Mianhua, also known as Miansu, is an elegant expression to walk out of the mountains and go to the world. In my memory, their simplest names should be Hua Mo, jujube hill and Gao Hua.
Hua Mo and the above-mentioned ordinary pasta are close relatives, and the main raw material is flour, but they are different. Ordinary pasta is good at morphological changes, or flying knives, or cat ears, or picking tips. It's long and round when you eat it, and it wraps around the tip of your tongue. It is usually cooked with appropriate small ingredients, or minced meat, or bittern. It's very fragrant and memorable. Hua Mo is the representative of steamed pasta. Besides the edible value, the ornamental art, especially the deep local customs behind it, is its charm.
Hua Mo is a genuine folk custom. According to historical records, the history of flower ink originated in the pre-Qin Dynasty and was formed in the Han Dynasty. In the changes of the times, it has added countless meanings, and it is a beautiful foothold for prayers and wishes in the evolution of human history. "Food is the most important thing for the people". In China, food is associated with festivals, important events and legends, and its extra significance goes beyond the belly itself. Huamo is an outstanding representative in this respect.
The Spring Festival bears the heavy responsibility of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new. People give more ceremonies to the New Year, offering sacrifices to ancestors, praying for heaven and earth ghosts and gods, and praying for good weather. Flower ink appeared in an abstract form during the Spring Festival. jujube hill, the god of heaven and earth, and Gao Hua, the kitchen god, were the most familiar flower ink in my childhood.
Lvliang in the north of Shanxi is where I grew up when I was a child. From an early age, I witnessed my grandmother steaming jujube hill: rolling it into a dough the size of a round fan, patting a layer of red dates evenly according to the center of the circle, and then making cakes three times. The upper layer is kneaded with the same flour into animals with auspicious meanings, lingering dragons and snakes, lifelike rabbits, and sometimes even coins in the dragon's mouth, with ingots piled next to them, which means wealth.
Grandma called jujube mountain jujube flavor in dialect, which is a word I invented. I think in grandma's mind, the higher jujube hill is, the more it indicates a bumper harvest in the coming year, Xiaomi Man Cang. ) Grandma was busy rolling noodles, kneading strips, kneading rabbits and kneading dragons on the chopping board, but I never left her side. After a while, I got out from under her arm, studied Huhu's eyelids, walked around her thighs, counted the ears of rabbits, counted the cut burrs, and then answered to help grandma with chopsticks. Look three times and two times, there is a blooming lotus on the chopping board, and then I catch some beans.
Compared with the odds and ends of running errands, what I look forward to most is the heavy responsibility of cooking. A mass of white gas rushed out of the steamer, and the bright powder pigment was melted with water and placed in a white porcelain bowl. At this time, I carefully dipped my chopsticks in brilliant red, and gave every steamed bread the last red. The forehead and petals of Tiger and Rabbit were sharp, a little bit, and they were already full of white. Finally, after the finishing touch, I had an aura in an instant, and Huhu could jump up, rabbit. But it's not over yet. When all the steamed buns are processed, I close my eyes and wait for grandma to dip the chopsticks head in the same brilliant red and point it on my eyebrows. I know that a little brilliant red is the reason why I won the praise of my aunt menstruation as a "pretty girl" in a few days. The hometown is far away, and the red dots between the eyebrows, colored paper window grilles and red couplets are the embellishments of aura in the thick loess caves.
I followed Jin Wengong Zhong Er's meson for many years, but he didn't want to get a reward. My mother was killed in Mianshan fire. Jin Wengong banned the use of fire and set up a cold food festival to commemorate it. The steamed buns of the Cold Food Festival have become hundreds of kinds of cold swallow pasta, which is called "snake swallow" in Lvliang. A red date, a swallow, a dozen wearing sewing thread, hanging at the top of the cave. On a sunny day, I jumped on the heatable adobe sleeping platform and basked in the slightly distorted "snake swallowing elephant" through the window lattice. When I was alone in the rain, Yan Yan's little black bean eyes seemed to see my thoughts and knew that they were a "snack" to comfort me from my pain.
Birth, illness, death, marriage, funeral and marriage, at every important milestone in life, Huamo has got rid of the solemn meaning, turned into an amiable, touching and rich life gift, and entered the ordinary beauty family, playing an indispensable role.
At the time of the child's full moon, there is a custom of grandma's family preparing food in Huoxian County, Shanxi Province, which is called "stopping". Animals with exquisite shapes are dotted around the zodiac, but the children's zodiac is placed in the middle, with the shape of red, dragon, phoenix and tiger head, which means that dragons and phoenixes are auspicious or tigers exorcise evil spirits. Friends and relatives who come to visit share it to express their congratulations. The same white flour, in the north of Shanxi, has become a plump "peach", homophonic "escape", which means to ward off evil spirits and avoid disasters. It looks like a breast, and it also means maturity and motherhood, with red nipples. The steamed stuffed bun is decorated with various flowers and auspicious patterns. My memory has blurred the red petals and the big green leaves, but I clearly remember the moment I got the steamed bread and wondered how the white fat steamed bread could grow such beautiful flowers. I couldn't bear to eat it, so I carefully hid it in the corner of the heatable adobe sleeping platform until it was moldy and deteriorated.
The wedding gift is a very grand life ceremony. According to the custom in northern Shanxi, the bride and groom eat a pair of "happy fish and lucky rabbit" on the morning of their wedding, and a pair of face rabbits connected by red lines are placed on the top of the cave door, symbolizing the Phnom Penh of the jade rabbit. There is also a folk saying that the body of a tiger is the body of a rabbit. At the same time, golden jade and good luck will drive away the evil spirits in the town house and ensure peace.
Old people spend a lot of money, and younger generations compete to offer big birthday peaches to wish them health and longevity; The new house is erected and the beam is prosperous. Relatives, friends and neighbors make flowers and peaches to celebrate, which is called "joist"; When the new house was completed and moved into the house, the flower steamed stuffed bun became a great tribute. Please settle down and bless Jinliang Yuzhu for thousands of years. On the seventh day of July, girls and daughters-in-law will eat "thimbles" and "sewing baskets" made of flour, expecting their ingenuity; In the first year of the bride's visit, the bride's family will give her daughter mutton buns, expecting more children and more happiness. Bloom Ye Man.
During the Spring Festival, it has become an unshakable rule for three uncles and four uncles in rural areas to receive flower cakes for more than ten years. My father's birthplace is Xinzhou, which is also known as the hometown of four famous steamed stuffed buns in Shanxi with Huozhou, Jiangxian and Xiangfen.
Different sounds in ten miles, different customs in a hundred miles. Huozhou dough figurines are simple in shape, rarely decorated and colored, and often only supply red dots and colors. The most common shape is "sheep", which is homophonic "auspicious". In the poor old society, people often used "cattle and sheep" to symbolize the prosperity of six livestock, "wheat straw collection" to symbolize the abundance of grains, and pomegranate to symbolize the abundance of children.
Xinzhou's "jujube hill" big flower cake is the most different from other places. The fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month is a grand gathering of steamed buns in Xinzhou. The folk custom of steaming "dough figurines" began in the late Yuan Dynasty. It is said that people send signals by giving each other "face people". The saying that "kneading people on July 15th and killing Tartars on August 15th" is a good testimony. Up to now, there are many kinds of dough figurines on July 15th, including cows, sheep, pigs, rabbits, cats, chickens, ducks, dolls, flowers, melons and fruits, as well as Yuanyang, peacock, lion, tiger, deer and other animal images, which contain happiness, auspiciousness and love. In recent years, dramatic figures such as birth, birth, purity and ugliness have also become steamed bread.
Xinjiang County and Xiangfen, because they are located in the south of Shanxi, have a pleasant climate and are rich in wheat, which provides unique conditions for making steamed buns. The dough sculptures here pay attention to color stippling, with gorgeous colors, exaggerated shapes and unique shapes, especially the "flower buns for animals", which is well-deserved in southern Shanxi.
Make steamed bread skillfully and think creatively. Hua Mo, jujube hill and Gao Hua can be seen everywhere. Vivid flower decoration, vivid animal modeling, and carefully dyed bright colors contain the simplest wishes from the heart passed down from generation to generation. All the works are improvisation, with the participation of the most common peasant women in Qian Qian.
I wrote here, Guo's song "Jiaocheng Mountain comes to Jiaocheng Water, but it is not watered by Wenshui. There is no good tea and rice in Jiaocheng Mountain, only oatmeal roasted buttermilk, and yam eggs. When the grey donkey goes up the mountain, the grey donkey gets off. I have never been on that good car and horse in my life "(Jiaocheng and Wenshui are two counties in northwest Shanxi, and Hua Guofeng is a Jiaocheng native), in the 1950s.
Nature should be fair. Under the rich loess layer, there are a large number of Wujin, mountains, left-handed Taihang and right-handed Lvliang (the lyrics of "People say that Shanxi has good scenery"), which is far from the vastness of Hebei Plain and the geographical location of wheat, but it has won the reputation of "Shanxi pasta is the best in the world".
The steamed buns are not so much handmade by my aunt, but rather that they try their best to fly flowers between refined and expensive flour, presenting a rich wisdom meal for the family. This spirit, which is not afraid of difficulties, never gives up and always yearns for beauty, is like a dandelion flower on a cliff, rooted in the yellow land, grounded, but not unassuming, strong but not artificial, and is the most utilitarian masterpiece in the world.