Areca leaf wrapped pork, old taste of Tet

Pork bone soup.

In the middle of the city during the days of December, people and vehicles are bustling on the streets, they are shopping, taking advantage of every hour to prepare for the three days of Tet. Everyone wants to buy a lot of food for storage, especially pork from the countryside to bring to the city.

In that hustle and bustle, I miss my mother, miss the poor village in the days before Tet. Especially miss the salted pork wrapped in areca leaves hanging over the family fire, for the whole family to eat during Tet.

If Tet came without the fragrant slices of meat wrapped in areca leaves on the kitchen stove, to eat gradually until the full moon of January, then the Tet of our childhood would be so tasteless.

Near Tet, many families in the countryside slaughter pigs together and share the meat. Photo: PHUONG THAO

In my childhood memories, my mother had been preparing for Tet since the middle of the tenth lunar month. As scheduled, after the day of the grave-cleaning ceremony in my hometown, the families in my neighborhood would pool money to put down a deposit on a piggy bank from another family in the neighborhood.

Pigs are fed sweet potato leaves cooked with bran and banana trees, so their meat is very fragrant. Usually, four people share a pig, each family gets one leg. The richer family with more people gets two legs.

Each part has both bone and meat and pig's feet. On Tet holiday, my mother often cooks green banana soup with bone and pig's feet. This grape-colored banana soup, a dish from Quang Nam, is not known or eaten everywhere.

Tet in the countryside. Photo: NGUYEN DIEN NGOC

After dividing the meat, the whole village sat around a round tray, busy cooking a pot of porridge with offal from a makeshift stove made of bricks.

The pot of porridge was steaming and boiling beside the fire fueled by huge logs and glowing red coals. The sisters' mothers prepared it for the whole neighborhood to eat together happily and warmly.

As for the pork, my mother brought it home and cut it into pieces about the length of a hand or the size of two adult fingers, marinated it with spices, then put it in areca leaves, tied it up and hung it on the rack. Thus, the flavor of Tet filled my family's kitchen during the days before Tet.

How many springs have passed in my life, yet the taste of boiled pork taken from the areca leaf still lingers in my mind. At every meal, my mother opens the bundle of meat, takes one or two pieces, washes them, season them, and puts them in the pot to boil.

Just by putting the meat into the pot of boiling water, I could smell the aroma spreading throughout the family kitchen. I still remember clearly the pink color of the meat taken out from the areca spathe, after being boiled, it still had that special light pink color.

The thinly sliced ​​meat on the plate looked as if it was still alive with a very unique, indescribable color. The aroma seemed to be concentrated in the meat wrapped in areca leaves that my mother made that day, unforgettable.

Pots of fragrant porridge steam from the makeshift kitchen. Photo: PHUONG THAO

We grew up, left the village for the city, and entered the world. Each of us went our separate ways. For me, the images that remain in my childhood memories are still many, but the image of my mother sitting diligently marinating meat and carefully wrapping each piece of meat so that we could have delicious meals marinated with the flavor of home is one of the memories that will remain forever deep in my childhood.

I miss my mother and crave to eat the poor but loving dish of meat wrapped in areca leaves of my family during the three days of Tet. The simple, rustic flavor of this dish carries the character and rustic image of the origin of the people of my hometown Quang since time immemorial...

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/thit-heo-bo-mo-cau-vi-xua-tet-cu-3148232.html