classification: social livelihood

problem description:

2 points.

Analysis:

Baba cake, the second monster in Yunnan, is called bait block.

Bait block is a nearly oval rice flour product, which is nearly 3 cm long, about 2 cm wide and about 2-3 cm thick. Bake it over and over with charcoal fire until it is slightly yellow, then spread several seasonings such as pepper paste, sesame paste, soy sauce and sweet soy sauce on one side, and then sandwich it into a semicircle to eat. The rice flour of the bait block emits an attractive fragrance due to charcoal fire baking, and with the spicy and heavy seasoning, the strong * * * at the entrance will immediately arouse the weak appetite in the morning. I can also put a fried dough stick baked with charcoal fire on my pocket money. I often smell that wonderful fragrance and fall into a silent enjoyment.

The most common bait block is made of rice, which is made by steaming raw rice (a lot of rice soup can be left for other use) and putting it in a stone mortar (reading out the sound). Walking along Panlong River from Xunjin Street next to Victory Bridge to Shuanglong Bridge, you can see a large wheeled waterwheel spinning in a way, and you can hear "Yi Ya ~ ~ Dong!" every once in a while The heavy sound of the earth is made when the stone pestle is lifted by hydraulic power to flush the rice balls in the stone mortar. The purpose of repeated flushing is to increase the viscosity of the rice balls. The prepared rice balls are put on a big board, and then they are rolled into bait pieces like dumpling wrappers rolled by northerners. When they are rolled, they should be hot, but when they are cold, they can't be rolled, which can be regarded as "high temperature operation". If you add cauliflower (not the kind of cauliflower called by northerners) to the rice noodles, you will get a golden cauliflower bait. When eating, just say to the master, "I want cauliflower." He will understand that the price is a little more expensive than pure rice, and I can't remember how much it is.

The charcoal fire basin for roasting bait blocks may be the most characteristic food heating equipment in China: put some ashes in a large enamel washbasin (of course, it is an old broken washbasin), spread some charcoal, and then put a much larger square barbed wire on it, and a special equipment for roasting bait blocks will be completed. The tool for ignition and heating is a big cattail leaf fan, and it will flourish when it is fanned from top to bottom. As soon as the experienced customer saw the master holding up the fan, he stepped back to avoid the ashes he fanned up. The spare space between the brazier and the wire rack is used by the master to put the fried dough sticks. In technical terms, it can be regarded as preheating. I haven't seen anything like it anywhere else since I left Kunming for other provinces. It is also a must in Kunming.

The bait blocks are hand-made products, and the thickness and size are inevitably uneven. Customers often choose their own bait blocks and give them to the master for baking. While watching him bake, everyone stares at their own bait blocks. That kind of concentration is not entirely for a bait block, but more for the "common comprehensive dementia" after getting up from lack of sleep. In fact, there has never been anything wrong with the bait blocks. It's very cold in winter in Kunming, and it's still dark at six o'clock in the morning, Beijing time. Walking in the street, I saw a group of dark people around, and it must be a stall selling bait blocks. After leaving Kunming for so many years, the street scenes still clearly emerged in front of me.

the prime time for selling roast bait blocks is one morning and one night. Generally, it is from 5 o'clock to 8 o'clock in the morning, and the stalls are basically closed as soon as the working hours are over. I usually don't come out until after 8 o'clock in the evening, and it doesn't end until after 12 o'clock. Why is it so late? Due to the time difference between local time and Beijing time, at that time, the last evening movie was shown at 1 o'clock or later, and it was over after 12 o'clock. The same is true for theaters and storytellers (teahouses), which start at 8 o'clock and end after 11: 3. Therefore, all kinds of snacks are sold at that hour to do business, and there are many kinds of snacks on the scene. In addition to burning bait pieces, there are fried stinky tofu, fried sparrows, cold pea powder, fried (boiled) bait pieces, wonton, noodles and so on. The scene is hot.

It is worth mentioning that the fried stinky tofu in Kunming is also the most delicious food in my memory: the fried stinky tofu is covered with a layer of bad pepper (similar to the pepper paste in Beijing), which is delicious and soft, with a slightly sour spicy taste, which is a great comfort to my unsound appetite. When my parents are happy, I will eat another bowl of wonton unexpectedly and pleasantly. No matter the delicious stuffing and the delicious soup, even the "wonton Hou" who came to Beijing to eat later is unparalleled in my impression. The hawkers' carrying loads for cooking wonton can also be called a scene: there are square wooden burdens at both ends, a big copper pot at the top of one end, which is divided into two halves in about one third, most of which are for cooking wonton or noodles, and the small part is simmering bone soup, which is a bit like the current "Yuanyang hot pot". There is a brazier at the bottom of the pot, a clean bucket and a dishwashing bucket, and a grid for putting charcoal at the bottom. At the other end of the chopping board, there are seasonings such as soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, chopped green onion and green garlic leaves, and piles of blue porcelain bowls. Below are small drawers with wrapped wonton and noodles, as well as eggs and salted duck eggs for guests to order. Both burdens have a square frame like a football door, and there is a small copper ring tied with hemp rope in the middle of the beam of the square frame. When the pole passes through the hemp rope, it can pick up the burden. I didn't know until I grew up reading books by Lu Xun, Yu Dafu and Shen Congwen that this kind of wonton carrying pole with its load can be seen in many places in the south, although I haven't seen anything similar since then.

From the present point of view, the hygienic condition of these snacks is enough for the health department or journalists to be busy for a while, especially the wonton burden. A small wooden bucket of water needs to wash the dishes and chopsticks used all night, not to mention hygiene. The oil flowers floating in the water alone will spoil the appetite. Perhaps it was that people's bodies were healthier than they are now, or that the types of infectious diseases were not as diverse, mature and cunning as they are now? Anyway, people are eating happily around the burden.

when I returned to Kunming some time ago, I mentioned the bait-burning block to my relatives and friends, and they all said in unison, "Alas, I haven't got it for a long time! I'm not interested in eating now. There are some places, and it seems that they are also baked with infrared electric stoves. " I don't have time to prove it, and I don't want to find out whether it is really gone. It's best not to disturb and disturb the wonderful memory I left in my childhood, just leave it in my heart. Occasionally, in retrospect, it can still maintain a fresh feeling and room for thinking.