The "fried noodles" mentioned here are not "fried noodles" with sliced meat and vegetables. Rather, it is "fried flour" made by stir-frying and grinding wheat, flax, soybeans, etc. "Chow mein" is an extremely simple and emergency food in Jingle, hometown, which is very practical in the busy farming season, it can be eaten dry or mixed with water. This food is said to have lasted for thousands of years, long before today's canned food, biscuits, and instant noodles. Jingle fried noodles are mainly made of wheat, fried and ground with flax, soybeans, and even jade and sorghum.
Chow mein is easy to make, but it's very skillful. When early winter comes, after beating the wheat, every household will make fried noodles. The first is to go up the mountain to fetch firewood for the "wok". Firewood is best with pillar firewood, and dry willow branches and needles are also OK. Set up a simple pot stove in the yard, choose the best wheat sift clean, remove gravel, soil clods and other impurities, and then wash it with water and dry it, the whole process is slightly fired. Wait for the pot to be slightly hot, and then stir-fry, the wok is particularly particular about the heat, and if the heat is not enough, it will be sandwiched; After the heat has passed, it produces a bitter taste. Without experience, it is difficult to grasp. When the wheat appears light brown and a wisp of aroma invades the taste buds, the wheat is almost fried.
The top of the wheat is covered with tiny hair, commonly known as "wheat hair", when the wheat is fried, the "wheat hair" will fly around, if the skin is stained with it, it will make you itchy and swollen quickly, so when you touch the adults fried the wheat, the children are far away. Adults also have to arm themselves when they fry the wheat, wrap their headscarves, wear gloves, tie their cuffs tightly, and repeatedly tell the children not to approach.
Chow mein is exquisitely made, and the same ingredients, different people, and different processing procedures will produce different flavors. The freshly fried wheat emits a maroon red, Jingle people call it "red wheat", it tastes sweet and crisp, chews it with relish, we love to eat "red wheat", and is afraid of the "wheat hair" violation, this contradictory and complex mood makes us in a dilemma, we can't stop, always risk the danger to come to the pot, beg for a handful of "red wheat" to escape!
When adults process and make noodles, they will always deliberately fry some wheat grains for children to eat, and when we were children, we used to put fried wheat in our pockets as snacks, just like children eat pot rice now. When wok, put a few yam eggs in the stove, which can be burned golden and attractive, and taste sweet and delicious.
After stir-frying, the wheat is mixed with a certain proportion of flax, soybeans, and even sorghum and corn, and then added an appropriate amount of salt, and when these ingredients are ground into noodles, it is fried noodles. I remember grinding fried noodles on a stone mill when I was a kid, and then there was an electric mill. Put the fried wheat, flax and other mixed ingredients on the grinding plate, and then push the grinding circle, the grain slowly flows down from the grinding eye, and the fine, yellow fried flour will then fall from the grinding seam, and then sift out with a fine basket, so that it is fried noodles, and has not been entered, and a fragrance of grains has come to the nose.
I remember that at that time, most of the fried noodles were made of wheat and flax, and the adults called it "red wheat and flax" fried noodles, and at this time, the greedy children had already come to the grinding plate, and the monkey was anxious to grab the fried noodles and eat them. Chow mein can be eaten dry, and the best way to eat it is to pour it into green onion leaves, which makes it taste unique. In addition, the fried noodles are also very delicious mixed with sesame oil, there is a way to "fried noodles mixed with oil, fragrant and lazy", the fried noodles are mixed with sesame oil, the yellow cancan, it is very tempting, it tastes sweet and soft, but it is rarely eaten, the edible oil at that time is very precious, and the children always take advantage of the absence of adults to secretly enjoy this rare delicacy.
Chow mein is eaten with rice soup, porridge, or boiling water at most. Fill half a bowl of fried noodles, pour in a little boiling water, and then hold the chopsticks in your hands and keep stirring, the longer the mixing time, the stronger the fried noodles, the fresh fried noodles are strong, smooth and soft, especially delicious. Jingle people say that eating fried noodles is "twisting fried noodles", a word "twisting", which is vivid and has a great aura.
The Jingle man who can "twist" fried noodles must be a good "suffering person", and the sturdy Jingle man comes back from working in the fields, first drinking a bowl of thin millet porridge, and then "twisting" a bowl of fried noodles. I saw that the left hand firmly grasped the large porcelain bowl, the right hand clenched the chopsticks, skillfully "twisted" up, the porridge and fried noodles penetrated and mixed with each other, to achieve the best combination, not dry or wet, the fragrance is overflowing, and the taste is soft and soft, soft and smooth, full of strength. Gobbled up fried noodles and drank a bowl of thin rice. The front bowl of small rice is at the bottom, the last bowl of small rice is capped, and in the middle is the hungry-resistant fried noodles, which can not only resist hunger and thirst, but also facilitate digestion and absorption. Eat one meal and two meals, and don't feel hungry after a day's work.
Jingle people who went out in the old society would always bring some homemade fried noodles, which became an indispensable dry food on the road. When you are hungry, ask for a little boiling water on the road, mix a bowl of fried noodles, and serve a meal, which saves money and time, and is also very hungry. When I was a child, whenever someone came to the village to beg for food, the adults would always give them a bowl of fried noodles to satisfy their hunger.
When we were in middle school, we could only go home once a week to get dry food, and we felt more tired when we went home than we were studying intensively. Lu Yuan's classmates only go home once a semester, bring a bag of fried noodles when they come, the school only supplies rice soup in the morning and evening, so "twisting" fried noodles has become a compulsory course and home-cooked meal for students, students with good conditions at home "twist" fried noodles, must add sugar, white sugar with fried noodles, sweet silk, oil and gas, provoke everyone's envy, and the family conditions are almost not able to enjoy this honor.
"Twisting" fried noodles also requires effort, and not everyone is skilled. The male students in the mountainous area are masters of "twisting" fried noodles, and they must use a large bowl to "twist" fried noodles, the bowl is too small, it cannot be opened, and it is inconvenient to stir. You must also use a porcelain bowl, which is heavier than an iron fist and is held in your hand, which is easy to control and not easy to stir out. Or knock over the rice bowl. Experienced students drink a little rice soup leftover, put half a bowl of fried noodles, stir well with chopsticks, and then press hard under the bowl, stir again and again, press back and forth, stir while eating, and scratch while eating, until the end of the bowl is clean, there is no food left, eliminating the procedure of washing dishes. The male classmate "screwed" the fried noodles and gobbled up, and the wind swept away; The female classmate eats fried noodles very gracefully, little by little to the mouth, tastes it carefully, and swallows it slowly.
How many years have passed, and fried noodles have become a kind of memory, recalling the fried noodles in my hometown, I miss them for a long time, and I have a soft spot. Nowadays, fried noodles are rarely made in rural areas, and there are only camellia noodles in supermarkets in cities, and the main raw materials are white noodles, peanuts, soybeans and sesame seeds, which are far from the original taste. I think of the scene of "twisting" fried noodles when I was a teenager, and my memory is still fresh, just like yesterday, when I was probably tired of eating and felt difficult to swallow. But in those years, the crops were not subject to chemical fertilizers, pesticides, pure natural and pollution-free, real materials, and fine workmanship, isn't it exactly what we are pursuing today?
Although the distant years cannot be saved, they will take root in the depths of people's memories and will never be forgotten. Although I haven't eaten chow mein for many years now, I still remember the details of chow mein from my childhood. The reason is that the ordinary, simple, and hunger-resistant fried noodles have been in contact with my taste buds for a long time and occupied my stomach, so that when I think about it today, I still remember it vividly.