and hold it through the window glass. Seeing a sparrow get in, we quickly pulled the rope and the sparrow became a prisoner in the cage. Sometimes you can catch a dozen at a time. Pulling hair and viscera, frying, not eating, even smelling is very satisfying.

More than 30 years have passed since my childhood on the tip of my tongue. In retrospect, though full of bitter memories. But the ugliness and embarrassment of gluttony turned into happiness and pleasure on the tip of the tongue in childhood, which was fresh in my memory all the way. ...