In my hometown, meatballs are also called meatballs, which are made of lean pork. Once seasoned, it is squeezed into a ball and rolled into a solid one. Put it in a boiling pot and stew for a few minutes. It's delicious, and the process is simple. This dish of meatballs is really amazing, just like a virtuous woman with a beautiful face. She can go into the hall, into the kitchen, mix noodles, dishes, soups and all kinds of soups. She is a good companion of the soup pot. You can also serve a plate yourself, such as the lion's head, which is common to everyone. All kinds of steamed, fried, boiled, stewed, meatballs are very comfortable, all have wonderful taste, and seem indifferent to everything. For example, a woman with great grace and ability is hard to make people unhappy.
Every time I go home, my mother will prepare meatball soup for me, supplemented by vegetables or something else. Pick up one and bite it open. The meatball is tight and delicious, with a lot of oil juice, sticking to the meat foam and floating on the beautiful land like a mist. In the dim light, it is difficult to look at it carefully and study it carefully. It is the best praise for meatballs to taste them with your heart. Now living in a different place, I, a junior chef, naturally don't want to miss this dish. After reading the menu, I went to the supermarket to buy pork stuffing, poured it into a big bowl, mixed with soy sauce and cooking wine, poured in chopped Jiang Mo and chopped green onion, poured in egg liquid, added salt, and stirred clockwise to blend, and the key seasoning stage was completed.
All that's left is a shape, which is even simpler. However, for a beginner like me, the reason why I am still wandering at the primary level is not unrelated to my laziness. Lazy people are lazy. In the face of mixed meat, I neither fry nor squeeze with my hands. In order to save trouble, I took out a spoonful of stuffing with a spoon, pressed it on the bowl wall, and patted the back of the spoon twice. A fairly round meatball was born immediately. Cook more at a time, put it in a fresh-keeping box, put it in the refrigerator, and then throw a few pieces of soup in after cooking, which saves time and trouble and is delicious. When it is cold or depressed, eat a bowl and you will be lucky to find it. Who said that the wonderful things in the world must be carefully crafted and patiently carved? A meatball doesn't need this, just aggregate them into a circle and it's delicious. Food is affectionate, enters the stomach from the mouth, nourishes the internal organs and soothes the taste buds, stomach and spirit silently. After drinking a bowl of hot meatball soup, the pleasure after satiety is enough to delay the small troubles and setbacks in life, and food is really worthwhile as an energy transformation field.
A meatball, though ordinary, has a long history. It is said that its "ancestor" is the "jumping pill roast" in the food classics of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. After the Sui Dynasty, it was named "Sunflower Chopped Meat" by the royal chef and presented to Yang Di Yang Guang. In the Tang Dynasty, because of the appearance of the lion's head, the guests hosted by the Duke of Qi in the Tang Dynasty took the opportunity to persuade them to drink: "Duke of Qi has been a military horse for half his life and deserves the handsome seal of a lion." As soon as Lord Gui drank a toast happily, he changed the name of "sunflower chop meat" to "lion head". Compared with the present meatballs, the lion's head is two or three times bigger. It monopolizes the bowl, and soup is served below. Really don't lose the domineering wind at all.
As a household name as the lion's head, it is said that the four-happiness ball also has an allusion. According to legend, there was a scholar who became famous in ancient times and had many happy events. The chef presented four meatballs, known as the "Four Happiness Meet Ball", which was handed down from here. As for the hero of the story, some people say it's Wang Anshi, while others say it's Zhang Jiuling. No matter who it is, the four-party ball has been passed down to this day, and it is no longer a dignitary's, but has already become a common delicacy on the table of the people. And the meaning of congratulations is not lost. Nowadays, people hold all kinds of wedding banquets, all of which have their own figures. It seems that with four happy meetings, this wedding banquet is authentic.
Apart from the lion's head and four happiness, if we talk about the nobles in the meatballs, my vote will definitely be for Pearl meatballs, which is essential for my hometown's New Year's Eve dinner. Wang Zengqi mentioned in "Eating and Drinking of Song People": "There is a bowl of white spherical things, which is a bit like a hemp ball with rice grains rolled outside." The coconut chaff ball here is the pearl ball, and the name of the pearl naturally comes from the glutinous rice outside the ball. Meat mixed with rice fragrance, minced meat mixed with ginger foam and chopped green onion, once in the steamer, will be stimulated by high temperature. If you don't open the lid and taste it quickly, you are afraid that the greedy insects in your stomach will rebel. Steamed in a porcelain dish, it is round, crystal clear and extremely rich, and there is nothing like pearls in the world. The meatballs hidden in glutinous rice are like a noble family, covered with white fur, which is easy to show their true colors, beautiful and elegant. Seemingly cold, in fact, there is a fiery heart hidden, and only those who know will find it. Pearl meatballs often appear on New Year's Eve, which means reunion. I later wondered whether it was related to the cohesion of countless tiny grains of rice, except the implication of the circle. If you think of meatballs as home, the rice grains that snuggle up to each other are endless family members, holding hands and meeting. A grain of rice is not enough to make a climate, and a ball of rice is attached to a sticky ball, which is attractive at home and completed in an instant. Since then, a ball of white balls is both a pearl and a shining family.
It seems that common meatballs, whether they are home-made meatballs or lion's head, four-happiness meatballs and pearl meatballs, all have exquisite past lives. People who vote for chopsticks can be ancient emperors, Bian Gong, scholars in the list, or ordinary diners who have no reputation now, such as you and me. Gradually, I tasted the unusual meatballs. Although it is soft in texture, it is still simple and long-lasting, and it is inexplicably moving despite the turmoil of dust and smoke and the changes of the world.
Eating blindly, like an old man with a story, is gentle and modest, does not dispute and does not grab, and leisurely wades through the Millennium torrent, which can be used by emperors and generals and close to ordinary people. Every generation eats it, and each has its own mood and ideas. I don't know if the diners with chopsticks and meatballs are comforted like me.
-human feelings are warm and cold, but it's good to have you.