Amorous Glances and Kitchen Romances

By Yi Bei

My great-grandma always had a love affair with Stewed Crab and Pork Meatballs. She longed for the dish when she was in her 70s and 80s, and even into her 90s.

M a n y y e a r s a g o, m y grandparents moved to Anhui Province for work. Being a native of Yangzhou and very attached to her hometown, Great-grandma did not really want to move away,yet she had no choice but to go with her son and daughter-in-law.She attended school when she was little, and so was literate.

Grandma had six children whom my great-grandma helped raise. Later, my grandpa died in a traffic accident and the two women lived together for decades.

Grandma was not exactly endowed with much of a gift for all things culinary, and only started learning to cook Anhui cuisine when she moved to the area.Great-grandma never cared much for her cooking, complaining that it was too greasy and salty.

For years, Stewed Crab and Pork Meatballs was a must at our family gatherings. We took turns playing host and making the dish to please Great-grandma, or to ease Grandma’s burden of having to slave over a hot stove making the dish. Yet our recipe could never satisfy her. More often than not, Great-grandma would only take a few bites and then gently put the bowl aside.

Her 90th birthday just so happened to coincide with Dragon Boat Festival. After dinner, she relaxed in her wicker chair while I sat beside her, playing with her wrinkled hands. Suddenly, a question popped into my head,“What kind of meatball is your favorite?” She squinted, and leaned comfortably on the back of the chair. Gazing at the blue sky,she replied leisurely in her thick Yangzhou accent.

“When I was fifteen, I was a tailor’s apprentice. A young man who was a few years older than me worked in a restaurant opposite to the shop I worked at asked me out several times, but I never gave him the time of day. But he was very persistent. The other girls in the shop advised him to bring me a bowl of Stewed Crab and Pork Meatballs if he really wanted to woo me. The young man said, ‘I cannot bring it to her, but I can make it for her if she comes to our kitchen.

I was innocent then and fond of eating so much that I couldn’t resist going with him to the kitchen.

I remember the middle of autumn when he went to pick out the small crabs, each weighing around 100 grams. He took them back to the kitchen, cooked them thoroughly and scooped the meat out of the female crabs. After that,he removed the unwanted parts,broke the crabs apart and plucked the meat out of the crab legs with his chopsticks.

老太总说想吃蟹粉狮子头。七十多岁的时候提，八十多岁提，到了九十岁了，还一直念叨。

老太是扬州人。当年姥爷姥姥因为工作原因来到安徽，她没办法，只好跟着儿子媳妇走。老太读过书，识字。

姥姥生了六个孩子，老太也就帮着带了六个。后来姥爷出车祸死了，老太跟着媳妇一起过，一过就是几十年。

姥姥原本不太会做菜，来到安徽后现学，结果大油大盐，老太一直不太喜欢。

多少年了，逢家族聚会，必做的一道菜便是蟹粉狮子头，家家轮流，谁也跑不掉，是为讨一下老太的欢心，也是帮姥姥解围。结果做来做去，老太大多尝几口，便放下筷子。

老太九十岁时逢端午。饭后，她坐在藤椅里，我坐在她旁边，有一搭没一搭地捏着她手背上的老皮。突然，我莫名其妙地问一句：到底什么样的狮子头才好？老太眼眯成一条缝，头还是靠在藤椅背上，眼前是赤白的天，她拖着扬州口音，慢慢吞吞地跟我说。

十五岁的时候，我在裁缝店里学做衣服。对面是个饭馆，里面有个小伙计，比我大个岁把，老来找，我不理，他还找。店里的小姊妹促狭，说你找秀英可以，得端一碗蟹粉狮子头来。小伙计说端是端不出来的，但可以请我去伙房，现场做。

我年轻，好吃，真去了。

我记得当时用的都是小螃蟹，一斤四五个，煮熟，然后开始拆蟹粉。是秋天，拣的都是母的，蟹黄又红又硬，盖子掀开，用筷子挑出来。然后去掉蟹百叶和蟹脐，掰成两半，筷子剔除蟹肉，腿上的肉用筷子通一下就可以。

肉是要用五花肉，肥的多一点，瘦的少一点，剁碎，石榴子大小。小伙子剁的时候很卖力，然后把肥的瘦的和蟹粉拌在一起，再杂七杂八用了些调料。

小伙子怕我嫌热，让我出去站，我说没关系，我就那么站着看。他从大锅里捞出老汤，然后用砂锅煮，砂锅里一定要放青菜。都弄好了，就炖在小火上。我们就在厨房后面的过道里说话。我要送他一条汗衫子，他不要，后来厨房里来了个人，他就叫我回去等会儿，过后直接来伙房吃就行。

我在裁衣服，听到有人叫我，差点裁坏。我丢下剪子，跑去吃狮子头。吃到嘴里就不见了，好软好鲜……后来打仗了，小伙计被抓丁当兵去了，不见了。

我再没吃过那么好吃的狮子头。

老太九十三岁时，我请来个扬州老家的朋友，厨艺很不错，特地为她做蟹粉狮子头。老太吃了，说不错不错。四个狮子头，她只吃了半个。

老太一直活到九十六岁，她到底没吃到那个味的蟹粉狮子头。

谁知道呢？那年秋天，那个人，那种滋味，像老电影一样永远定格，再也回不去。◆（摘自《怀旧食堂》石油工业出版社）

To make the dish the right way,the pork should be marbled, with more fat and less lean meat. It should be chopped into the size of pomegranate seeds. He worked very carefully blending the crab and pork together and finally adding a sprinkling of aromatic seasonings.

He asked me to wait outside the kitchen, saying it was too hot in the kitchen. But I refused. I stood there watching him as he worked his magic. He then scooped out the stew from a huge pot with a ladle, pouring it into a small clay pot filled with vegetables. After putting the other ingredients inside the pot, it needed a few hours to simmer. So we just sat there talking up a storm in the corridor behind the kitchen as we waited. I wanted to give him a vest as a gift, but he declined. Later a man came to the kitchen and he asked me to return to the shop and come back when it was ready.

I was cutting a cloth absentmindedly when I heard someone calling me. The cloth was almost ruined. I left my scissors behind and rushed into the kitchen to taste his masterpiece.

The meatballs were so soft and delicate; they just melted in my mouth. Soon after, the war broke out. The young man became a soldier and I have never heard from him again.

I have never eaten any meatballs as good as those ones since.”

I invited a friend from Yangzhou who was a good chef to make Great-grandma some Stewed Crab and Pork Meatballs for her 93rd birthday. Though she had high praise for the chef,complimenting him on the flavor,she finished only a half of one meatball out of the four she was given.

Great-grandma passed away at the age of 96. Eventually she never got a chance to taste again the meatballs like the ones that young man made for her that day.

That autumn, the young man and the taste were stuck in her mind like an old movie on a long theatrical run, but the flavor and the feeling were never to return again.◆

(From The Nostalgia Canteen,Petroleum Industry Press.Translation: Yu Lan)