?A piece of soft and waxy pine-scented air cake, to me, is an unforgettable childhood period in my life and the clear face of my grandmother who is always warm and loving in my memory...?

When I was a child , my family was poor, so my parents had no choice but to foster me in my grandma’s house. However, as a young child, I did not lose happiness because of foster care. On the contrary, I enjoyed vegetables, rice, and water as sweet as glutinous rice. During the holidays, I could also eat delicious cakes, which made me feel Grandma's love is so real and delicate. In the small mountain village where I grew up, where the smoke lingered, I sat on the threshold, looking at the white clouds and birds in the sky, eating air cakes in small bites. I felt so satisfied that it seemed that there was nothing more in the world. There is no food more delicious.

Such delicacies, soaked in the essence of water and rice milk, set sail from the Tang and Five Dynasties, passed through the historical dust of the Song Dynasty and the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and came to me, serving me tenderly in the Temple of the Five Internal Organs. . In my memory, when I was in elementary school, gas cakes were considered a small luxury for me, and I could only enjoy them during holidays. On the eve of the Hungry Ghost Festival, grandma started busy making gas cakes. Grandma usually didn't talk much, but she worked meticulously. The hardships in life left her with not only the deep memories of standing on a small bench cooking, but also her understanding of food and life. She always used the most pious attitude towards ingredients. The ingredients of the gas cake are very simple, such as the usual brown rice, ham pickled in the first month, shrimps from the river, ordinary free-range eggs, and rapeseed oil to retain the flavor of spring. Everything is soaked in a simple farmhouse flavor.

Obtaining the ingredients requires a long period of hard work and patient waiting. The mouth-watering ham has been treasured since the beginning of the year. On ordinary days, I would never let go of the ham. Only when I add fillings to the cakes is the opportunity for the ham to show its talents and soothe people; catch the shrimps in the river. , it all depends on luck. Usually grandma takes a few of us children, using fine fishing nets to search for fresh river fish hidden in aquatic plants one after another. It feels like hunting for treasures; as for local eggs, you have to It’s all thanks to the proud old hen at home. It’s always like a nagging old woman, calling “everyone is big” and “everyone is big”. It was during our childhood that we heard this cry. I spent the evenings doing homework; the rapeseed oil squeezed by my own traditional method is like a grand "coronation" prepared for the cake. I can smell the flavor of spring in a spoonful of rapeseed oil. When the rapeseed flowers bloom, the moisture of the spring rain and the warmth of the sun make the rapeseed grains crystal clear and plump. The ancient method of oil extraction leads the rapeseed to a magical journey, and the rapeseed is smoothly converted into rapeseed oil. In the early morning, dip a piece of soft, glutinous and pine-scented air cake into hot rapeseed oil. It will become bright and plump. While awakening the taste buds of the whole family, it seems that the whole taste of spring is about to splash out.

As night falls and all the ingredients are ready, it’s a good time to prepare air cakes. Usually, grandma would wash, soak, and grind the brown rice into pulp during the day, then put the ground rice pulp in a wooden barrel, add rice distiller's grains, cover it with a piece of white gauze, and press it with an ancient Hatchet, everything is ready, quietly waiting for the wonderful changes in the rice milk. At this time, I always volunteered to take on the task of lighting the fire in the earthen stove. Rather than helping my grandma to light the fire, it is better to say that I like to witness the magical birth of delicious air cakes with my grandma. When I added firewood and added fire to boil the water in the pot, the rice milk was almost fermented. Grandma carefully scooped the fermented rice milk into a bamboo steamer covered with a layer of soaked white cotton towels, and gently Sprinkle the fillings, close the lid and steam for about 10 minutes, and a delicious air cake will be ready. The steamed cake is steaming freshly out of the pan. The warm, glutinous and slightly tough rice milk is wrapped in the soft and fragrant ham filling. At this time, a handful of wild onions picked by grandpa in the early morning are sprinkled on it. It is fragrant, waxy, fresh and soft. ...Between opening your lips, what you swallow seems to be the warm yellow light in the kitchen. The fragrance and softness sprout in the body. Eating a small piece of air cake makes your heart tremble.

Childhood memories are the purest and most genuine, and have the most profound impact on life. The soft and glutinous air cake exudes a unique flavor when I chew it, familiar and stubborn. It is like a tie, one end locks my taste buds, and the other end is forever tied to the loving face of my grandmother deep in my memory.