After graduation, I stayed in Shanghai with my friends for half a year, which was the first time I went out to work. The first few days in Shanghai were particularly fresh, and after a long time, the mood slowly came out. Homesick! I really want to ... I'm not afraid of jokes. Sometimes dreaming in the middle of the night can make me cry.
I often go shopping with my friends in Qibao Street, where there are all kinds of snacks. A dazzling array of snacks constantly impact your vision and taste. People keep stopping in front of every booth, but even in such a busy street, you will still feel lonely. Although the smell is fragrant and crowded, you are like a lonely hiker at this time. Because in so many delicious snacks, you can't find a hometown dish, and you can't smell the unforgettable familiar taste in your nose!
Friends often say that the people who work around here are basically from our city. Why doesn't anyone make meatballs for sale? Yes! There are so many people in my hometown, why doesn't anyone make "meatballs" Stay away from home, even if people smell familiar smells! I can't resist my homesickness, so I decided not to go to Shanghai the next year.
"Maruko" is a special food in our small Ningde. I think many places will package jiaozi during the Spring Festival. However, we don't have to wrap them in jiaozi. Meatballs must be packed. Making meatballs has become the standard of our Ningde people for the New Year, and now it can be said to be a tradition.
The ingredients are very simple, but they are more troublesome than steamed buns, such as onion, ginger, pork belly, taro and sweet potato powder. Steamed taro is pressed into mashed taro with a big spoon, mixed with pork belly with sweet potato powder and minced onion and ginger and kneaded into a ball, and then steamed taro is no different from steamed buns. Take some and put them in the steamer. After 20 minutes, the smell of onion, ginger and meat lingered in the whole room. This is the smell. This is the taste of home!
When I was a child, every New Year, my mother had to prepare these ingredients early. At that time, my family was poor, and I could only eat meatballs that people would never forget during the Chinese New Year. After steaming taro, my mother always tells me to peel it aside, thinking that I can eat the meatballs I missed for a long time in a moment. I am very happy when peeling, and sometimes I chew while pulling. My mother grinds them into taro paste with a kitchen knife, and then wraps them carefully. I watched and wanted to learn from my mother's bag, but she wouldn't let me. She was afraid that I would not wrap it well and waste taro and meat. After all, the family was really poor at that time.
At that time, there was no refrigerator, and my mother always steamed the wrapped meatballs at one time, then put them in a wooden bucket with steamed rice, put them in a high cabinet, and then go to the wooden bucket to get them when you want to eat them. Once, I wanted to eat it very much, but my mother put it too high for me to reach it on tiptoe. Inadvertently, the whole barrel fell down and the meatballs in the barrel fell to the ground. Mother heard the noise and rushed out at once. That harsh look made my heart weak. I thought scolding was inevitable, but my mother only said, "What's wrong with people?" I shook my head.
Seeing that I was fine, my mother found a bag and a plate to pick up the meatballs one by one, and put them on the plate if the edges were only dirty. The things in the bag were going to be thrown away, because at that time, the floor of the house was covered with dirt, so many meatballs were actually covered with mud. In the evening, I saw my mother sitting quietly on a stool eating meatballs on those plates. Against the backdrop of the lights, it looks so lonely and ancient ... I only make meatballs once a year, but I make so much noise, which is a waste. I think my mother must be very sad at the moment ... this memory is still in my mind!
People here have a special feeling for meatballs. When I was a child, I was looking forward to the "New Year". Now, more is a faint "homesickness". Whenever I see people who pack meatballs at home in a circle of friends, there is always a row of people who work in other places commenting on their obsession with meatballs. A friend of mine always asked her mother to make meatballs for her at home the day before she came back from other places. She said she didn't want anything from other places, but meatballs kept her thinking. Because you can't eat delicious food in your hometown at all, you always have to eat seven or eight when you come back. ...
Yesterday I went to the street to buy milk powder for Bao Xiao, and I smelled the familiar onion and ginger meat. I followed the smell and saw an old woman who opened a meatball shop in the street. I hurried to buy a bag. Grandma picked up the pot cover, and the hot air was filled with the smell of onion, ginger and meat. The air was filled with this breath in an instant, a long-lost smell! The lines are neatly placed in a steamer, white and blue, just like undeveloped jade. Grandma quickly picked up the meatballs and handed them to me in a bag. I sat on the stool and ate. With a gentle bite, the oil on the pork belly will drip down, crystal clear, and the ginger, onion and meat in your mouth are intertwined, and the white and tender taro skin value will make you memorable. ...