Beach in the middle of my hometown

Away from my hometown, I no longer go catching mussels like the old days. Every time I come back, I can’t help but look at Bai Giua, seeing that Bai Giua is only a small area after the flood discharge, the trees are blooming, I see that the old sand has been exploited almost by people, and I see the river trying to make up for it. Can’t hold back the tears…

In the past, I don’t know when, when passing my house, the Chay River was split in two. The other half is straight, meek and smooth, creating an alluvial side, this side is curved, curvaceous, hooked to the mainland, forming a landslide. In the middle of the murky stream is Bai Giua, serenely rocky, serenely sandy, at that time, it was paradise, the residence of many storks, dadas, and shrimps. The beginning of the beach is rapids. The rock outstretched its chest to protect the gentle waist, carrying on its back trees, sands, crabs and mussels. From time to time, every time the hydroelectric power plant closes all three machines for repair, the river will dry up, only close to the protrusions, slippery mosses and boulders covered with shells and shells. mussels. At that time, we, the buffalo children, the butterfly children, the mothers, the sisters, the young teachers, the boarding students of the high school, often used to rush to call each other when the water was dry. pounce on. Daughters are baskets, pot people, eager to trick shrimp, catch crabs, scratch mussels. The son ignores the squealing, clattering, flapping wings of his parents, searching for eggs. Nature is so clever for the animals to camouflage and protect themselves. Bird eggs are the color of reed, while shrimp and crabs live in the waterholes, each child wears the same color of the rock. But it’s nothing! Just by looking deeply into the hollows of trees, bushes, crouching, looking closely at the clear water, you can see through the nests of eggs, the vibrating beards, the mechanical claws. Eggs are in the pocket. Shrimp then put the mouth of the basket into the flooded rock cavity, spread their hands in the shape of a bow, and slowly closed. The fan-shaped tails appeared, receded, receded, and then “Smashed” the whole shrimp body to snap into the mouth of the basket. One lift! In the basket, there are some three or four squishy shrimp! Catching crabs is not difficult, just gently put the small stones lying on top of each other in the heart of the pool to the side, waiting for the sand to settle down to see the bulging eyes. Trick your fingers into the two shells, grab them, and then raise all eight legs and two claws out of the water. Those shrimp and crabs put them in pots, break a few branches and leaves to cover them so that they don’t jump out, at night they will be red on the frugal tray of rice in each house, floating on the bowl of sweet jute vegetable soup, or soon after, it will be yellow, bare, and fall off on the coals of fire, in the bamboo tongs, blackening our young lips. Those eggs, put in a fresh bamboo tube with one end, add a little river water, set up next to the fire. Xo Xo… that’s it! The food of young buffaloes is often delicious and makes people remember for a long time! The sand spreads, hugs the body of the beach, stretches to the back and sinks under the pool. That place, I don’t know if it’s a bomb crater, but even though it has been deposited for a long time, even though the river has dried up, it is still deep and green. My children, being reminded by their mothers, watch out for anyone who dares to come close! Under those sand dunes, we caught mussels. The mussel catcher is a basket and a pot. Children carry small pots, big ones carry big pots. I, although tiny, always carry a large Soviet pot with me (once, when the factory flushed, because I was trying to keep the pot from drifting, I was almost swept into the hole) . Lazy mussels refuse to enter the cave to live, they live right under the sand. Well, old mussels, cavalier mussels, grandmother mussels, grandson mussels, and mussels are all equally lazy, so, just after a swipe of a hand in the sand, a series of belly-swallows will be exposed. If you like, pick up the water and pick it up, so you will get many big mussels! If you don’t like it, treat it, treat it, both big and small! Treating mussels is also simple: grab a basket of sand, bring it to a deep water, swirl it, shake it a few times, the sand will pass through the basket, leaving only the mussels, and put them in the pot. Done! Because it’s so easy to catch, all of us are greedy and like it. But if you like it, you’ll love it, if you like it, you’ll catch it, too much, too heavy, who can bring it back! But if you bring it back, then get someone to sell it, and when you sell it, no one will buy it! Therefore, there are times when we catch and release, release and catch again tomorrow, as a hobby of poor children. Saying not many people buy it is because every house can have a kid to catch! But if you have to buy it (although it’s very cheap, now it’s only from 8 to 10 thousand VND per kilogram, but the price in the past I don’t remember), then buying mussels back must be treated, cooked, smart, but not smart. It’s time to pick up and pick up, hunchback to get a bowl of soup, a bowl of porridge, then eat another dish quickly, to have time to rest, and still work tomorrow! Talking about making mussels, cooking mussels! The house is right next to the beach, and the big sisters often follow me, so whenever the water dries up, I go to catch mussels. Parents are busy, they can do it themselves! Under the guidance of my mother, after a few times of bewildered, while treating and pouring a few pots of mussels, my sisters and I became masters of mussel processing, indeed! Hey, baby mussels are thin-mouthed, easy to break, and easily scratched, so every time you go to catch them, you need to bring a big basket to treat big mussels. Once you’re done, you should wash the mussels right in the river so you don’t have to go home to draw water. Rub it hard, like washing peanuts. Thoroughly rub many times to make the mussel shells clean and shiny, then the pot of boiling water will be clear and fresh! Wash mussels, put in a large pot, pour water like cooking rice (as high as a knuckle), bring to a boil. When the pot of mussels starts to foam, put in a pinch of granulated salt, use chopsticks to stir vigorously and quickly with high heat. When mussels are hot, open their mouth, meet salt, add high heat, stir vigorously, meat will shrink, leave the shell and fall to the bottom of the pot. If you forget to slow down at this moment, you will have to sit down and pick up each mussel, your back will be tired! The splintering only takes a few minutes. Lower the pot, put a small strainer on the mouth of another pot, pour in the mussels. Water will trickle down. Decant this water to get really clear water, if you cook porridge, put it in a pressure cooker, drop the cleaned rice (remember to add a pinch of sticky rice to make it fragrant), boil until smoldering and then let it smolder for fifteen minutes, then turn off the heat. If cooking soup, just boil some tomatoes, pour in mussels, wait for it to boil, add the prepared mussels (only for the mussels at this moment, if you add them from the beginning, the soup will be elegant), add onions smell, eat hot is done. The mussels are rubbed, squeezed hard to remove all the meat from the shell, and then don’t like a gravel. The mussel meat is lighter than the shell, floats, collects in a corner, picks it up, and puts it in a small bowl. Rub the mussel meat to break the intestines with a sieve, wash, squeeze out the water, fry the onions, add the mussel intestines, season with a little fish sauce, pepper, and a little herbs, flip the edges, that’s the mussel filling. Wait for the pressure in the pot to run out, drop in the mussels and herbs (fresh onions, Chinese herbs, finely chopped coriander) in, season with some spices, scoop into the bowl, add a few slices of bamboo shoots and chili, sprinkle hot pepper on top. .. I once told someone I love about mussel porridge. I once taught him to cook mussel porridge. There was also a time when I sent a picture of a bowl of cooked mussel porridge to my very dear uncle. Every time, the aftertaste of mussel porridge remains on the lips and in the eyes. Away from my hometown, I no longer go catching mussels like the old days. Every time I come back, I can’t help but look at Bai Giua, seeing that Bai Giua is only a small area after the flood discharge, the trees are blooming, I see that the old sand has been exploited almost by people, and I look at the river trying to make up for it. Can’t hold back the tears…