Special planning for Mother's Day (8): Articles "Sa Horse Riding" and "Sa Riding Bulls" in memory of my loving mother

Special Mother's Day Plan (8): Articles "Sa Horse Riding" and "Sa Riding Bulls" in memory of my loving mother Phoenix Zhang Zhaohong I remember when I was six or seven years old, I moved with my parents from the big city...

Phoenix City Zhang Zhaohong

I remember when I was six or seven, I moved with my parents from the big city to live in a small town surrounded by mountains and rivers. The environment there is quiet and the people are simple. Because his father is a doctor and his mother is a nurse, they have high income and good popularity. Woodcutters and fishermen often sell fresh fruits and live fish to our doorsteps, allowing us to choose carefully and at low prices. Sometimes the mother doesn't want it and can't evade it, so she has to say that the salary has not been paid yet, but they say they don't mind and they will figure it out together next time. There was a teahouse by the river, and my parents often took us to drink tea during holidays. I remember that my favorite foods were barbecued pork buns and squid, especially the squid, which was sweet and crispy and I ate it with relish every time. I had a chubby face at that time, so my mother nicknamed me "Wonton". Everyone says I had a happy childhood. By 1958, because of his overseas connections, my father, a senior medical official, was sent to a cadre farm for "rehabilitation." It took him a long time to return home, and he became dark and thin. The mother fell ill as a result, and the family's financial situation plummeted. The seventeen-year-old eldest sister had to drop out and go to the hospital to do odd jobs to help the family. At that time, the mainland had entered the era of great famine, and human tragedies were happening one after another. In hospitals, there were often tragic scenes of "men turning into women, and women turning into men." This meant that men had enlarged bellies due to edema, and women had prolapsed uteruses due to severe poverty. During that period, each person was rationed four taels of oil per month, which was bran oil. Occasionally, meat was rationed, but you had to queue up early. If you were late, it wouldn't be sold. Barbecued pork buns were once sold at the market, but later it was discovered that they were made from dead human flesh. There once was a time of "looking at the bread." I was hungry at that time, so I went to the teahouse counter to look at cakes. The barbecued pork buns and squid buns there had long since disappeared, replaced by various types of multigrain steamed buns, and "high-end cakes" made with rice bran or straw. Some of them cost six cents each, which was equivalent to a day's salary for the eldest sister, so every time I could only sip my saliva and leave reluctantly. I watched too much during the day, and at night I dreamed of my father taking me to a teahouse, but after eating for a long time, I couldn’t eat enough. I woke up even more hungry, so I cried and said to my mother: "Mom, I want to eat barbecued pork buns, and I want to eat squid." Mom hugged me and said, "Hey, dear, I can't buy barbecued pork now, and there is no oil at home..." I don't know when my mother stopped calling me "wontons". In fact, I look more like "noodles". I stopped crying because my mother's tears were also falling on my face. "Son," my mother said, "Mom will try to make a horse-drawn cake for you..."

After some time, my uncle in Hong Kong sent me a few pounds of peanut oil. Although the tax was heavy, my mother still took it back, and on my birthday, I really started making a horse-drawn cake. If there is no flour, I use sweet potato flour instead, add water and knead it into a dough, flatten it and cut it into small slices, then fry it until crispy, remove it and drain the oil completely, then mix "Cuban sugar" into syrup and pour it on top, and it becomes the "Sasa" that I have been looking forward to for a long time. Before the syrup was drained, I ate it hungrily. The taste was a hundred times better than the one in the teahouse. But as I ate it, I felt that the color and taste of this thing were different from the Sa Qi Niu in the teahouse, so I said to my mother: "Mom, isn't this a Sa Qi Niu? What is it?" When my mother saw that I was eating happily, she said, "This is not a Sa Qi Niu. It is a birthday gift from my mother. It's called 'Sa Qi Niu'." At that time, the mother and son laughed together, and they were rarely happy for a long time. Soon, due to poverty and illness, her mother unfortunately passed away. The days of losing mother's love are like losing the sun in the cold winter. The memories of my childhood are hard to look back on. Only the "Sa Qiu Niu" made by my mother still leaves me some sweet and warm memories. When I grew up, until I came to the United States, I did not try to make "Saqiu Niu" again, because I knew that "Saqiu Niu" would not be more delicious than "Saqiu Niu", and a person's feelings will change as the environment changes. A person will eat countless foods in his life, but probably not many can remain in his mind like an island. Food may be the same as things, as people often say: "The past can only be recalled." But I think we should have a deeper understanding and reflection on the era when we could only use "Sa riding a bull" instead of "Sa riding a horse". I will always miss the "Sa Riding Bull" that my mother made for me during those difficult years.

(This article was published in the supplement of "World Journal")