[Food Essay] "Meat in Hand" - Wang Zengqi
Thread Content
Mongolians have been accustomed to eating mutton since childhood, and they will panic if they can't eat mutton for a few days. Mongolian dancer Siqin Gaowa (there are many Mongolian women named Siqin Gaowa, as common as Narenhua) came to Beijing with her daughter. Her daughter is not used to Beijing food. We invited her to have dinner at Jinyang Restaurant. This little girl was not interested in braised sea cucumbers, crispy fish, etc. I asked her what she wanted to eat, “Lamb! ”I called the waiter over and asked them if they had mutton here. They said they only had mutton in sauce. “Sauced mutton is also ok, is it salty? ”“Not salty. ”What came up was a plate of goat meat. The little girl ate the entire plate of sheep and goat seeds with her mouth open. ask her: “Is it delicious or not? ”“tasty! ”her mother said: “This kid! What a Mongolian! She had been in Beijing for a few days and said it was "delicious" for the first time. ” Mongolians are very hospitable. Some people roamed on the grassland on horseback, carrying nothing but a leg of lamb on their backs. At sunset and dusk, I saw a yurt and dismounted to stay. The master untied the leg of the lamb and then killed the lamb. After eating and drinking, we stayed in the yurt with the host family and had a good sleep. The next day the host sent the guest off and put a new leg of lamb on his back. This man walked a long circle on the grassland, and when he returned home he still carried a leg of lamb, but he changed it countless times.
“During the period when the Gang of Four was raging, we were ordered by Jiang Qing to write a script and collect materials, and went to Inner Mongolia. I learned two sentences of Mongolian in Inner Mongolia. Mongolian comrades said that if you can say these two sentences, you will not be hungry. One sentence is "not up to one" - want to eat ； One sentence is "Mohayi's" - to eat meat. “"Moha" generally refers to all meat, especially mutton (there is a very special opera in Yuan Dynasty, which is sung in Chinese and Mongolian). One of the sentences is "Moha swallows the whole catty", which means eating the mutton by the whole catty). Sure enough, I traveled a lot from Yikezhao League to Hulunbuir Prairie and ate meat many times. August and September are the most beautiful times for the grassland. After a summer of rain, the grass has grown and the grassland is green. Age has grown, and gray-backed grass has grown. Age and gray-backed grass are the favorite grasses of livestock. The grass on the grassland looks like grass to us, but the herdsmen know each type of grass by name. There are wild onions and wild leeks in the grass (the Mongolians say that the mutton there is not muttony because the sheep eat the wild onions and get rid of the taste themselves). There are colorful flowers blooming everywhere. The sheep were all fat now.
Writers and cadres in Inner Mongolia love to go to the grasslands at this time to experience life and investigate work, also to "post autumn fat". After entering the yurt, we drank milk tea first. The method of making milk tea in Inner Mongolia is relatively simple and not as troublesome as the butter tea in Tibet. Just put a pot of water in an iron pot. After the water boils, grab a handful of tea leaves, boil a few times, add milk, put a handful of salt, and you have it. I don’t think it has any special characteristics, but it can become addictive if you get used to it (Mongolians can’t live without milk tea for a day). Many people don’t eat when they get up early and drink two bowls of milk tea before going to herd sheep). A table of milk food was set up, including milk skin, cream (thin), milk dregs... and moon cakes and peach cakes. The guests were drinking milk tea, while a large pot had been set up outside the yurt, water was poured on it, and the sheep were being killed. The Mongols killed sheep very quickly. They did not stab the sheep to death with a knife, but cut off the sheep's aorta. The sheep died without struggling. Immediately cut open and peel the skin, using only a folding knife slightly larger than a fruit knife. After a while, the sheepskin was peeled off and carried to a distance to dry in the sun. Look at the scene where the sheep was killed. Not even a drop of blood was spilled, and the grass was still clean.
“"Hand-hand meat" refers to mutton boiled in boiled water and cut into large pieces. Holding a large piece of meat with one hand, he cut it and ate it himself with a Mongolian knife. Mongolians are really good at cutting meat with knives. When a piece of meat is finished, not even a shred of meat is left on the bones. If a child is not cleanly cut, his mother will say: “Eat clean and don't be like that cadre! ”Cadres are not as careful as herdsmen when it comes to eating meat, and they may not be good at using knives. Herdsmen have an almost religious respect for milk and meat, just like Han farmers have respect for grain. It is a sin to waste it. In the past, no condiments were prepared when eating hand-made meat. At most, you would put a bowl of salt water for dipping. Now there are some condiments, soy sauce, chive flowers and the like. Because it is freshly killed, cooked and eaten, it is very fresh and tender. Among the various ways of mutton I have eaten in my life, I think hand-made mutton is the best. If I were asked to give it a review, I would say it without hesitation: Unparalleled!
To eat meat, you usually have to drink alcohol. Mongolians love to drink and will get drunk almost every time they drink. In Hohhot, I heard a Han cadre from Tumut Banner say, "When a camel sees willow, a Mongolian sees wine." It means that camels love to eat willow. I thought this was a modern saying. I occasionally read a book of notes written by people from the Song Dynasty, and saw the saying "Camels see willows, Mongolians see wine." It can be seen that this proverb existed in the Song Dynasty and has been circulated for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, I forgot the title of this notebook. The Mongolians in the Song Dynasty drank probably the kind of boiled wine that Wu Song drank, not liquor - distilled liquor. Liquor was introduced from Arabia during the Yuan Dynasty.
To eat meat, you usually have to drink alcohol. Mongolians love to drink and will get drunk almost every time they drink. In Hohhot, I heard a Han cadre from Tumut Banner say, "When a camel sees willow, a Mongolian sees wine." It means that camels love to eat willow. I thought this was a modern saying. I occasionally read a book of notes written by people from the Song Dynasty, and saw the saying "Camels see willows, Mongolians see wine." It can be seen that this proverb existed in the Song Dynasty and has been circulated for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, I forgot the title of this notebook. The Mongolians in the Song Dynasty drank probably the kind of boiled wine that Wu Song drank, not liquor - distilled liquor. Liquor was introduced from Arabia during the Yuan Dynasty.
I ate "Yang Beizi" once in Damao Banner, which is boiled whole sheep. The whole lamb is cooked in a large pot. It is said that Mongolians only cook it for 30 minutes. Because we are Han Chinese and are afraid of eating it because it is too raw, we cook it for 15 minutes longer. The sheep was trimmed, the four hooves were chopped off, and it was laid on a large copper plate. The sheep's head has been cut off, but is still placed on the cavity at the back of the neck, and is removed after serving. There are rules for eating lamb clams. First, the host and guest will cut off two pieces of meat from the back of the neck (equivalent to what Beijingers call the "upper brain") and place it crosswise on the shoulders and back. Then other guests will use the knife to choose the parts they like to eat. The lamb scallops are so tender that when you cut them with a knife, blood will ooze out. Some of the screenwriters and directors who came with me were intimidated, some just tasted it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The more tender the lamb, the better. Mongolians believe that mutton that has been cooked for a long time is difficult to digest. It is true. I ate a bellyful of half-rare mutton without incident.
I ate "Yang Beizi" once in Damao Banner, which is boiled whole sheep. The whole lamb is cooked in a large pot. It is said that Mongolians only cook it for 30 minutes. Because we are Han Chinese and are afraid of eating it because it is too raw, we cook it for 15 minutes longer. The sheep was trimmed, the four hooves were chopped off, and it was laid on a large copper plate. The sheep's head has been cut off, but is still placed on the cavity at the back of the neck, and is removed after serving. There are rules for eating lamb clams. First, the host and guest will cut off two pieces of meat from the back of the neck (equivalent to what Beijingers call the "upper brain") and place it crosswise on the shoulders and back. Then other guests will use the knife to choose the parts they like to eat. The lamb scallops are so tender that when you cut them with a knife, blood will ooze out. Some of the screenwriters and directors who came with me were intimidated, some just tasted it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The more tender the lamb, the better. Mongolians believe that mutton that has been cooked for a long time is difficult to digest. It is true. I ate a bellyful of half-rare mutton without incident.
I ate "Yang Beizi" once in Damao Banner, which is boiled whole sheep. The whole lamb is cooked in a large pot. It is said that Mongolians only cook it for 30 minutes. Because we are Han Chinese and are afraid of eating it because it is too raw, we cook it for 15 minutes longer. The sheep was trimmed, the four hooves were chopped off, and it was laid on a large copper plate. The sheep's head has been cut off, but is still placed on the cavity at the back of the neck, and is removed after serving. There are rules for eating lamb clams. First, the host and guest will cut off two pieces of meat from the back of the neck (equivalent to what Beijingers call the "upper brain") and place it crosswise on the shoulders and back. Then other guests will use the knife to choose the parts they like to eat. The lamb scallops are so tender that when you cut them with a knife, blood will ooze out. Some of the screenwriters and directors who came with me were intimidated, some just tasted it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The more tender the lamb, the better. Mongolians believe that mutton that has been cooked for a long time is difficult to digest. It is true. I ate a bellyful of half-rare mutton without incident.
Mongolians really eat meat. Two secretaries from Hailar went to Donglaishun, Beijing, to eat hotpot mutton. They ordered fourteen plates of meat. The waiter asked: “Can you finish eating? ”a secretary said: “We were in Hulunbuir a few days ago, and five people ate one sheep! ” Mongolians don’t just eat meat from their hands, they also eat it in various ways. The roasted lamb leg in Hohhot is rotten, tender, fresh and delicious. I especially like the steamed lamb. I ate "Sheep Tail" once in a small restaurant in Siziwang Banner. I have eaten shredded yam, shredded potatoes, shredded apples, and shredded bananas, but I have never heard that sheep tails can be shredded. There is a thin crispy shell on the outside, and when you bite it, there seems to be nothing inside, just a pack of water, and the sheep tail oil has melted. This thing is only suitable for Buddha, not for humans to eat because it is too delicious!
Mongolians eat mutton as a way of life.