In traditional concepts, although birthdays in the twelfth lunar month are "small", they are actually quite blessed. Because the twelfth lunar month is approaching the New Year, and birthdays are included, there is usually an atmosphere of double happiness. Moreover, this period is considered the slack season in rural Jiaodong, so the celebrations are more grand. The following set of pictures will show you a birthday banquet in Laiyang countryside during the twelfth lunar month, and experience the authentic farm life in Jiaodong. The picture was taken in Tangezhuang Town, Beixiang, Laiyang.

Since it’s a birthday, let’s start with the cake. In the rural areas of Jiaodong in the past, people celebrated their birthdays by eating a bowl of longevity noodles. However, now that transportation is developed, most towns and villages have places to make cakes. Even if there are not, younger people working in the city will usually buy one and take it home. The cake in the picture was brought from the city by the birthday boy's junior.

Cake is a Western-style pastry, and Jiaodong’s traditional dough sculpture is longevity peach. You don’t have to go to the city to buy it. There are craftsmen who specialize in making pastries at the market or in villages ten miles away.

Now let’s look at the food, starting with the cold dishes. This dish is cabbage heart vermicelli mixed with sting skin, a very common dish in Jiaodong in winter.

This is roasted pork. In fact, it would be better with cucumber.

According to Laiyang custom, among the hot dishes, chicken is naturally the first dish, which means good luck.

If there is a Chinese New Year banquet, there is usually a side of bamboo shoots, but the birthday banquet is a family banquet after all, so it can be simplified a little, just start with chicken, and this dish is pork ribs.

This dish is shredded pork with Beijing sauce.

This dish is whitebait with eggs.

Although Laiyang Beixiang is not close to the sea, it is now convenient to buy things. There are also a lot of seafood at the farmer's birthday banquet. This one is braised shrimp.

This is a plate of fried clams.

This is spicy fried squid.

The chicken starts the head and the fish finishes the tail. In Laiyang Beixiang, freshwater fish is relatively popular. At this rural birthday banquet, carp was served.

Of course, the order of serving dishes is only theoretical. When you actually eat, you will eat after setting them together. The birthday boy this time happened to be 70 years old. The juniors all brought their families over to celebrate. There were more than a dozen families in total, so a lot of food was prepared. There were sixteen plates in total. The above only introduces a part of them. Some common vegetables will not be introduced one by one.

As for the staple food, it is naturally longevity noodles. In Jiaodong, kidney bean braised noodles or cabbage braised noodles are usually more common. However, for this birthday banquet, we only made one bowl specifically for the birthday girl, so we did not specially braise the noodles and used meat and chopped green onion instead. Of course, no matter what kind of salt it is, it all means long and far away.