Sweet 80s

When Zhou Zheng saw this, he was overjoyed.

He took advantage of the other two's unpreparedness and followed them secretly.

At first, one could seem to hear the two of them whispering in deliberately low voices.

Zhou Zheng was worried that the alley was too quiet, so he didn't dare to follow too closely for fear of alerting the enemy.

But soon, the two people who were meeting secretly went around in circles and no one knew which door they turned into.

Zhou Zheng looked around repeatedly, sometimes putting his ear to the left door to listen to the noise inside, sometimes moving closer and peeking into the yard through the crack in the door.

After several unsuccessful attempts, he arched his body and gently jumped upward, trying to jump over the wall, but he was short and ultimately failed.

As a last resort, he tried his best to remember the doors and some nearby objects that could serve as landmarks.

I was mentally preparing to catch the couple in bed.

Once the initiative is in your hands, you can get whatever you want.

Pride flowed in his eyes like spring water, and confidence and satisfaction made his smile even brighter.

Two days later, the Dragon Boat Festival finally arrived.

Chinese people still attach great importance to traditional festivals.

Especially festivals involving related customs and food.

The Dragon Boat Festival, one of my country's four major traditional festivals, contains profound cultural heritage and rich customs.

How can such an important festival be spent in a monotonous and ordinary way?

Of course not! In our Central Plains Province alone, we have a "hundred flowers blooming" period.

Almost every household is preparing to eat rice dumplings, hang mugwort, worship gods and ancestors, and pray for blessings and ward off disasters...

The lively and busy scene turned the Dragon Boat Festival into Labor Day, with a series of activities and ceremonies arranged.

Busy and happy, fulfilling and satisfying.

The simple and unpretentious people in the Central Plains simply split the Dragon Boat Festival into Labor Day and Food Festival, and all kinds of food that sound incompatible will be placed on the table in the morning of this day.

In addition to eating rice dumplings and sugar cakes during the Dragon Boat Festival, people also have to boil eggs and garlic for the whole family to eat.

In terms of clothing, children not only have to wear "Cattail", but also have to tie five-colored threads and wear tiger-head shoes.

In addition, married daughters have to go back to their parents' home to visit relatives.

First of all, rice dumplings are a must-have during the Dragon Boat Festival.

In the Central Plains Province, no matter east, west, south, north or center, the traditional rice dumpling of the Central Plains people is the candied date glutinous rice dumpling.

When eating, dip it in white sugar. The crunchy white sugar and the glutinous rice dumpling are a perfect match.

Some people who are not used to eating ready-made rice dumplings prefer to make them themselves.

Prepare ingredients such as rice dumplings, glutinous rice, candied dates, peanuts, etc. in advance.

Soak the rice dumplings leaves in water overnight. After boiling for more than ten minutes, take them out and soak them in clean water for later use.

After washing the glutinous rice and candied dates, you can make rice dumplings.

First, roll the top third of the rice leaf into a funnel shape, put in a spoonful of rice and press it down.

Add one or two candied dates, then fill it with glutinous rice, wrap it with rice leaves along the edge of the funnel, tie it tightly with cotton thread, and the angular rice dumpling is ready.

In addition to candied date rice dumplings, you can also wrap red bean paste, pork, ham, egg yolks, etc. into the rice dumplings leaves to make the taste richer.

But it has to be said that most people in the north still prefer sweet rice dumplings. This does not mean that salty rice dumplings are not delicious, it is just a preference in taste.

At noon, there is another must-eat delicacy during the Dragon Boat Festival.

These two things are absolutely indispensable in the central and northern parts of Zhongyuan Province.

Together with rice dumplings, it enjoys the same status during the Dragon Boat Festival and can be said to be on par with others.

That is, fried sugar cakes and fried vegetable dumplings.

The outer layer is red and crispy, and the inner layer is soft and fluffy.

It is usually filled with brown sugar or white sugar.

People who are particular about it will add green and red silk and sesame seeds into it.

Fried vegetable dumplings are the most common noodle dish in Central China, and are also a salty fried food.

If friends from other provinces think that sugar cakes and vegetable dumplings only appear as specific Dragon Boat Festival delicacies during festivals, then I would like to spread some knowledge to them.

In fact, in almost all breakfast and dinner shops in Zhongyuan Province, wherever there is spicy soup and tofu pudding, you can see sugar cakes and vegetable dumplings.

In other words, the frequency of these two delicacies appearing throughout the year is more than 300 times that of rice dumplings.

After comparing them like this, do you suddenly feel that the status of these two delicacies is even much higher than that of zongzi?

Mainly because they are very representative in their respective gastronomic fields.

For example, fried vegetable dumplings are large dumplings filled with leeks, vermicelli, eggs, tofu and other fillings, which are fried in a pan until both sides are golden brown.

As soon as you bite into it, you can smell the rich aroma of chives. It is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, with a crispy skin and fragrant filling.

The vegetable dumplings do not have to be fried. For those who prefer light taste, they can be steamed in a pot after wrapping. They are the big steamed dumplings, the 'older brother' of the small dumplings.

In some places in the Central Plains, people like to eat fried buns during the Dragon Boat Festival.

The super small version of "small fried dough sticks" with golden and crispy crust is mouth-watering.

This is not only a delicious dish, but also a symbol of family reunion.

In addition to these staple foods, there is also a very special and niche custom.

Garlic and eggs are cooked together and eaten.

Eating garlic is to ward off evil, disinfect and sterilize, and stay healthy in the summer.

Since ancient times, people have regarded garlic as a top-grade anti-inflammatory and antiviral food.

The Dragon Boat Festival is also called the 'Summer Festival'.

The weather is hot in summer and it is easy to get sick, so eating garlic to "detoxify" is very necessary.

After the garlic is cooked, it has a very soft and glutinous texture, with no pungent spicy taste at all, but instead a slightly silky texture.

However, despite being sandwiched between so many delicious foods, no one ate the boiled eggs.

So it became a toy, and everyone would take eggs and knock them against each other. Whoever's egg did not break would be recognized as the "Egg King".

Biannian eggs are also one of the favorite foods of people in the Central Plains.

Especially in summer, a dish of mixed nepeta and cucumber is good for relieving heat and serving as a good snack with wine.

The preserved eggs that Wang Shuping had pickled in advance were finally put to use on an important festival.

The food mentioned above is very easy to prepare. Before noon, only vegetable dumplings and sugar cakes were left to buy.

Wang Shuping has already prepared everything else.

While Lin Xiangdong and the children were getting up and eating rice dumplings, she went out and came to the breakfast stall closest to their home.

On weekdays, people who come to the stall to eat breakfast come and leave.

On the way out, Wang Shuping thought that today was a special day and there would probably be more people buying things.

But I didn’t expect there would be so many.

Before I even reached the stall, I could see people queuing from a distance.

The firewood under the huge oil pan was burning, and the reddish-brown oil in the pan kept boiling.

The auntie working at the counter next to her is always busy.

Even so, the chopped vegetables that had just been taken out of the pot were snatched away by the diners waiting behind before they even had time to drain the oil.

"Fresh mugwort, one cent a bunch." A stall selling mugwort not far from the breakfast stall was also very popular.

"Mugwort has a strong smell and can be hung at home to repel mosquitoes."

"It's Dragon Boat Festival, I must buy a bunch of mugwort and stick it on the door to make it feel festive."

Several customers were chatting while selecting mugwort.

In addition to mugwort, there are also many stalls selling "cattail" on the streets.

'Cattail' is made of colorful scraps of cloth and has a simple shape, obviously handmade.

Cattails of various colors and sizes have become ornaments. Putting them in your pockets can ward off evil spirits, poisons, insects and prevent diseases, attracting many citizens to stop and buy them.

Wang Shuping was not in the mood to buy these things at the moment. She watched the number of people in the queue continue to grow and wondered how long the queue would end.

She glanced into the frying pan.

Because there were so many waiting customers, the surface of the vegetable scraps, which were usually fried golden, crispy and fragrant on both sides, still showed some white spots that were not fried thoroughly.

Thinking that Lin Xiangdong and the children might have diarrhea after eating the leeks with undercooked stuffing.

If it wasn't so hot and it wasn't hard and sweaty to do it herself, she wouldn't have queued here.

So Wang Shuping thought for a moment, without wasting any time, bought a bunch of leeks on the roadside, and turned around and went home.

Before I got home, I saw Dabao running towards me in a hurry.

"Mom, my dad told you not to buy sugar cakes anymore. Fat grandma just came to our house and gave us a lot of them."

"Okay, that's great, I haven't bought it yet."

When the two got home, Aunt Fat had already left.

She looked at the bowl full of fried food and started thinking about what she should do to repay the favor.

"Fat grandma gave this back."

Dabao held up the sachet in his hand. There was a tiger pattern embroidered on the red triangular sachet.

"The tiger is the king of beasts. Wearing it on the Dragon Boat Festival can ward off evil spirits." After Lin Xiangdong said this, he took a piece of vegetable from the basin and brought it to Wang Shuping's mouth.

With a click.

"Wow, it's still hot."

After Wang Shuping bit into it, the aroma of the filling instantly filled her mouth: "Auntie Pang is really particular about food. It tastes much better than the fried ones outside."

"I...I returned the bracelet!" Erbao's grandmother said in a huff.

bracelet?

Wang Shuping didn't understand what he meant. She had never heard of the custom of giving bracelets during the Dragon Boat Festival.

Lin Xiangdong said with a smile: "What kind of bracelet? Isn't Aunt Pang's hometown in the east? Five-color threads are popular there..."

Only then did Wang Shuping see the five-colored threads entangled together on Erbao's chubby, white wrist, which was the same thickness throughout his body.

"What is this used for?" Wang Shuping asked.

"I don't know what it's called. It's just a string of white, purple, red, black and yellow threads tied together to block the invasion of poisonous substances from all directions."

Wang Shuping nodded. This statement reminded her of the small braid on the head of Erbao's friend Gao Yuan.

The meaning is similar.

The Dragon Boat Festival comes to an end on such a rich and colorful day.

In the evening, considering that the children had eaten too much, Lin Xiangdong suggested that the family of four go out for a walk after dinner to help digest the food.

Just before they were about to leave, Zhou Zheng hurried to the Lin family.

"Is Xiangdong at home?" Zhou Zheng shouted into the house from the gate.

"Hey, I'm here."

"Xiangdong, come out for a moment."

Usually he doesn't care about anything and never knocks on the door, just pushes it open and walks in.

Today's abnormal behavior made Wang Shuping in the room realize that something was wrong.

After seeing two people whispering at the door, Lin Xiangdong's eyes lit up again and again.

Her curiosity was suddenly aroused, but since he called Lin Xiangdong out to talk, he must want to do it behind her back.

She could only endure it silently and wait for Lin Xiangdong to come back and ask him in detail.

"Wife, I...I have something to do and I'll be back later."

"okay."

What kind of emergency? There's no time to even go back to the house to talk. Could it be...