Hotel fried hairtail

"New Year, New Year, wear new clothes and new hats. The little girl wants flowers, the little boy wants a gun and the old man wants a new felt hat. " This nursery rhyme, which was often sung during the Spring Festival when I was a child, is deeply engraved in my memory.

Remember to buy a box of matches when you were a child, and you should have a "ticket". What I long for most is the China New Year. Because only in the New Year can we eat the meat that is usually unpalatable, the white steamed bread that is usually unpalatable, the new clothes that are usually unpalatable, and the pocket money that is usually difficult to get ... Although "the rich celebrate the New Year", in that era when there are no rich people and no poor people, everyone is "celebrating" the New Year.

Entering the twelfth lunar month, parents began to prepare for the New Year. First, my father collected the "tickets" accumulated at ordinary times and obtained from colleagues, and then took the "tickets" and money to buy briquettes in batches, which was later called honeycomb coal. On weekends, when I arranged the car, my father took my sleeve by car and walked more than 10 kilometers to send the coal to my hometown and give it to my grandmother. Speaking of the underground train, young people born in 1980s and 1990s may only know that it is a primitive means of transportation, and it is strange to open a shaft and pull a set of shoes, but before 1980s, it was almost the most important means of transportation for people. This kind of car is about 1.2 meters wide and 2.5 meters long, and is supported by two wheels similar to the current bicycle wheels but heavier than the bicycle wheels. Its driving force is people. Every time when transporting, my father hangs a leather thing called "ring" around his neck, which is about five centimeters wide and two meters long. Hang the two ends of the circle on the car, arrange the handlebars by hand and move them forcibly. When I was a child, I used a rope about three meters long to pull on the side of the car to increase power. Although it is a cold winter, I still sweat profusely. Although I sweated profusely in the cold winter, the desire to celebrate the New Year relieved my fatigue.

On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, my mother cooked a pot of sweet and delicious porridge with rice, cowpea, adzuki bean, millet, red dates, peanuts, lotus seeds and walnuts. Add white sugar or brown sugar and tell me it's called Laba porridge, saying it can both dispel cold and wrap the stomach. As for why I drink porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, I still don't understand. After dinner, mother took out a handful of peeled garlic, soaked it in vinegar, and then closed the jar. By the time jiaozi was eaten on the 30th of the twelfth lunar month, the garlic cloves had turned emerald green and tasted sour and delicious. Now every year on Laba Festival, I also want to soak in an altar. When I eat jiaozi at the age of 30, I will relive the vinegar and garlic flavor of my childhood.

The 23rd of the twelfth lunar month is my busiest and most tiring day. On this day every year, my mother will wake me up early when I sleep and instruct me to move everything outside. Then I folded a "hat" from an old newspaper and put it on my head, found a slender bamboo pole, tied a "strip" on it, cleaned the roof and walls, and scrubbed all the pots, plates, tables, chairs and stools. In the evening, my father put a small dining table beside the stove. At the small dining table, he put a small dish of flower candy, a small dish of melon seeds and a small dish of jiaozi, inserted three incense plants in a cup full of rice, and then respectfully knelt down and kowtowed for three heads, burning the unburned incense and yellow paper together, saying that it was the "Kitchen God" who reported to the Jade Emperor for business. Let him eat melon seeds and candy before leaving, in order to make him talk more. It seems that "bribery" and "accepting bribes" are popular not only in the mortal world, but also in the celestial world.

Entering the twelfth lunar month, my mother is the most anxious and busy. Now, if you want to wear new clothes, you don't have to wait until the Spring Festival. Colorful clothes can be bought at any time. But in that era when we needed "cloth tickets" to wear new clothes, my mother always used "cloth tickets" to let us wear new clothes for the New Year. First of all, I found my brother and sister's old clothes to tear down and put together usable rags with new ones. If I don't look carefully, I can't see the old traces at all. It is because of my mother's skillful hands that our sisters can put on "new clothes" during the Spring Festival.

After the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, my mother began to have a "busy year". Make "gluten" first, then pickles, then stir-fry lotus root boxes and hairtail, and then make "crispy pot" at 30 nights. Nowadays, eating a fried lotus root box, frying hairtail has become a common practice, and making pickles has become a dish in hotels, but home cooking is not common. In fact, making "gluten" requires certain skills: first knead flour into dough with water, then knead the dough in water for half an hour, and the last piece of dough is "gluten". Although I didn't learn to make gluten from my mother when I was a child, I learned to stick monkeys with gluten only because I used gluten.

"Knowing the monkey" has been beaten by his father.

"crispy rice" is a big dish for our guests during the Spring Festival. On New Year's Eve, my mother put the washed kelp and cabbage, as well as ribs, fish, tofu, chicken, salt, sugar, cooking wine, vinegar, green onions, pepper and star anise in a pot layer by layer, then cooked them on the stove and slowly "crisp" them overnight with a steady fire. Although you can eat it the next morning, it was not easy to eat at that time, not because the "crispy pot" was difficult to make, but to entertain guests. Now every winter, a pot is crispy. First, the crispy and delicious bottom of the pot makes me linger, and second, it creates a "taste of the year" for the New Year.

New Year's Eve is the most solemn and taboo day. In the evening of 1930s, my father set up an altar and incense table, propped up a tombstone-like memorial tablet with chopsticks, fixed it on two steamed buns, and then led me to a crossroads. I didn't know what he was saying, so he took me home. After entering the door, I placed a wooden stick as wide as the door frame on the door of each room. From this time on, until dawn, I am not allowed to speak loudly. Then there is "Jingjiatang". After kowtowing and burning paper, I took it with me a few days ago, that is, that night. It is difficult to see the lotus root box, fried fish, fried loose meat, crispy lotus root, fish and chicken, so I can put down my stomach and eat enough. By the fifth watch, people began to worship their ancestors to eat jiaozi, some wrapped in coins, saying that whoever can eat it this year will be blessed.

Now, before the stroke of midnight, firecrackers flooded the city to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, and colorful fireworks reflected the sky in colorful colors. Although there are no taboos, the "flavor of the year" remains in the sound of firecrackers, flashing fireworks, lingering incense, burning paper and my memory.

(Hope to adopt)