* The sound of falling rain is often associated with a sad mood, leading to nightmares or a quiet pace of life.
However, when people fall into that “blue” state, the need to eat well, to sip a little wine in the hope of “using wine to break the wall of sadness” suddenly arises strongly.
During the rainy days of my youth, I was crazy about a passage describing the cuisine of two young men in the classic work “Sans Famille” by the French writer Hector Malot. It was the scene describing the scene where Remi and his friend Mattia visited their foster mother Barberin and made sandwiches together.
When Mother Barberin put the pan on the stove, took a knife and cut a slice of butter and pecked it into the hot pan, the butter melted immediately and made a sound like falling rain. The Italian boy - Mattia suddenly shouted: "It's singing, oh my! I must accompany it on the violin!" And then he took up his violin and gently and tenderly accompanied the song of the hot pan and the melting butter.
That scene was so warm and peaceful, even though the storms of life had not stopped crushing the “homeless” fates. The sound of butter in the kitchen of the poor foster mother that day was the bright colors of Remi, Mattia and Mother Barberin.
So from now on, whenever I hear the sizzling sound of fat in the pan, I think of that scene, especially on the days of heavy rain in summer, the drizzle of autumn or the drizzle of spring. They all make me crave something to eat, with the sound of raindrops, but warm and soothe my tired heart.
So, in such a cold weather, what is more delicious than a piece of hot fried spring rolls, what is more joyful and warm than sitting in a pan of boiling oil and water, making it crackle with rain, then dropping in small spring rolls the size of a thumb. Hanoi spring rolls are just that small, not as big and long as spring rolls or spring rolls.
Hanoi fried spring rolls also contain the sound of falling rain, especially when fried with lard extracted from pork loin. Hanoi dishes stir-fried with lard are much more delicious than stir-fried with vegetable oil, but for some reason, lard is “destroyed” because it is harmful to the heart.
Lard is a strange ingredient, because not only does it create a very attractive fatty aroma, much better than cooking oils, but the sound it makes is also very special, each different level of heat makes the lard make different sounds.
Lard is made from pork loin fat, thinly sliced and put into a hot pan. The heat will slowly squeeze out the lard, at first it will shimmer, then it will overflow until the pan of lard becomes a small pond of water in the pouring rain, the sound of boiling, crackling, bubbles continuously rising and then bursting, creating a bustling sound like in the nursery rhyme: "The rain makes bubbles flutter. Mom is getting married, who will I stay with?"
That lard has a strange aroma, adds flavor to the dish, and does not burn like cooking oil. That bowl of snow-white lard, once in the cupboard of every house, was the desire of everyone and the savior of a time when there was only mixed rice, old vegetables, and “ocean” soup.
Put a ladle of fat into a hot pan until the white fat melts into a colorless paste, then put the spring rolls in to fry. Depending on the temperature, fat bubbles begin to form, clinging to the spring rolls and emitting magical sounds of admiration. At first, the sound is like rain on a thatched roof, then occasionally rises to a high, shrill pitch.
When the cheering was bustling, the spring roll skin changed color, from white to light yellow, gradually becoming darker, along with the fragrant aroma that began to spread. The cheering became faster and faster because the fat bubbles appeared very quickly and then dissolved very quickly.
When the spring rolls are golden brown, the sound begins to be gentle, like the sound of rain in the forest at night. When the spring rolls are cooked, take them out of the pan, the sound of fat crackling again says a lingering farewell. On the surface of the spring rolls, tiny fat bubbles continue to burst, releasing an extremely seductive aroma.
** Sitting and sipping on those hot, fragrant, and strangely delicious fried spring rolls, my heart could not be still.
Memories rushed back like a galloping horse to the past, to a day in Quy Nhon with a dish of jumping shrimp pancakes with mustard sprouts.
Banh xeo is a pancake that imitates the sound of rain falling on a rusty corrugated iron roof. The wind blows in from the sea, throwing a handful of raindrops on the corrugated iron roof, creating a sound exactly like the sizzling sound of pouring a ladle of batter into a pan of hot oil. Sizzle, sizzle... the bustling sound, well from now on, let's call it banh xeo.
The ingredients for a jumping shrimp pancake are as simple as those for Barberin's sandwiches. Instead of flour kneaded with milk and eggs for the sandwiches, it is flour ground from last season's good rice, the rice that has just been soaked in water and then wet-ground in a stone mortar until it is very smooth and very soft.
Then, the flour is mixed with turmeric powder to get a golden yellow color, along with a little spice for flavor. The shrimp used to make the pancakes are live, jumping freshwater shrimp. Wash them, remove the heads and tails, and add the vegetable filling, including bean sprouts, onions, chopped green onions, mustard greens, and spicy green mustard sprouts.
In addition, raw vegetables such as thinly sliced cucumber, shredded green mango, thinly sliced sour star fruit are served to create a rich, fatty, sweet, sour, spicy, and cool taste. To make delicious, crispy banh xeo, Quy Nhon people often use a wood stove with stable heat and an aluminum or cast iron pan.
First, use a piece of lard to spread a thin layer evenly over the pan's surface. Only add the lard when it's hot.
shrimp in. The fresh shrimps jump around in the hot pan, quickly turning pink after a few stirs, then quickly pour in the pancake batter. This is the most interesting step.
The hot pan of fat met the wet dough and immediately made a lively "sizzling" sound, the fat splashed up like raindrops, causing the people sitting around to "get hit" with the pieces and make a "hiss" sound. When the sound suddenly stopped, the fragrant aroma of the dough rose up, so I quickly sprinkled bean sprouts, green onions, and onions on top, then covered the pot for about 3 minutes to cook it completely.
When the bottom of the pancake is golden brown, the edges are shrunk, and the bean sprouts are soft, it's done. Remove the pancake, roll it with rice paper, broccoli sprouts, green mustard leaves, mango, cucumber, and dip it in spicy chili and garlic fish sauce.
Biting into the crispy cake, I heard the pattering sound of rain again, but this time it was the sound of rain in my mouth, how delicious. Biting into another green chili was “absolutely divine”, my lips were smooth, my heart was warm, and I suddenly forgot the scene of the stormy and windy borderland. Then the scene changed again, the wild horse ran back to Yen Phu dike on a rainy day in late autumn.
A piece of bamboo blind covered an oil stove that was also boiling with hot oil, and slippery pieces of sweet potato and banana cakes were swaying. The vendor's hands quickly scooped a ladle of sticky rice flour mixed with regular rice and dropped it into the pan, creating a sizzling sound like the cheerful sound of rain.
When the dough has hardened into shape, place a piece of banana sliced lengthwise on top and fry until golden brown. Sweet potato cake is similar, but it is just sweet potato cut lengthwise and mixed with water and flour before frying. Along with shrimp cake, these three types of happy cakes are familiar to students.
In the cold rain, sitting next to a hot pan, eagerly watching the ladles of flour being poured in, eagerly waiting for the cake to be cooked, eagerly waiting to take it out and then put it in a piece of paper cut from a student's notebook still stained with purple ink, then eagerly biting, eagerly chewing, eagerly exclaiming because it's hot, because it's delicious... that is a simple piece of happiness.
