还记得下午还常去牛奶棚吃蛋糕，冰激凌，害得我到现在还是蛋糕狂, 冰激凌狂. 有一次聚会我吃巧克力蛋糕,喜欢极了,一个老外问我: are you a chocolate-holic? 我这才真正考虑了一下, 想好以后告诉他,我是cakeholic。他不问我还没注意。坐游轮去阿拉斯加时，我的朋友对我说，我使他第一次见识了人类对于蛋糕的热爱。一点不言过其实，我永远喜欢蛋糕和冰激凌，耳边出现外婆常常提醒我的：别急，先吃蛋糕，再吃冰激凌，否则反过来蛋糕就没有味道了。
回复纵然平行的评论:
I totally agree.
Unfortunately I don't remember dinner rolls any more however I do remember at that time the steak were so thin and well done that when I had the authentic steak for the first time, I was shocked~~
I think we share the warm memory and the feelings going with it. thank you for your translation...
If we start a "soup or trick" activity, are you in?
盈袖2006 发表评论于
回复苏乡门地的评论:
阿苏,要不我们搞个soup or trick活动吧,大家明天都上汤,否则我们就trick她.......
你来起头?
“一代一代,就是这样传承。家永远都是这么温暖，家里有个女人，在厨房忙碌，冬天夏天，都有不同的菜肴，温暖家人的胃，也温暖家人的心。这些温暖永远印在一代一代的记忆里。” I like your well-worded ending sentences. They really summarized the essence about a good family, where tender and true affections and cares are often exerted and expressed by these seemingly ordinary women through the dishes they prepare for their love ones in daily life generation by generation. Although time has changed and season comes and goes, the art of culinary and the inspiration of love will never fade.
You are right, the dishes at the Red House were, in fact, not really that good at all. In addition, the place was dingy, and decoration was tasteless. But in 80s, that restaurant is only one of handful western styled restaurants available in that city, which actually was offering chinaized western dishes. Still, in that deserted era, it provided a sense of enlightenment for many of us as a window to look beyond China.
I forgot to mention to you that there was one item I also liked then in the Red House, its dinner rolls. The breads were baked on the premises, and they were fresh, warm and tasty with real butter that brought to the table.
Today, a parade of international restaurants open in that city, some of them I've visited are really authentic, offering extremely good quality of food and good prices too, :) yet there is nothing that would be able to bring me back the warmth, the taste, and the expectation rooted in my childhood. Maybe, this is about our life, bygone is bygone, what it really matters is present and future.
BTW, A Su is right, emoticons that she put at the end of each of three lines she wrote didn’t render on window operation system even though they work well on apple products.
So I am going to do your favor to translate her emoticons for you.
每样都 - Every dish looks really lovely!
阿袖周末 - A Xiou, please have a great weekend!
纵然 – Zong Ran, you should work at a gas station to pump gasoline for cars and trucks instead on the street! :)
Red House is the place we went regularly as well, my first memory of Russian Soup was from there. My grandparents used to live pretty western style life before the liberation. And going to Red House once a week is a way for my grandma to keep those nostaligic memories and teach us manners in a restaurant, maybe a lifestyle too.
She told me when I was one month old, my paternal grandparents held a big celebration in Red House. Actually during the first month, they sent their maids to my grandma's everyday with a dish (usually chicken soup) for my mum.
I have the same feeling as you about all this. Besides the afternoon visit to the "milk house" was impressive too. We will have cake and icecream. I still remember my granny always reminded me to have the cake fist so as to taste it better when I got too anxious about the icecream.
They absolutely were the highlights of my life back then.
As to the color, you are right, it should be a bit redder, I believe it is because I didn't use the tomato paste sauce which give more color trying to avoid the persevatives in the cans.
Well, it's so nice just talking about the old days when we were still little and well cared and taken care of......
With these soup recipes, I am well prepared to be a good granny, though it is still a bit far away~~~
Always nice to see your comments and know you are still dropping by sometimes Ad
陈默 发表评论于
哇，盈袖，你厨艺了得啊！
对了，天冷喝点热汤对女人尤其好。我明天也去采购点来做做。
纵然平行 发表评论于
Could you stop attempting us with all those goodies ? :)
Maybe it is because of weather (we have raining and snow right now as I am writing) or because of the exhaustion that resulting from running in bad weather, These soups and hotpots, particular luosongtang (Russian borscht soup) made me drool with strong trace of nostalgic sentiment. :(
Believe or not, I actually grew up on Russian borscht soup. In 80s, I was still a little boy. My father was working his degrees aboard, and my mom had to deal with the ever-changing hospital shifts. My life then was sort hanging on balance over missing my parents lots of time. Nevertheless, there was some good moments: To cheer me up, almost every Saturday like some kind of ritual, my grandpa and grandma would dress me up a little and brought me to a western restaurant named “the Red House” located on Huaihaizhonglu, which is not too far from our house, on sunny day we could walk to there. Sometimes my mom joined us if she was off that day. The menu offerings from the Red House was quite primitive even “shameful” if using today’s foodies’ standards. But then the dishes here were pretty good to me. My folks would almost always order beefsteak, French onion soup and some other side dishes; For me, I’d stick with Russian borscht soup and fried pork chop. In the season of late fall and winter, the hot Russian borscht soup full with the chucks of meat, tomato, cabbage and carrots not only delighted my palate and filled my stomach but warmed my whole body and mind. In retrospect, a couple of hours spent at the table of the restaurant and shared favorite food with love ones had inevitably laid the layers of fabrics for understanding this world – one cannot always get all one wants, but a simple plate of soup may light a day.
Nowadays, I wouldn’t visit the Red House any more. It seems that it won’t make that kind of Russian borscht soup which has embedded in my memory any more. It could be that my taste has been spoiled.
Apparently, from the photo A J makes good Russian borscht soup if it can be a bit redder. :)
