"Little kids, little kids, don't be greedy.
After Laba, it’s New Year.
Laba porridge, drink for days.
Li-li-la-la, twenty-third.
Twenty-third, sticky candy sticks.
Twenty-fourth, sweep the house.
Twenty-fifth, fry tofu.
Twenty-sixth, stew mutton.
Twenty-seventh, kill the rooster.
Twenty-eighth, let the dough rise.
Twenty-ninth, steam buns.
Thirtieth night, stay up all night.
First day of New Year, twist and turn."
As the days passed, the New Year drew closer. In the coastal areas, people did not eat wheat-based foods for the New Year. This was due to their diet, which relied mainly on rice. Some people did eat wheat products, but usually only as breakfast or snacks, like buns, dumplings, or noodles. However, these were not part of the New Year customs here. Rice remained the main staple.
Of course, traditional customs were still observed. They bought sticky candy, cleaned the house, and prepared vegetables, tofu, chicken, duck, fish, and meat. Although they did not make wheat dough, they used rice flour or glutinous rice flour to make dumplings, commonly known as tangyuan. The tangyuan from Yongshi City were famous nationwide. In Yaojiang City, they had a special twist: every dumpling contained a small piece of something inside. Locals called these dumplings tuanzi, symbolizing family reunion. The small piece inside represented "abundance and blessings for the family."
Fried meatballs were also prepared, as people all over China loved them. Although Xie Xinlian was pregnant, she still had to prepare for the New Year. In the past, when the family was poor, having some food was enough. Now, although they were not wealthy, they could afford to celebrate. As she and Zhu Shunyu said, "No matter how poor, we must celebrate the New Year." Besides, with both of them working, they could definitely manage. So, they bought what they needed.
Fortunately, they were not truly poor, and the New Year expenses were not too high. The food factory distributed goods. Zhu Shunyu received three black carp: two large ones weighing twelve or thirteen jin each, and one small one weighing three or four jin. He also got two silver carp, twenty jin of meat, one chicken, one duck, five jin of cake, five jin of white sugar, two jin of brown sugar, and two jin of red dates. With these, there was not much left to buy.
Vegetables were grown in their own garden. Winter vegetables were scarce, but they had arrowhead tubers and taro. They also had bok choy and yellow sprouts, plus homemade pickled vegetables and dried vegetables. This was quite a lot.
Xie Xinlian planned to make braised silver carp. She cut the fish into chunks, braised them with plenty of broth, and let it freeze overnight to make silver carp jelly. She killed one small black carp and one large black carp to make fish balls. The remaining fish was salted and hung under the eaves to dry into fish jerky, which could be steamed or pan-fried next year. She made braised pork with oil tofu using pork belly with skin, freezing it in a large basin like the silver carp jelly. The rest of the meat was made into meatballs and lion’s head meatballs. The chicken and duck were slaughtered. The chicken and duck blood were cooked with garlic sprouts. The offal was stewed with taro. The whole chicken and duck were steamed and would be chopped into small pieces and dipped in soy sauce when eaten.
Xie Xinlian also planned to make a large batch of mixed sauce. She diced lean meat, winter bamboo shoots, dried tofu, and mushrooms, then added soybean paste. This sauce was very appetizing with rice.
Zhu Yanyi also liked sauce. Xie Xinlian’s cooking was good, but Zhu Yanyi thought it would taste better with chili sauce. So she said, "Mom, if you chop chili peppers and put them in the sauce, it will taste better."
"How do you know that?" Xie Xinlian asked curiously.