Jiaozi cake tube, claw and hoof, egg white sheep tail, tin cake, vermicelli rice ball, sesame seed cake, Xianju Eight Bowls, glutinous rice cake, lentil cake, shredded chicken noodles, 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 what it used to be, 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 small counties.

One: dry steamed bread

When we were young, making steamed bread was a heavy job. As you can imagine, children are finally looking forward to the Spring Festival and can play happily, but in that barren era, 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, the flour was kneaded with yeast and put into a big bamboo basket. Bamboo baskets should be placed behind the stove and covered with straw to keep warm.

The next morning, my mother will open the corner of the bamboo basket early to see if the noodles in it have been fermented. The dough put in yesterday is only half as high as the bamboo basket. If it is fermented, the dough will come out of the bamboo basket. Pressing your finger will be a shallow mark, which will be restored in an instant. This kind of noodles is well-made noodles, which is the key step in making steamed bread.

Go forward and make steamed bread. We children also follow the wind and make some frogs, carp and other small animals with dough. Steam in a steamer until the steamed bread is cooked. To dry the steamed bread, we need to add a process, cut the steamed bread into half-inch thick pieces, 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 carbon fire used under the sieve will be very strong, so the steamed bread on it will burn easily. So if we keep turning it, we will get tired soon and we can't wait to go out and 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 a little with warm fire. A housewife's luck is unfortunate, which can be seen from a piece of steamed bread.

At that time when food was scarce, dried steamed bread was a snack for our children and a dry food for adults when they went 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 she hides, several children at home will finish it secretly. Mother pretended to be angry when she saw it. "These children, if they hide in the mouse hole, they will find something."

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

Two: rice paste cake

Different from making rice cakes, rice cakes are made of glutinous rice and a little rice, while rice paste cakes are 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 with a layer of coarse cloth under it. After the water under the steamer is boiled, pour in the thin first layer of rice paste, 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 is poured over 100 layer, and it can be taken out.

Cut a piece while it's hot and drill some soy sauce. It tastes soft and fragrant, leaving a fragrant mouth. After cooling, put some oil in the pot, cut it into small pieces and scorch it, and put some wine and soy sauce. It is a good dish to go with 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 paste cakes in our town, the taste is rough and there is no delicate feeling. You can only eat once, and you'll get tired of eating 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, made it into a paste and set it aside.

After a hasty dinner, pour the oil into the pan. When the oil is heated for three minutes, fry the batter in the pan with a spoon. At this time, my mother was a burning 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 the smell of eggs rushed to my stomach along my mouth. I can often eat three or four pieces of soaked fish until I am full and talk nonstop.

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 Hengxi Town, where I live, 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 once, and you'll get tired of eating 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 will children know that there have been those traditional new year's goods.