尹晨
隨着春节脚步临近,过年的气息在浙西山区城乡四处弥漫。传统的美食、浓浓的乡愁,召唤着在外打拼的儿女回家过年团聚。
打年糕、起糕干是武义特有的一种传统美食,过年“打年糕、起糕干”在民间有“年年高”的寓意,为来年立一个节节高的好兆头。每家农户起码做百斤大米年糕或糕干,通过浸泡、上蒸、翻蒸、打糕、揉挤、整形、搓粉、烘焙、点红,做成年糕或糕干,待晾干后作为送亲戚朋友的传统礼物。因而打年糕、起糕干便成了祝福亲朋好友年年登高的“好口彩”。
春节临近,笔者来到武义南唐食府,正遇上这里在起糕干:大伙有的在搓米粉;有的在炭火旁烘焙;一位师傅不停地在方形的木框里均匀撒芝麻、添米粉,挤压刮平,然后用铁尺划成一个个小方块,一切就绪再放进蒸笼蒸,顿时热气腾腾,香气四溢……“糕干作为武义的传统美食小吃,也是一种乡愁。自然许多上了年纪的人视糕干为对家乡的思念和记挂。”采访中,武义南唐食府负责人李建平如是说。正在帮南唐食府起糕干的金飞德接上了腔:对于糕干,60岁以上的人都有一种特殊的情怀,不光是它能勾起儿时记忆,同时也是一种美食文化。
在浙西山区一些地方,还有捏面塑、做棉花糖、剪窗花等很多习俗。新春佳节,这些具有深厚文化意蕴的传统习俗让人们依恋难以忘怀的乡愁。
(本文照片由作者拍摄)
Rice Cake Brings Back
Past Taste
By Yin Chen
, a rice cake, is a traditional delicacy for the Spring Festival in Wuyi, a rural county in the west of Zhejiang. In the past, every household made the cake out of 50 kilo rice. The crisp sesame cake used to be a very good gift for relatives and friends who came to visit upon the Spring Festival. For those in their sixties, is a memory of their childhood years.
The tradition was out for various reasons in the last few decades. Some bakeries and food processing businesses in Wuyi still make the cake toward the end of the year on the lunar calendar.
Toward the Spring Festival, a journalist visited Nantang Restaurant in Wuyi. A group of chefs were making the rice cake. They were engaged in different steps of the procedure. Some were making the rice into rice flour; some were baking the cake upon the charcoal oven. A chef scattered sesame upon the cake in a large wood frame.
“Gaogan is more than a traditional delicacy. It is all about nostalgia. Many people who are not living in Wuyi think of it as something that brings them back home,” said Li Jianping, manager of the restaurant.
Also popular in the mountains in the west of Zhejiang are many traditions such as dough sculpture, fluffy candy, paper-cuts for the Spring Festival.endprint