Apu: Miscellaneous thoughts about a party, eating, drinking, and having fun

Apu: Miscellaneous feelings about a party, eating, drinking, and having fun Editor’s note: It’s the festival, I’m full, I’m full, I’ve had enough drink, I feel like something is missing...

Editor’s note: It’s the festival, I’m full, I’m full, I’ve had enough drink, I feel like something is missing… Only now do I suddenly realize that this cultural flavor is missing. Teacher Chen Pu is often called an educator. What is education? It is to seize every minute and connect the actions in life with the impact on the next generation. Education is not only produced in the classroom, it should exist in every minute of life like the saying "Sneak into the night with the wind and moisten things silently". Thank you Teacher Chen Pu for the New Year gift to our Chinese friends!

Since the Mid-Autumn Festival and Thanksgiving Day two years ago, I have attended more than 20 gatherings of various sizes. Last weekend we celebrated the Lantern Festival, Valentine's Day, and President's Day. Thanks to old friends, we had three dinner parties in succession. It was so lively! When I went home in the evening, my thoughts never stopped because I drank more tea. So, I sat down in front of the computer and typed out some miscellaneous thoughts to share with my friends.

Food is the most important thing for people. Let’s talk about food first. Our Chinese dining table is absolutely dazzling, with all kinds of colors, flavors and tastes. During the festival, it’s even more of a feast. The sumptuous dishes carefully prepared by the host show the family's taste in food and cooking skills. The guests brought a variety of stir-fried and cold dishes, each showing their unique skills. Let’s talk about drinks. Moutai, Wuliangye, wine, soy milk, hot tea, juice, there are all kinds of varieties. More fun. Karaoke, poker, mahjong, and chatting all over the place are often not enough fun until midnight. Far away from my hometown, I am always busy with work, but during festivals, we are invited to gather together and have a great time together.

The Chinese nation has a glorious civilization history of more than four thousand years. The cultural content of "eating, drinking and having fun" alone is not simple.

> The eight major cuisines of Shandong, Guangdong, Sichuan, Hunan, Fujian, Zhejiang, Suzhou and Huizhou each lead the way, and there are countless specialties from various regions. It would be really eye-opening if you could put a small sign on each dish at a dinner party to write the name of the dish, the name of the chef, and even the characteristics. Recently, it is common to see cakes made by masters at banquets, which are full of color, flavor, shape and beauty. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a sign with a few original quotes? In recent years, there have been many Chinese planting melons and beans in front of and behind their houses. Wouldn’t it be interesting to label the original ecological products in your own backyard with labels such as “a certain Dazhai-style experimental field” and the names of poor, lower-middle-class and rich peasant landlords? There are also some connoisseurs who make homemade Sichuan-style bacon sausages that taste far better than those branded products bought from the store. I remember there was a Spring Festival party where we tasted a Sichuan-style fried bacon with garlic sprouts, which was called: "Spring comes back after the end of bacon." It's really full of color, flavor, shape and name, and has endless aftertaste. Home-grown garlic sprouts and homemade bacon, coupled with expert cooking, it is true that this dish should only be found in this place, and how many times in the world can you try it. Food must be appreciated by gourmets, and food must be unique.

The term “wine culture” has been around for a long time. Some dinners seemed to be wine exhibitions. In addition to the famous national wines, there are also famous foreign wines, and even more rare is the home-brewed green and red wine. However, it is common both at home and abroad to see people drinking and being persuaded to drink, leading to drunkenness. I really want to see and experience the authentic "wine culture" of our huge country. Maybe it is some kind of dream. Li Bai wrote hundreds of poems about drinking wine. Can people today write poems when they are drunk? When Wang Xizhi was "slightly drunk", he wrote the eternal masterpiece "Lanting Preface" with a few strokes of a brush. Raise a cup to invite the moon, drink in the meandering water. Zhang Dianhuai was drunk with grass, drunk with fists and pens, and drunk with eight immortals. Don't laugh at me when you are lying drunk on the battlefield, even if you exchange mink fur for wine, you will be worthy of being rich. Discussing heroes while cooking wine with green plums, listening to the clear singing of the orchestra when drunk. Put wine in the wind as a gift, and read the sword while drunk; wait, wait. From ancient times to the present, fine wine has accompanied countless literati and heroes vigorously, and it has also quietly brought down countless people of all kinds who are delighted by its fragrance. Privately, I feel that having a cultural atmosphere makes eating and drinking more enjoyable.

"Drink", in addition to wine, there are many praiseworthy drinks. At the dinner, the drinks showed "health quotient". In recent years, the best-selling high-sugar and high-calorie drinks on the market have basically faded out of Chinese family dinners. Instead, there are various healthy drinks, such as soy milk, peanut milk, milk tea, fruit pulp, vegetable juice, etc. Various homemade soft drinks are constantly being introduced, such as fresh juices made from citrus, watermelon, strawberry, jujube, mulberry, etc. The status of tea in Chinese culture is self-evident. On a cold night, guests come to drink tea and wine, and the beautiful plants and trees believe in the gods. After a big meal, ordering tea not only adds to the fun of digestion, but also adds a bit of elegance. The wine shop enjoys the bitter taste of Tuancha. It will be as good as it was before being drunk. Tea ceremony goes hand in hand with poetry, music, literature, history and philosophy, and complement each other. Drinking tea is different from drinking milk. How good it is to add some elegant flavor!

In addition to eating and drinking, there must be something to do at the dinner party. Starting at six o'clock, everyone loaded up a plate full of dishes, and it was like a storm. After half an hour, they started to hiccup. Although there is no such thing as a banquet in the world, how could the leftovers and messy dishes be the original intention of having a party dinner? Wouldn't it be boring to get up and go home as soon as eight o'clock arrives? Everyone is usually busy here and there, but it’s nice to finally get together and have a round, two rounds of eighty points or a few rounds of mahjong, chat and relax. There are some friends chatting together, the sea and the sky are bright. From the current political situation, stock and real estate conditions, various social trends, worldly feelings, and even daily necessities, talking about the world without restraint is considered a pleasure. The most taboo thing is that there are ten people at a table, only one or two listeners, and the rest are all tweeters. In the end, no one knew who was talking about what, making the conversation uninteresting and the listening uninteresting. It would be great if you could give yourself some opportunities to listen and learn, and give your knowledgeable friends some room to talk!

There are many tasteful ways to play with friends when gathering together. For example, some people improvise on musical instruments, suitable for both solo and ensemble, or sing some catchy songs they sang in their youth at karaoke. Adults and children all came to show off their skills, and it was like a small concert. There are also riddles made up of the names of friends attending the meeting and guessing on the spot. There are also pairs of couplets and poems, which are somewhat reminiscent of the Wei, Jin, Tang and Song Dynasties. Others chose more preferred topics, such as making delicious food, growing flowers and vegetables, children's education, leisure travel, sports and health, appreciating jade, photography and bird watching, calligraphy and painting, etc. Talk about historical events, discuss famous figures, point out the country, and criticize Fang Qiu. Some friends even took out travel photography, art photography, or new literary and artistic works to share their feelings and joy with everyone. Tao Taoran, quietly, everyone exchanges knowledge and experience, just like a small salon. Just play with taste.

Talking about eating, drinking and having fun at the party, we also have to talk about an important tradition of our nation – respecting the old and loving the young. Every time we get together, we always meet people coming together with their families, old and young, and they feel very cordial. Taking this opportunity to chat with the elderly and the children is a blessing. I always think about how great it would be if every gathering could allow the elderly to talk about their own experiences and cultural topics, even if it was about growing vegetables, cooking, and raising children. How great would it be if every gathering could get the children to stop playing video games and actively participate in themed activities, and also give them the opportunity to talk to everyone about the topics that matter most to them, and even allow them to organize some of the activities. The words and deeds of parents and elders have a huge impact on children, although they may not be visible for a while. The saplings you plant will bloom, and the seeds you sow will produce melons. If you can take the opportunity of a party to guess riddles, read poems, and couplets with the children, wouldn’t it provide the most direct environment for children’s traditional cultural education? The positive energy emitted by a cultured and tasteful gathering has a far-reaching impact. This is exactly what it means to enter the room of Zhilan and cultivate your temperament in a subtle way. This is the cultural inheritance of "good rain knows the season" and "moistens things silently".

>How can it be better to have fun alone than to have fun together? There is a difference between high and low happiness; happiness is even more enjoyable when it can be shared. To enjoy delicious food, you should know the selection of ingredients, the combination of nutrition, the balance of meat and vegetables, the control of food intake, the way and time of eating, your own needs, etc. To enjoy playing, you should know the choice of method, the matching of playmates, the balance between size and quantity, the grasp of time and space, self-cultivation, etc. In short, if the relationship between quality, quantity and time is generally corrected, it will be easy to achieve aesthetic pleasure. Share the fun with your friends, your elders, your children, and achieve a state where everyone has fun together. Promote it widely and make it a trend, leading the healthy development of the entire community.

Please prepare spiritual food as well as food in the future. The Year of the Horse is here, and I wish you all enjoy more elegant happiness in the new year! I also wish our Chinese community to add more family and friendship, and more harmony and beauty!

Homemade original ecological jam - "Clear Orange Jam"

"People's Notice": You don't need to take off your shoes when entering the door: You don't need to take off your shoes and hats to stand up; when making friends, you need to be true to your temperament. Horizontal comment: Reunion

Friends from the mountains gather together, guessing riddles and poems and couplets

A private cake specially made for Valentine's Day/Lantern Festival - red roses and deep love

Look at the night city with all the lights. The valley is hazy and the road is hazy. New and old friends are invited to have a toast together. The moon is in the cup, love is in the cup.

> Yaqu Qing talks about the style of Wei and Jin Dynasties. The wine is strong, and the excitement is strong. The host welcomes the guests and the two blend together. The banquet has an end, and the friendship has no end.

>Send a plum blossom. Answer Wang Nan.