A few days ago in Saigon, when sitting together to celebrate Nguyen Linh Giang, a member of the Ho Chi Minh City Writers Association, launching his new book "Four Seasons of Memories" - Thanh Nien Publishing House, 2024 (his fourth book) - we journalists from Quang Tri and Quang Binh : Bui Phan Thao, Nguyen Linh Giang, Tran Yen, Nguyen Hong... told each other stories about our hometown, about our childhood and dear memories, about the products - dishes that entered our memories, in an exciting and emotional way.
Passing on love from the hearth of home
Obviously, “Four Seasons of Memories” is not only for journalist - writer Nguyen Linh Giang but also for journalists and Quang Tri people living far away from home. Journalism helps Nguyen Linh Giang travel to many places in his country, journalism helps him to observe thoroughly, take careful notes, so that when the essays are formed, there is a multi-dimensional reflection, deeply imbued with the love nurtured over the years and also the sediment of the depth of homeland culture, hundreds of years ago, from the time when the Cham people lived to the militiamen who followed Doan Quan Cong Nguyen Hoang to open up the land from 1558...
Cover of the book "Four Seasons of Memories"
And by coincidence, these past few days I have been reading the memoirs of Le Duc Duc, a reporter - a memoir in Cua Viet magazine - "Lessons taught me by my mother's fireside". Among the stories, I remember most when he told me about his mother cleaning pots and pans during the Doan Ngo festival. She told him: "When we cook every day, we use pots that have been washed after meals, but pots and pans used for offering to our ancestors are not the same as those used for our own food. They must be cleaned thoroughly before cooking."
That character of Quang Tri people is truly admirable. Like Le Duc Duc, by the fire of his hometown, Nguyen Linh Giang was passed on by his mother the love for his homeland, the secrets of delicious cooking and lessons of being a human being. Far from home, the dishes become a source of nostalgia, the spices entwine memories and enter the pages of books filled with love. For Nguyen Linh Giang: "Cuisine, therefore, is not only food but also a unique product of a land, it has a rich culture, echoing history".
I, from Mai Xa village, of course, appreciate the essay about the great-grandson because in my youth, I used to row a boat to rake for many months, from the village river to the Gia Do junction to the river branches to return in the afternoon with a full boat of great-grandson, but I only got a small amount of money, enough to buy rice for the whole family in the years 1978-1980; now, great-grandson has become a specialty, the output has gradually decreased but the price has increased...
“Four Seasons of Memories” still makes me emotional when I remember the twilight afternoons when I went out to catch mealybugs in the months after Tet, using tree branches to hit the willow branches or climbing up to catch them, grill them and eat them with young squash leaves.
Nguyen Linh Giang reminds me of the tobacco plants my father planted in our garden. When the plants grew up, the leaves were picked, strung, dried in the sun, dried in the dew, and then brought to the kitchen. My tobacco was the best in the village. Everyone in my village grew up smoking. I also came from my hometown, exposed to the rain and wind in the fields and rivers, so I knew how to smoke at the age of 13, but by the age of 50 I had quit completely...
Sweet potato shoots and Quang Tri's temperament
Reading “Four Seasons of Nostalgia”, those who are far from home will feel their hearts calm down, and old memories will suddenly return. Those who have lived in their hometown for many years, know how to work, swim, plow, plant rice, grow potatoes..., now far away from home, all become sparkling memories through each page of the book. Moreover, these are also essays that convey a lot of information and knowledge to readers, “speaking with evidence” when citing necessary data sources for a story or an issue.
The author has a lively writing style, is good at describing and wraps up the essay with a gentle conclusion. For the person who rakes the bamboo, it is “sweetly given, hard to keep”, toiling up and down the river so that the diners can have a delicious meal, a bowl of bamboo soup with sweet morning glory in the sunny Southern noon.
Journalist - Writer Nguyen Linh Giang
With the “feast” of brown planthoppers in the fields, Nguyen Linh Giang wrote: “The rich, sweet and savory flavors blend together in an indescribable pleasure. Not only does the grilled brown planthoppers smell delicious, but we also seem to be tasting the scent of the land, fields, villages, and countryside”...
Another plus point for Nguyen Linh Giang is that he incorporates many folk songs, riddles, dialects and poems (mostly by poet Ta Nghi Le) into each article: "Don't worry about the unsold noodles at Song market/ go to the market and eat as much as you want"; "Watering beans and planting potatoes on the third of August, we sit down and eat"; "The cuckoo calls, "Hey flying fish/ Does the girl miss you when she returns to her source?"; "Eight villagers roll a rock/ Two husbands carry spears and run after it" (the crab)... From there, the literary pages become more lively and charming, and readers can easily get absorbed in what he writes...
Many of the products and dishes in this book are also available in regions across the country, but there are also many products and dishes that are only available in Quang Tri province and a few other localities. Also sweet potatoes, but Quang Tri sandy sweet potatoes are delicious and rich, the way the potato shoots grow up, giving sweet and rich tubers is also a manifestation of the character of the people of this land: "The potato shoots fall down for several days, thanks to the wind and dew, on the third day they raise their heads and live. Sandy sweet potatoes have big tubers but thin skin, are very delicious to eat, and are never wormy"...
Some dishes such as wet rice cakes and tapioca dumplings are available from Nghe Tinh to Thua Thien Hue , but Phuong Lang wet rice cakes from Quang Tri are well-known. Chickens are delicious in many places, but Cua chicken (Cam Lo) which was once offered to the king must be the best; nem cho Sai, banh gai cho Thuan or Kim Long wine are the pride of the people of Quang Tri, and each page of Nguyen Linh Giang's writing, sometimes leisurely, sometimes exciting, makes the reader follow him in the flow of emotions of his homeland.
Deep as the earth
In particular, Nguyen Linh Giang's pen was successful when writing about Quang Tri's specialties, typical Quang Tri dishes, such as cool fish and cheo dishes of the Van Kieu people, about chili and the spicy eating style of Quang Tri people. The nem tree (also called "nhinh" or "hanh chives"), besides Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue, is also found in Quang Nam and some other provinces and cities, but in the three provinces and cities mentioned above, people use nem as a premium spice.
Dishes like cau vac bun (catfish porridge) cannot lack crushed and stewed nem tubers, and on top of the pot of porridge are chopped, fragrant nem leaves. The author wrote: “Eating a bowl of porridge is like enjoying a classic ballet, there is nothing more wonderful. That is when nem has spoken, nem has shown its sublime dance”...
Swallow, a rare product in the coastal countryside of Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue in salad dishes, just hold it and listen, as for flying fish sauce, which Quang Tri people are not familiar with the bright red color of the sauce, the color of the powder sprinkled with gold, and reading essays about fish sauce, who can help but evoke the aroma from the memories.
The homeland was once poor but rich in spirit, cultural depth and steadfast character, and kind-heartedness of the Quang Tri people. The author worries about the changes of the times, when the environment is negatively impacted, some products will be lost and only remain in memory.
The collection of essays writes a lot about dishes, which in the end, are also philosophies of life. Surely readers also understand the clay pot, cooking delicious dishes for the common people and for kings, returning to the cycle: "The pot, the clay pot, the journey from the time of a young girl with rosy cheeks, until old age, dark, cracked, the earth takes it back, the soil returns to the soil. Dust returns to dust. Who says the people are not as profound as the soil?"...
Bui Phan Thao
Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/lang-long-voi-bon-mua-thuong-nho-189242.htm
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