A Memory of Childhood Mi Tang
A honeyed taste collocate with the smell of parched rice and the color of peanut; No, more yellow than any peanut I have ever see; If you smell carefully, you even can feel the odour of the sunshine; Besides, the taste of it is not only sweet but also crisp and sticky which gives you a feeling of eating molasses. However, when you eat it you should ask someone to look after you, because you can’t stop yourself eating it after you taste a bit of it. Do you know what is it? Yes, it is Mi Tang my favorite food in my hometown and I think it is the most interesting and delicious snack I have ever eat.
The ingredient of Mi Tang are sticky rice, peanut, malt sugar, sesame and flour. I always help my grandmother to make Mi Tang and the process is really fun and interesting. However, you should be careful of the ingredient you put, because the percent of different ingredient affects the taste of Mi Tang a lot. If you put too much sugar or too less sticky rice; The Mi Tang will be too sweet or too hard to crew. There are four steps for making Mi Tang. First, You need to lie the sticky rice under the sun and let them become dry and hard. I am helpless in this process, but I always beg my grandma to give me a ball of sticky rice eat it bit by bit and watching her bask the sticky rice on the basket. After several days the rice will become crisp and fragrant. Then my grandma starts to fry the rice; She puts small sands on the bottom of the pan when the sand starts to get she pour in the rice and fry them till they become a form of pop rice and keep them in a big gray iron box. I still remember the days which I can’t wait to eat Mi Tang, so I steal the rice out of the box and eat them with chicken soup which taste awesome! Third step, grandma pours the melt sugar into the pan and boil it for 3 hours. I sit besides her to help her to grab the equipment for cooking and stir the sugar and sticky rice. After that we put the mixture to a long rectangle box for the mixture to cool down. Finally cut the Mi Tang slide by slide and it is ready to eat. There are three types of Mi Tang which depends on the amount of peanuts, sesames and melt sugar your put. My favorite one is the sesame one which is black and white with a little peanuts on it. I like the smell of sesame and it taste really sweet and crisp.Mi Tang is a traditional food in my hometown. We usually make it during New year and serve to the guest who come to visit us as a gift and we keep the rest of Mi Tang as snacks and gives to children.
Although I am far away from China, and I am going to miss at least 5 spring Festival from China, but I know the habit of eating and making a Mi Tang has brand on my mind, because it is my favorite food when I was little and it represent a memory of living with my grandma in my hometown and the days I spent in the cold winter which finally change to a sweetness and happiness. To me Mi Tang is not only a food, it also contains my lovely memories and my homesick.





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