Memories of Meiwei Zie: A Blend of Bitterness, Sourness, and Spicy Flavors Contains a Subtle Sweetness
When people talk about the delicacies of Longjiang, many will think of the renowned 'Da Jiujia' and the well-loved 'Volcanic Hot Spring'. But I can't help but think of Longjiang Sazhie. I've lost track of when I first ate Sazhie; it seems to have always been a part of my recipe since I was a child. Whether it's childhood memories or youthful recollections, it has always been there with its flavor – vegetables mixed with a hint of fragrance, a blend of bitterness, sourness, and spiciness, containing a subtle sweetness that brings back my entire youth.
A bowl of concentrated dipping sauce – chives in, fennel in, and willow in mixed together exude a unique aroma, red chili adds a fiery red color, crushed sesame and peanuts scattered in the bowl, along with a few lemon slices or spoonfuls of 'bitter water', can create different fragrances. When you take a bite of the long, thin rice noodles with a dab of the dipping sauce, it's as if you can taste the five flavors of life. As I've grown older, I've come to have an inexplicable fondness for Longjiang Sazhie – the rich and plump fragrance, the aged flavor of five-flavor blending, and the fascinating and uncommon aroma have long remained in my mind, causing me to always miss home to eat a bowl of Longjiang Sazhie. If there's no holiday to eat it, I always feel like I've wasted a holiday.
Perhaps it's a guiding force, after graduation I came to work in the Longjiang side of Wugongxiang, I could eat authentic Longjiang Sazhie at any time. But Longjiang Sazhie seems always to be unappetizing. Every time I taste it, I can taste different feelings. I don't know the origin of Longjiang Sazhie, but I always feel that Longjiang Sazhie is mother's expression of thoughts injected into food, like a mother's unspoken concern for her children, also like Longjiang Dai women's life attitude, it's also like the aftertaste of life experienced after many years. Longjiang Sazhie is actually the same flavor, but it will bring out different feelings in different ages. When I was young, I liked its sour and spicy taste; when I was young, I missed it as a carrier of childhood. When I am old, I may like its sour, spicy, numb, bitter, and sweet – just like life's experiences, there are difficulties and bitterness, but also joy and happiness.
Now Longjiang Sazhie has become renowned, I often see Dai women in Longjiang wearing pink headscarves, wearing golden, pink, or red disk-shaped tops, plus a black tube skirt and a Dai embroidery skirt with a dark-colored apron busy making Longjiang Sazhie... so I can't help but order a bowl of Sazhie, tasting the flavor of hometown in a foreign street.
After work, there aren't many opportunities to go out; on the road home, there are Longjiang Sazhie everywhere, but still seeing it, I can't help but eat a bite to feel complete. For 20 years, whenever I meet friends and partners, there is always a sentence – 'eat Sazhie.' I don't know what Sazhie represents to others, but for me, Longjiang Sazhie is the life link that has run through all my youth.
