I think for every stranger, the feeling will be more profound. For me, no matter how distant and prosperous the metropolis is, as long as I return to my small village in my spare time, the taste system will immediately return to my childhood setting, and the delicacies are not as good as the simple tea and light rice given to me by this natural and hardworking family.
It was summer vacation, and I crossed the north and south of the motherland, and I returned to my familiar summer resort-Heilongjiang. I grew up in the countryside, and the flavor of childhood memories can reappear because my parents and relatives have never left this land. To say that the longest aftertaste in the taste buds in summer must be the taste of pickles.
The sauce of pickles has its own taste. Some people are only made up of soybeans and salt, while others are made up of soybeans, corn and salt. Because of the different time control, rolling intensity and seasoning configuration, the sauce has its own flavor. From the long preparation for fermentation in winter, to the tumbling and stirring in spring, to the rich sauce flavor in summer, time and hardworking people give pickles a unique taste in summer.
Dishes with sauces are incredible in the eyes of southerners. Colleagues in the south often say that you eat everything raw, which is terrible! I just laughed without saying a word. One side of the soil and water has nurtured one side of the people, and each place has formed its own unique flavor.
Because the perennial low temperature in Northeast China is not conducive to bacterial reproduction, we have the habit of eating vegetables raw. Especially in summer, the onion seeds, white rapeseed, fragrant rapeseed and raw rapeseed scattered on the ground can grow freely as long as the water content is appropriate, and they can be picked if they want to eat, so the dining tables in the northeast countryside are full in summer.
As for cucumbers and peppers, they need a little careful care. From raising seedlings in spring, slowly transplanting them into the yard, and then setting up a shed to pick flowers, waiting for them to grow up little by little. Our children love to pick a cucumber or a colorful "not spicy" pepper when adults are not looking. Adults usually wait until the cucumbers are big enough to dip them in the sauce, or cut them into shreds and mix them with the sauce. As for peppers, you must also eat the hottest morning pepper.
Onions, lettuce, Chinese cabbage, coriander, cucumber and pepper make up a big platter of pickles. Rich in sauces, eggplant sauce, egg sauce and minced meat sauce are also derived. Sauced vegetables are also added with big tofu and dried tofu. No matter how it changes, no matter how the conditions change, my love for pickles remains unchanged.
Exploring the countryside in Northeast China, for people living in this black land, the taste of nature and hometown is the most authentic. No matter how hurried you are, no matter how happy and sad you are, as long as you set foot on this land and your parents and relatives are still there, your childhood memories will go back in time and flow back to the tip of your tongue.