Almost every weekend, my wife will ask me when I will go to the eastern suburbs. My parents live in Hansenzhai, the eastern suburb of the ancient city. I will ask casually, do you know what mom cooks? My wife smiled indifferently at me: "Jiao Zi Bai". That "white" expresses our family's feelings for jiaozi to the fullest.
My mother loves to wrap jiaozi, and I like to eat jiaozi wrapped by my mother since I was sensible. At that time, eating jiaozi was my best hope for the Spring Festival. I remember that every year on New Year's Eve, just after the sun goes down, the villages on the Weibei Plateau fall into a thick festive atmosphere. It seems that all the people who are busy outside have come back, and the children of well-off families have changed their clothes and marched in the alley. Children from poor families also shaved their heads, greeted them happily when they met from afar, and mysteriously ran home, saying nothing to each other and not even putting their pockets.
Interestingly, the villagers called jiaozi "a knot in one's heart". I still don't know what legends and allusions are contained in it. Everyone will be very happy when they meet and ask, "What kind of bumps do you eat?" It's a pimple. In fact, there are not many "meat bumps" at home. Mother will cut a piece of red and white pork ribs, chop them into meat stuffing, and mix them with green onions and leeks, or Chinese cabbage and radish, or fennel and celery, and finely ground seasonings. This kind of pimple is the most popular food in Chinese New Year, and most of it is put in the bowl of the elders. I don't know when this custom came into being. In every pot of jiaozi, there will be one or two jiaozi wrapped in a penny. Whoever eats it in his mouth is the luckiest person in a year. On that day, my mother would quietly pull me into the kitchen, scoop a few "meat bumps" in my bowl with a bamboo strainer and pour them into my bowl. I wolfed down the bowl in every corner of the yard. If I am accidentally seen by several brothers-in-law, it will also lead to unfair complaints, because most of their bowls are "tofu bumps". In fact, tofu bumps are delicious. The stuffing is a mixture of oil residue, vermicelli, ginger, radish and cabbage. It seems that at the next meal, there is still that kind of continuous and delicious taste in my mouth. So we reached an agreement. I gave them three tofu bumps, and they took two meat bumps from my bowl. But some people often bite coins from pimples, and when they hear a bang, they cry excitedly. I cried bitterly about it. Who made me covet tofu jiaozi? Mom found out and poked me on the forehead. What a silly child!
Perhaps for this reason, I prefer tofu jiaozi in jiaozi, because there are too many varieties in jiaozi. To this day, I have a soft spot for jiaozi stuffed with tofu. Sometimes when I come back from a business trip, I call "make an appointment" in a different place. Back in the city, Jiao Zi, who took her mother's bag, didn't look up and didn't talk much. She just chews a lot and eats a round stomach.
It's hard to eat meat from jiaozi at home, but my mother will try her best to make jiaozi for us. We can't buy meat. My mother will try to put some oil and water into the jiaozi. Often lard residue is mixed with Chinese cabbage and celery and eaten as dumpling stuffing. The jiaozi we threw into our mouths was full of fragrance, and our mouths were full of saliva and sweat. As soon as we shouted Xiangxiang, my mother patted her apron and narrowed her eyes. Next weekend, it will be another jiaozi. Once my country uncle came with a small bag of white flour. But there are no plates in the kitchen. A clever woman can't cook without rice? But in the evening, the small table was served by Jiaozi. I picked up the bowl, and the dough was particularly white, which was the first crop on the ground. Jiaozi fished out of the pot, white as blue and transparent. He took a bite, but the stuffing was hard. I didn't dare to swallow it, so I asked my mother, what's the stuffing in jiaozi? Mom says you eat, it's stuffed with walnuts. It turns out that tender walnuts can also be used as stuffing, mixed with tofu and oil residue. The whole family ate the delicious food with bowls, and all praised mom for being clever, so mom wiped her face and smiled. Often eat until the end, when jiaozi is gone, my mother will roll out the leftover dumpling skin, put it in a pot, mix with red pepper and vinegar, and sit by the kitchen stove to eat. Sometimes I drag my mother into the house for dinner, and before my mother can speak, my uncles make a hullabaloo about like a joke. The baby in the city just hurts his mother.
I don't remember when jiaozi's attraction to us was greatly reduced. On weekdays, guests and friends come and go and have a lot of entertainment, but people no longer regard jiaozi as an exquisite dish. Once a restaurant developed a dumpling feast, which was all the rage at that time, and newspapers and radio stations were full of praise. However, once upon a time, in the dinner we ate, jiaozi seemed to have almost disappeared from people's sight. If anyone entertains jiaozi, whose relatives and friends are just bowls and bowls, it will certainly lead to embarrassing ridicule. Eating jiaozi has almost become synonymous with meanness.
But my mother still insists on her hobby of jiaozi, and she still has to feed jiaozi every week. Besides, on weekends, my mother will ask me to go home early to pack jiaozi. And when we go home to eat that jiaozi, it's not because a bowl of mutton, pork or tofu jiaozi is so attractive, but because of our filial piety to our elderly parents. Moreover, eating jiaozi requires stuffing, rolling and wrapping, and the process is complicated. I am half pathetic and half want to change my taste. As soon as I enter the house, I will advise my mother to change her taste, eat rice, steam steamed bread and stir-fry some dishes. My mother said nothing but frowned and said to me, I am too old to remember what to do now. You put on makeup. Let's eat rice next week. But next weekend, it will be jiaozi again, but the stuffing in the dumpling skin will change a little. If it was leek and meat last time, it would become celery and mutton, so I had to give it up. But my son didn't want to, and often muttered "jiaozi again". We coaxed our son and grandmother into making jiaozi, but we can't say it's not delicious. In order to make my mother happy, I made three rules for my son. I am not allowed to say that jiaozi is not delicious in front of my grandmother, to leave jiaozi in the bowl, and to ask for other food when I eat jiaozi.
However, our constraints have no effect on our son. Almost every time I go home, my son will do something that makes us unhappy. Often, as soon as we leave the house, my son and I will quarrel high and low outside the building until late at night. However, the way my son deals with us is endless. Every time he goes home for dinner, before the bowl is served, he simply says that he has eaten, which leads to a room full of unhappy people. So I coaxed my son into saying that jiaozi has a long history, jiaozi is rich in nutrition, and jiaozi's content is excellent. At the same time, I advised my mother not to keep covering jiaozi, and I also tried to give my children and grandchildren an expectation for a change. However, my mother smiled sadly and fell silent. I said it again, she muttered, what do you want to eat? Come back and do it yourself.
So, I told my wife that I would cook rice and stir-fry next time I went home. My wife keeps her mouth shut, which is unbelievable. I told my mother on the phone that the old man didn't object on the phone. I thought it would be a delicious and sumptuous meal to go home next weekend, so I told my son in advance not to "eat" there or "eat" there.
However, when I confidently carried a big bag of vegetables and a shirt bought in the supermarket, I entered the house with my wife and children. Unexpectedly, my mother's "thing" didn't happen, and the smell of dumpling stuffing filled the kitchen. Moreover, my mother has made all the preparations for making jiaozi, not only making noodles for jiaozi, but also mixing dumplings. In addition, a noodle table was placed on the coffee table in the middle of the living room like the Chinese New Year. Although the wife took out a new shirt to show off to her mother, her mother didn't show any extra interest, just smiled and sat down at the table first. My wife and I looked at each other, and my son squinted at me, full of irony. I can't say anything more. I sat down next to my mother with a forced smile and firmly motioned my son to sit down and roll jiaozi.
Mother may have seen our unhappiness and asked everyone to sit around the noodle table. The family is busy rolling skin and making stuffing, but there is not much joke. My wife must know my embarrassment. She told her mother that the shirt was bought in Minsheng Commercial Building, which is the most fashionable colored cotton at present. Fluffy goose yellow is the color of cotton itself, but it is not dyed. Mother put the shirt in front of her eyes in surprise and looked at it again and again. It can be seen from the smile on her lips that she is skeptical. Father said that some things are well said now, but they are not so mysterious. In the morning, my mother was shopping in the morning market outside the door and met a "poor" woman. She said that there were several gold coins waiting to be exchanged to save her daughter. My mother stuck them together as soon as she spoke. Obviously, this is a clumsy scam, but it needs a lot of work to get rid of it. Mom: Simply put, it's for jiaozi. If you want to eat delicious jiaozi, you must buy the freshest and tender leeks. If you go late, you can't buy it. Mom said that this jiaozi is delicious, not only the dishes should be selected, but also the proportion of meat and vegetables should be adjusted, and the stuffing technology should be particularly particular. Be sure to chop up the meat and mix the chicken soup, so that the dumpling stuffing will be fragrant. Mom suddenly asked me if I was? I was concentrating on rolling the dough, keeping my eyes on the dough in my hand. I heard the voice of looking up at my mother, but I saw her eyes fixed on her son. Oh, my mother's face is flabby, her neck is flabby, she is covered with thick wrinkles, and there are many black spots on her cheeks, especially her clear and dark eyes. I can't help but wonder, as if it was the first time I found my mother like this. I know that my mother is old and has entered the hearing age, but she has been with me all the time, but that day I found that my mother's eyes were old, her eyes turned brown, her whites turned yellow, and there was no contrast in a blur, and she looked unusually turbid. I can't help thinking about what to say, but I don't know what to say. I have some dough in my hand, short, thick and thin. My mother and my wife are crying. Look at the dough you rolled. What happened? What are you thinking about?
Mom clearly saw our mood swings at this moment and said something that I will never forget. As she wrapped her bag, she seemed to be talking to herself. Your father and mother are old and don't want to eat anything. Whether jiaozi is fragrant or not depends on your mood. How nice it is for a family to get together. While making a bag, he said that he would like to eat some rice and prepare for a day or two. After eating your mouth, they left without even saying a word. My wife and I were stunned by the sound. Mother sighed, and her eyes seemed to roll into tears and get wet: You have this day, too.
I looked up at my mother again, and my confused eyes seemed to light up a lot, and there was more love and attachment outside the window. "Eating jiaozi is eating the mood". God, why didn't I think of that? Mother is ingenious and can't do anything. Why doesn't she want to treat her doting children and grandchildren differently? But mom cherishes this family reunion weekend too much. She is eager to create a happy atmosphere in this way to taste the ups and downs of life. Although it's only for a while, it's as important and grand as a holiday for her mother and her father.
On that day, I rolled the dumpling skin slowly, and the family wrapped it slowly, as if the stuffing on that side could change into any pattern. One jiaozi is geometric and beautiful, just like one handicraft, hovering around the steamer. Looking at the exquisite strength, I can't bear to cook it. I didn't expect this little jiaozi to carry so many "flavors", and the harmonious family brought this flavor to the extreme. In jiaozi that day, my wife and children all said it was fragrant, but I couldn't taste it. My son asked me, Dad, what's wrong with you? I looked up and saw a pair of eyes in the mirror filled with tears, so I said I had rubbed pepper into my eyes.
I don't remember what stuffing jiaozi cooked that day, but I was very happy to see that my mother ate well and my father ate well.
(This article won the 5th Bing Xin Prose Award)
Bai Aying, born in 1955, pen name A Ying, from Tongchuan, Shaanxi Province, master of engineering, senior economist, former vice governor of Shaanxi Province. 1982 began to publish works, 1997 joined the Chinese Writers Association. He has published more than 0/00 novels and essays such as Treasure, Melting, Memory of Green Land, Jiaozi Jiaozi and Revisiting Dazhai, and many of them have been included in the annual collections of provinces and regions and extracurricular reading materials for primary and secondary school students. He is the author of short stories, essays, Green Land, Russian Diary, Revisiting Green Land, Reportage Collection, China 99 10 Action, a long TV play, China Ridge, and a large-scale yangko drama in northern Shaanxi. Russian Diary won the 3rd Bing Xin Prose Award, China 99 10 Action won the 3rd Xu Chi Reportage Excellence Award, and Mizhipoyi Suidehan won the 5th Shaanxi Culture and Art Festival Excellent Screenwriter Award.