When I was younger than now, I paid attention to a person and what big things she/he had done. Now, I will be more concerned about, who is she/he with, and what did she/he eat? What is his daily routine like? Last time, I interviewed the 70-year-old Mr. Jim Davis, the father of Garfield, in "Earth Hotel: There's Always a Cat on Good Days." Before that, I had almost no experience interviewing other people. I asked: How do you do this every morning? What do you eat? Then he answered me very seriously. I remember it was bread and cereal.

This time I wrote about Sanmao, and it was the same. I found that Sanmao in the kitchen was really her happy time.

Sanmao said: "The breeze and the bright moon should be a person's business, but eating is more delicious when there are more people."

Sanmao doesn't like to do housework. It seems that many female writers don't like doing housework. Before, I wrote a biography of Lin Huiyin. She also hated doing housework. She felt that the time spent doing housework could create more value, and she was unwilling to waste time on it. I have never heard of any writer who likes to do housework. I have only heard some writers and screenwriter friends say that only when they can't write anything, they will keep cleaning the corners of the room. In the end, they have nothing to do. After doing it, I had to sit down in front of the computer and start writing (but I didn't even want to clean it when I couldn't write anything, I just sat there awkwardly looking at the computer).

Among all the housework, Sanmao is only interested in cooking. As a child, Sanmao watched her mother cooking in the kitchen. She could make a delicious dish with just a few slices of onions and pieces of meat. Sanmao, who was standing aside and watching, felt that it was really a wonderful art.

When Sanmao lived alone, she ate very simply. She didn’t like spending money on “eating” the most. When she was a poor student studying abroad, she often survived a day with only a piece of bread and a bottle of water. Sometimes, her elders would go to Spain on a business trip and treat her to a luxurious meal to reward her for studying hard in a foreign country. She felt that it was too wasteful to spend so much money on "eating", so she would secretly tell her mother that if a certain uncle could It would be better if the money spent on the meal is given directly to her. She will want to spend the money on other things. At that time, the place she is most willing to spend money on is buying books.

Many of Sanmao's actions are advanced, but there is a lot of classical and traditional side in his heart. When she decided to marry Jose, she wanted to do it later because she wanted to have enough time before marriage to travel to the depths of the desert alone and experience the life of the Sahrawi people. Because she felt that after getting married, she would no longer be able to run around like before, and she should focus on taking care of Jose. At least she should take care of her husband's food - a little woman's mentality of "wanting to be a married woman".

Sanmao really rolled up his sleeves and started cooking in the Sahara. Although before the Sahara, Sanmao also cooked Chinese food for Jose, but at that time, they lived in a big city. Ingredients and seasonings are relatively easy to buy, but in Sahara, everything has to be purchased from scratch. The meals she cooked at the beginning often failed. She wrote in a letter to her mother:

The day before yesterday, I tried to cook mutton and fish boiled with garlic and onions, but they couldn't eat them. But Africa only has mutton (the fish that Jose catches at the beach are all big fish as tall as a person), and the Chinese word "fresh" means mutton and fish cooked together. Oh my god, I'm going to throw up.

It seems that she used good ingredients, and the failure may have been caused by lack of seasoning and experience. Later, Sanmao’s mother sent her a lot of Chinese food and seasonings. Vermicelli, seaweed, mushrooms, San Miguel noodles, dried pork and other easy-to-preserve Chinese dry goods were packed into air parcels and flown to the Sahara. Sanmao's role as a housewife is getting better and better, and she puts a lot of thought into the kitchen. At that time, Sanmao cooked different Chinese dishes for Jose for several days in a row. For just one kind of vermicelli, Sanmao made them into three dishes: "Vermicelli Boiled in Chicken Soup", "Ants Climbing a Tree" and "Vermicelli Box Cake". Jose, who knew nothing about Chinese food, had to ask what it was every time he ate it. Sanmao saw that he knew nothing about Chinese food, so he teased him: the vermicelli cooked in chicken soup was soft. Sanmao told him that it was spring rain - "the first rain in spring, falling in the mountains." On the tree, they were frozen one by one, and the mountain villagers tied them up and carried them down the mountain." Sanmao told him that the deep-fried vermicelli in "Ants Climbing the Tree" was a fishing line... When Xi ate the vermicelli mixed in the meat filling and cut into small pieces in the "Vermicelli Box Cake", he thought he was eating shark's fin. He excitedly said to Sanmao: "In the future, these very expensive fish wings will... Please don’t buy it, I’m going to write a letter to thank my mother.” After hearing this, Sanmao laughed and fell to the ground.

It didn’t take long for Jose, a Spaniard, to be cultivated by Sanmao to have a Chinese stomach. Not only did he love Chinese food, but he also knew how to appreciate Chinese food. Later, the slimy Chinese food in European restaurants could no longer fool him. When he finished eating the Chinese food and started eating Western-style steaks and bread, Jose felt very lost and uncomfortable. Even when he was eating beef that was expensive in the desert, he always looked forward to another "spring rain" in Sanmao to satisfy his craving.

Sanmao not only makes Chinese food, but also makes Japanese sushi rolls. When Jose ate a sushi roll for the first time, he thought the nori wrapped in rice was carbon paper and refused to eat it. When Sanmao saw how stupid he was, he couldn't help teasing him and said to him seriously: "That's the reverse side of the carbon paper, it won't get into your mouth.

"As he said this, he provocatively ate one after another. It wasn't until Hexi couldn't help but pick up one and bite it down that he realized that he had been deceived again...

Sanmao and Hexi's kitchen It’s always full of joy. When living in the desert, you have to eat well to have the strength to fight against the real environment. When she was in the Sahara, she even tried to make cakes, which was a touch of romance in a difficult life.

Jose is not the only diner in Sanmao’s kitchen. They often invite Jose’s single colleagues to have dinner at their home. Sanmao once said: “Qingfengmingyue should be a one-person affair. Eating is more delicious when there are more people. "Inviting friends to a meal seems like a trivial matter now. In recent years, China has become more and more abundant in materials, and the cost of a meal accounts for an increasingly smaller proportion of a person's income. Not only can you invite For guests to eat Chinese food, almost all kinds of food in the world are not difficult to find in larger cities. However, in the desert in the 1970s, supplies were scarce, and even basic food was not available for the Sahrawi people. Life is rough and there are very few vegetables. For a while, Sanmao relied on eating carrots to supplement his vitamins. The most common food eaten by the Sahrawi people was camel meat. Sanmao and Jose rarely eat camel meat, as camels are a means of transportation in the desert. , the feeling of eating camel meat is similar to that of eating dog meat. Beef is extremely expensive in the desert and is rarely eaten. Except for the expensive national hotel, no one here puts their thoughts on cooking.

Many of Sanmao's behaviors are very international, but when it comes to hospitality, Sanmao is very "Chinese". When Chinese people invite people to dinner, they are always worried that they have prepared too little and that the guests will not be full. Not only must we eat well, but we must also eat in a lively manner. This is what Sanmao is like. In Jose’s words, “Sanmao is like this. He is generous and every time he makes food, he always makes a mess. Fill people to death. "In addition, Chinese food tastes more satisfying than Western food, so friends love to visit her home, and Sanmao never disappoints their stomachs.

Sanmao's good cooking skills are It was widely circulated among Jose’s colleagues, and even spread to Jose’s big boss. One day, he came to Jose and said, “All my colleagues in the company have been to your house for dinner, and I’m waiting too. I was expecting to be invited, but never waited. "The reason why they only invite colleagues to dinner is because colleagues are on the same level. If you invite the big boss to dinner, there will always be some "flattery" meaning. Sanmao feels that doing so is too spineless. The big boss also has thoughts. On the innocent side, he not only approached Jose and said he wanted to be invited to dinner, but also asked for "fried mushrooms with sliced ??bamboo shoots". Having reached this point, Jose had no choice but to ask San Mao to put aside his "integrity" and invite the big boss and his wife to eat. Once. However, by that time, the bamboo shoots sent from Taiwan had already been eaten, but San Mao did not show any signs of it. On the night of the treat, she carefully arranged the table with a white tablecloth and lit it with white candles. In addition to the "fried mushrooms with young bamboo shoots" ordered by the big boss, Sanmao also cooked several other Chinese dishes. After finishing his work, Sanmao changed out of his apron and put on a long skirt, looking elegant under the flickering white candlelight. . The four of them shared a table of Chinese food, and the host and guest had a great time, which made people temporarily forget that they were in the desert. Before leaving, the big boss held Sanmao’s hand and told her that this was the meal of his life. "Stir-fried mushrooms with young bamboo shoots" was the most delicious thing I have ever had. He also said that if there is a vacancy in the company, he hopes Sanmao can join. After seeing off the big boss and his wife, Jose also praised the "young bamboo shoots" just now. "Slices of fried mushrooms" is really delicious. At this time, Sanmao said to Jose mischievously and nonchalantly: "Oh, you mean fried mushrooms with cucumbers?" ”

Cooking a delicious meal for friends is one of Sanmao’s ways of expressing emotions, because Sanmao said, “I don’t like you to be hungry.” Sanmao and Jose will always be friends no matter where they live. A large group of friends, the circle of friends is growing like a snowball. In addition to Jose's colleagues and her girlfriends, the guests Sanmao invites home are also some people she meets accidentally but is very close to.

While living in Tenerife, Sanmao met a Japanese craftsman who set up a stall on the island. Because of their mutual affinity, he became friends with him. He was far away from home and lived alone on the island. San Mao often invited him to his home, cooking a table of delicious food and meat, and watched him and Jose sit by the window and eat bowls of rice and large chunks.

In fact, before getting married, Sanmao was a woman who couldn’t even tell the difference between pork and beef. After getting married, she fumbled around in the kitchen and mastered the art of cooking. Most of it. Later, Sanmao, who was originally from the south, also learned to make dumplings. Before that, Sanmao had taken Hexi to her Chinese friend's house. Two or three times, the other party served them dumplings, and Hexi also served them. I didn’t have much interest in dumplings. Later, when I was in Tenerife, one time, Sanmao’s cousin-in-law’s trading ship docked on the island. He invited Sanmao and Jose to be guests on the ship, saying that he would invite them. They ate dumplings. Hexi, who was well-informed, had already eaten dumplings twice, so he was a little dissatisfied with them. At this time, Sanmao felt that Hexi knew too little about Chinese culture. A small dumpling can actually be varied. Different fillings will taste very different. Even the same fillings will taste very different if different people season them.

However, as soon as the dumplings were served, Sanmao was stunned by the way Jose was eating them. “At the dinner table, I saw him working hard, one bite at a time. And because he is good at diving, he doesn’t have to eat it often.” Breathing, while others were breathing, he had eaten thirty or fifty more..." He completely forgot about his disapproving attitude towards dumplings a few hours ago. After getting off the boat, Jose still couldn't forget the dumpling meal and clamored to eat dumplings instead of Western food. However, Sanmao at that time did not know how to make dumplings, nor even make noodles. Seeing that Jose was so obsessed with dumplings, she decided to study how to make dumplings. Because he had eaten delicious dumplings on the ship, ordinary dumplings couldn't impress his stomach anymore, so after Sanmao finished making dumplings for the first time, he called Jose and her girlfriend to eat, and the two of them took a bite. In the end, they politely said to her, "Those who cook have the greatest credit and should eat more." Unwilling to admit defeat, Sanmao secretly determined not only to be able to make dumplings, but also to become the "Dumpling King". During that time, she tried to make it many times and improved everything from dumpling wrappers to dumpling fillings. Sanmao is quite talented in cooking. When it was served to the table, Jose returned to the ability to eat dumplings on the boat and wiped out dozens of dumplings. And she got so good at making dumplings that she could make 100 dumplings in an hour. She was so confident that she wanted to open a shop selling dumplings on the island. However, she also knew that neither she nor Jose were good at doing business, so she was just thinking about it.

Sanmao’s dumpling-making skills finally have a bigger stage to showcase. When she lived in Gran Canaria, she worked as a secretary in an embassy, ??but because her personality was not suitable for such a delicate and procedural work, she ran away after a few months, but she and her former female boss Always keep in touch. Once, the female boss wanted to take the boss of the embassy and her colleagues to Tenerife. She knew that Sanmao was living on the island at the time, so she asked Sanmao to recommend a high-end and delicious restaurant to them. Sanmao thought, why not entertain them with dumplings at home? As mentioned at the beginning, Sanmao's hospitality has always been extremely generous and full of affection. That day, she prepared different fillings, including beef, pork, fish, shrimp, and even red bean paste. She wrapped the different fillings into different shapes. When the female boss came to her home with her colleagues from the embassy, ??she saw "on the balcony covered with flowers, there was a long table made of door panels, and the door was covered with light orange hand-embroidered and rolled wide beige There was a lace tablecloth, a vase of bird-of-paradise red flowers in full bloom on the table, and under the bird-of-paradise, little white dove-like dumplings were sleeping quietly." She said emotionally: "Sanmao, today you are for me. Everything I did will be remembered throughout my life.”

Making dumplings is more ritual than making other Chinese dishes. It represents reunion and a reminder of the passage of time, and is inseparable from China’s grand festivals. Open it. During the Chinese New Year, when the family sits together and eats dumplings, it will remind you that the year has passed and you should cherish the time you still have. Compared with the noisy and explosive cooking, the process of making dumplings is very quiet and requires the assistance of family members. As for two people, you roll out the dough and I make the stuffing, and then sit together to make dumplings, watching the fireworks outside the window, it is easiest to have a feeling of life and death. When he was living in Tenerife, Sanmao was addicted to making dumplings. José would help him after get off work. He would shape the dumplings into piglets and mice. That was the most stable and stable moment for two people. A pleasant time, when they lived a prosperous life and possessed the innocence and exploration of children.

In Sanmao’s writings, the part about cooking is always full of joy, whether in the Sahara or Gran Canaria. At that time, her lover was either by her side or on the way back. Busy in the kitchen, she is leisurely, calm, and full of expectations. Whether it's cooking a Chinese meal or baking a cake, my heart is filled with the anticipation of waiting for someone to come home for dinner. Generally speaking, people will have the mood and inspiration to cook when they are in good condition. If a person is willing to spend his time in the kitchen, it means that that time should be a good time in her life.

After Jose died, it was rare to see her writing about cooking. I only remember that she wrote in one text: "I just have stomachache sometimes, and it will happen when I am eating alone." , some food can’t be swallowed.” And those good times cooking for my lover in the kitchen are gone forever. After she returned to Taiwan to live, she often forgot to eat and needed to be reminded by her mother before she could remember. The greatest pleasure for a cook is to watch his beloved eat up the rice he has cooked. However, if one person cooks and the other eats, he will still feel lonely after all.

——Excerpted from "The Legend of San Mao: If you let go of your hand, I will fall into the vast universe" Cheng Bi