Jiaozi cake cone, claw hoof, egg white sheep tail, tin cake, vermicelli rice ball, sesame seed cake, Xianju Eight Bowls, glutinous rice cake, lentil cake, chicken noodle, paste soup, lily moss cake, Huangyan tangerine, Sanmenwan blue crab, Xianju Sanhuang chicken, Wenlian fruit vine, Yulin watermelon and Yuhuan.

Xianju is a small county under Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province. Although the town is small, it also has its unique geographical climate and customs. With the economy of the town getting better every day, the life of ordinary people is not the same as before, and some food necessary for the New Year is slowly losing, which has become the memory of the older generation in the town. I collected it today and talked about the traditional new year's goods in the small town.

One: dry steamed bread

When we were young, making steamed bread was a heavy job. It is conceivable that children finally look forward to the Spring Festival and can play happily, but in that barren year, even children have to share some work for their families.

It takes a year of yeast to make steamed bread, which is a very magical thing. It is this thing that makes the steamed bread loose. On the first night, knead the flour with yeast and put it in a big bamboo basket. Bamboo baskets should be placed behind the stove and covered with straw to keep warm.

Early the next morning, my mother will open a corner of the bamboo basket early to see if the noodles inside are fermented. The dough put in yesterday is only half as high as the bamboo basket. If it is fermented, the dough will be put out of the bamboo basket. When you press your finger, it will be a shallow mark and instantly recover. This kind of noodles is well-made noodles, which is the key step to make steamed bread.

Go forward and make steamed bread. We children also follow suit, making some frogs, carp and other small animals with dough. Steam in a steamer until the steamed bread is cooked. To make dried steamed bread, you need to add a process, cut it into pieces half an inch thick, and then bake it slowly on a charcoal fire. This is our children's job. When roasting on the fire, put a big iron sieve under it. At first, the charcoal fire used under the sieve will be very strong, so the steamed bread on it is easy to paste. So if you keep turning, you will soon be tired and want to go out to play. Until the two sides of the steamed bread are a little hard and shaped, only the middle is soft. Cover the open flame with ash and dry it with warm fire bit by bit. A housewife's luck is unfortunate, as can be seen from a piece of steamed bread.

In that era when there was not enough to eat, dry steamed bread was a snack for our children and a dry food for adults to go out. When I was a child, my mother would divide the steamed bread into several piles evenly and let our children take a pile for themselves. Of course, my mother will hide some, but in the end, no matter where it is hidden, several children at home will secretly eat it. When the mother saw it, she pretended to be angry and said, "These children, if they hide in a mouse hole, they will find something."

With the prosperity of life, biscuits have replaced the status of steamed bread, and people in small cities are no longer struggling to make steamed bread for the New Year. Although there are bags of dry steamed buns for sale in the town, they are all made by machines, so they can't taste at that time.

Two: rice paste cake

Different from making rice cakes, rice cakes are made of glutinous rice with a little rice, while rice paste is made of rice that is usually eaten at home. The first step is to grind rice into rice paste.

It takes time and patience to make rice paste cakes. Put a steamer on the pot, and lay a layer of coarse cloth under the steamer. After the water under the steamer is boiled, pour in the thin first layer of rice paste, and then pour in the second layer when the first layer of rice paste is almost cooked, and so on, until it is poured on the surface of the steamer, counting that it has been poured for more than 100 layer, and it can be discharged.

Cut a piece while it's hot and drill some soy sauce. It tastes soft and fragrant, leaving a fragrant mouth. When it's cool, put some oil in the pot, cut it into small pieces and bake it golden brown, and add some wine and soy sauce. It is a good dish with table wine and can also be used as a staple food.

Moreover, rice paste cakes have now withdrawn from the stage of Chinese New Year food, because making rice paste cakes is too time-consuming and laborious, and modern people stress efficiency. Although there are rice cakes in our town, the taste is rough and there is no delicate feeling. You can only eat it once, and you will get tired of eating it twice.

Three: Bubble Owl

At noon on the 29th of New Year's Day, my mother added eggs and a little water to the flour to make a paste and set it aside.

After eating in a hurry, pour oil into the pan. When the oil is heated for three minutes, fry the batter in the oil pan with a spoon. At this time, my mother is a fiery red army. One minute she said the fire was smaller, and the next minute she said it was bigger. This is about cooperation. What I saw on the stove was real kung fu. After a while, pieces of golden pickled fish came out of the pot. I took a bite and it was crisp outside, and the smell of eggs rushed down my mouth to my stomach. I can often eat three or four pieces of soaked fish until my stomach is full and I can't stop talking.

Bubble-soaked fish was originally a necessary new year's goods for people in small towns, but it may be delicious, but the production technology is not easy to master. Fish soaked with good cooking tastes delicious, while fish soaked with poor cooking only tastes like dough. Every year, more and more people give up this delicious food for the Chinese New Year.

Up to now, only my small town, Hengxi, has been inheriting this traditional food. Although there are rice paste cakes for sale, the taste is rough and there is no delicate feeling. You can only eat it once, and you will get tired of eating it twice.

With the progress of the times, many handmade foods have disappeared in the long river of history. Maybe we will be like our parents in the future. Only in the stories we tell, children will know that there were those traditional new year's goods.