With each family’s specialty dish, 178 households held a banquet and celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival with a new style of reunion.
A dish in your family, a bowl of soup in my family, and 10 tables filled with Shanxi dishes. On the evening of October 3, a "Gluttonous Feast" was staged in No. 36 Qingnian Road, Taiyuan, Shanxi, a community with only 4 buildings and 178 households. Each household of the residents cooks a dish and gathers it together to form a "hundred family banquet". Residents opened their homes and brought out their specialty delicacies to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. Some residents said that such a meal feels like returning to the compound where they lived when they were children.
No. 36 Qingnian Road was built in 1987. The four unit buildings have been in use for 30 years. Many residents are old neighbors and colleagues for decades. Starting from 2015, every year around the Mid-Autumn Festival, No. 36 Courtyard will hold a "Hundred Family Banquet", where each family cooks their specialty dishes and chats while eating. “Neighbors share delicious food, and the most important thing is this priceless neighborly feeling,” said Niu Ming, a long-time resident.
At 5 pm that day, the house of residents Li Gaocai and Lan Xiuying was filled with fragrance. The old couple took out the He Leng Zi, a famous dish from northern Shanxi that had been prepared in advance, wrapped it in eggs and fried it in a pan. Li Gaocai said that he and his wife had participated in the previous two "Hundred Family Banquets". The oil cakes made in the first year, the braised pork stewed in the second year, and the Helingzi this year were more down-to-earth.
At 6 o'clock in the evening, every household gathered in the courtyard with prepared dishes, and the 10 tables were quickly filled. The 66-year-old sister Zhang Zuotao prepared three dishes by herself: shrimp skin and winter melon, cold salad with three shredded shreds, and vinegar-soaked peanuts. In order to let the neighbors eat the best-tasting winter melon, she also invited "foreign aid" - her lover who is good at making shrimp skin winter melon to stand guard in front of the gas stove. Wait until everyone here is here before starting the pot.
Braised prawns, Shanxi oily pork, old soup casserole... hot dishes were served on the table, and there were residents of both young and old sitting on the table. The 58-year-old concierge Li Mingguang also came to join in the fun. He fried a large pot of green pepper eggs and sprinkled coriander on top. Zhou Daqin, a long-time resident, said that Master Li has only been in the community for three months and has a very harmonious relationship with everyone. Not long ago, Li Mingguang also helped resident Aunt Wan find her daughter, resolving the old man's urgent need.
“The ‘Hundred Family Banquet’ brings people together, just to make everyone live in harmony and like a family.” Resident Niu Ming said that they have persisted in this tradition for three years. Residents of No. 36 Courtyard Because of this, they were "twisted" together. When a girl got married and a son got a wife, the residents of the whole building came to help.
What a happy family! We need this feeling so much now.