Four Meals in the Mountains

Cen Ning, a male wife from the Cen family, marries Lu Yunchuan, a farmer from the neighboring village, becoming his husband. A few small mountain cottages, a few acres of farmland—their rural life revolves around the simple daily necessities of firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea. Four seasons a year, three meals a day. After the spring rain, they dig up a basket of bamboo shoots to cook a steaming, fragrant fresh bamboo shoot soup—milky broth, golden shoots, red cured meat, topped with fresh green scallions. In summer, a salty, oil-rich duck egg is sliced open on a stone table, its yolk creamy and sandy, enjoyed with light and refreshing lotus leaf porridge to ward off the summer heat. Mid-autumn calls for nourishing soups—a pot of rich and flavorful duck broth, boiled until bubbling, then sprinkled with goji berries. The tender meat falls off the bones at the slightest touch of chopsticks. In winter, snow covers the mountain peaks. Outside, icy winds howl, but inside, the hearth blazes. Amid the crackling of firewood, they savor a hearty bowl of rice with cured pork, rich and savory.