Childhood Memories of Sunflower Fields on a Cow's Back: The Sweet, Crispy Aroma of 'Mom's Flavor'

Being idle is also a kind of discovery. The rapeseed flowers in the home bloomed, and the fragrant aroma of rapeseed drifted, creating a feeling of joy when looking at the fields, as beautiful as poetry and paintings, like my mother's delicious food.

Seeing the beautiful rapeseed flowers naturally made my mood as cheerful as spring flowers, throwing off all worries and sorrows, and running around the rapeseed fields with unrestrained joy, wanting to pick them but unwilling to touch them, and then selfies appeared. The fragrance permeated the charm of spring, decorating the entire village in rural areas, and became the most beautiful flower roll.

Behind its fragrant aroma is the busy farming in September when crops are nearing harvest, and the busy farming after the winter wheat harvest. Whenever exams are approaching, we always have a few days off, returning home to occasionally help with farm work, and my parents usually ask me to copy texts and recite poems to avoid affecting my studies. They would go out to work, and I secretly ran to my parents' farmland to play, talking with my parents, catching crickets alone, and although I was scolded a little, I still enjoyed it because I didn't have to study boring texts.

I was playing and laughing, occasionally glancing at them to see if they were finished, only when they were finished could we go home together, and there would be delicious food to eat. Besides eating and playing, there was just this bit of childhood fun.

My parents were busy in the fields, and I was too young and couldn't help much at that time. When they finished plowing the entire land, the most happy moment was when they needed to level the plowed land, requiring people to stand on the millstone (a traditional Chinese tool for grinding soil) with their legs spread and the other end pulled by a person or ox,

At that time, there was only one ox in the family, so they didn't use animal-drawn carts, but my parents pulled it with ropes, and I sat on the millstone, at that time I found it very interesting. When my parents were tired and rested, I could stand up and move my body, throwing the soil clumps on the millstone, and then sitting back down. I went back and forth repeatedly, leveling the land, and after finishing the work in the field, my father would wipe the plough (a farming tool) and I would accompany the ox to go home, and my parents would put me on the ox's back to go home.

It was a hot noon, and after entering the house, my mother cleaned the dust from her body and began to make my favorite sugar oil cakes. Seeing her tired appearance, I could help her light the fire, and my mother kneaded the dough on the cutting board, which was already fermented the day before, with oil, eggs, and sugar inside, so the cakes tasted more crispy and fragrant.

#Eat Drink and Play in Qingyang# My mother started to knead the dough, turning the pile of dough into fist-sized balls, and then she used a rolling pin to roll them into round cakes, which were as beautiful as the moon. Interestingly, I also used a small iron scoop (a small kitchen utensil) to draw a cross and plus sign in the middle. My mother said this would make the cakes more cooked through, and she told me to knead the dough several more times, otherwise the surface of the dough would be dried and the oil cakes would be thick and not crispy.

The prepared oil cakes can be put into a pot to fry, and the temperature cannot be too high, otherwise they will burn.

The fragrance of rapeseed mixed with the aroma of oil cake dough drifted everywhere, and I couldn't help but want to eat while watching the oil cakes float and turn golden in the pot.

The first batch of oil cakes came out of the pot and were hot and fragrant…

The delicious oil cakes were placed in a dish and eaten immediately, too hot to hold, so I could only bite into them. I enjoyed two of them like this.

The other end also needed to add fire to prevent burning. Waiting for the sugar oil cakes to be finished, we could sit down and enjoy them together.

The remaining oil pot was used to stir-fry a simple green pepper dish, which was eaten with steamed buns.

The dish was also cooked, and the whole family gathered around eating oil cakes, mostly eating oil cakes and side dishes, eating steamed buns with stir-fried peppers was also a delicious way to eat.

Eating this food grown by ourselves was both satisfying and authentic, and smelling the aroma of oil cakes, you could almost see a beautiful scenery, familiar silhouettes, and the sound of children.

May he stay far away;

May the hometown be so peaceful;

May you always have the lingering flavor in your mouth.

Photo/Network Material Text/©-EGE