In my hometown Macheng, at the southern foot of Dabie Mountain, there is a most famous dish-meat cake, which is a unique traditional dish in Fiona Fang nearby. It has been enduring for generations and years.

Macheng meat cake is really a "fish cake", which is mainly refined from fish meat with a proper amount of powder and a small amount of fat pork.

Its raw material cost is high, and there are many processes, so it is not always easy to make delicious food:

1. Remove the bones and skins from fresh fish and pork, and chop them up. If it is not broken enough, it is best to grind it into a pulp in a mill.

2. Put the powder, clear water and salt into a basin in proportion, stir with the meat pulp, and add the crushed ginger foam. It's called "meat cake".

3. Pour the "Hong" into a steamer covered with lotus leaves or bean skins, scrape it flat with a knife, put it into the steamer, and steam it for 3-4 minutes. (make a small amount at home and steam it in a rice cooker)

4. Open the cage cover, and the "clam" has basically solidified. Spread the raw egg juice on the meat cake, and then simmer it slowly.

5. Continue steaming for 2 minutes, and you can smell the aroma and come out. After coming out of the cage, cut into four fan-shaped pieces. You're done

The meat cake that just came out of the cage is smooth, soft, fragrant and tender, and it is called "eating hot meat cake". After the rest is cooled, it is cut into rectangular strips. You can cook, make soup and cook hot pot. You can eat whatever you want, and it is delicious and convenient to cook. Its shelf life in autumn and winter is about one week, if it is refrigerated, it can be longer.

Dinner in rural Macheng is generally called "meat cake mat". Meat cake is the second course after "foreign dishes", neatly packed in a big bowl, like a pagoda built by a city wall. People eat it, "tear it down" one by one along the "city wall", and then say something auspicious. It is often a compliment to the meat cake, the host's hobby (love guests) and so on.

Meat cakes, as a long-standing culture, have melted into the bones of Macheng people. No one in Macheng doesn't like meat cakes, especially the wanderers. Every time it is the twelfth lunar month, I seem to smell the aroma of steamed meat cakes, and I can't wait to grow wings and fly back.

On the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, every family begins to prepare meat cakes. "Twenty-four, tracing the fishbone" is because many fishhead fishbones are removed when making meat cakes and cannot be wasted, so there is a folk song tracing the fishbone. In the days before the Chinese New Year, there was a rhythmic sound of chopping knives in the villages. If you meet an acquaintance on the road, the most likely question is: "Have you finished the year? Is the meat cake smashed? " It can be seen that meat cake is a must for every household to celebrate the New Year. Without meat cake, it is not a New Year. "New Year's cake is high", which indicates a bumper harvest of grains, prosperity of six livestock, and gradual ascent of adults and children.

I remember that when I was a child, my steamed meat cake was always at night, and I couldn't get rid of it that night, so I walked around the stove happily and excitedly, waiting for hot meat cake. The process of steaming meat cakes is pious, and we can't say unlucky words. Adults always tell us not to say rude words. When the meat cake comes out of the cage, it will be spread on the mat made of bamboo. Feel this piece and that piece, and I can't wait to eat more. However, you can't "beggars can't put overnight food," said the adults. Only Zaba Zaba's mouth went to sleep with unfinished business.

In the past, it was mainly for Chinese New Year and banquets, but now life is better. There are special dishes in the streets, and the "gingko meat cake" is the most authentic. Now every time I go back to Macheng, I always buy one or two parties and bring them back. Under my influence, the whole family loves to eat, especially my son. It's not hard to understand that he has half of Macheng's blood in his body. How can he not love Macheng's traditional cuisine?