I am a local Tanggu person, I grew up here, and my home is also here. I have never traveled far before I became an adult, but when I became an adult, I would always come back here to visit my relatives during the Chinese New Year holidays.
The number of locals in Tanggu seems to be much smaller than its population today. Before the big explosion in Binhai, it was an economic and technological development zone, a real economic center in the north. Economic development has attracted a large number of talented people to this place, and at the same time, these people also feed the local economy and culture in their own way.
The Shanxi people are the most representative of these so-called outsiders, and the immigrant spirit of this group is even greater than that of the Fujianese and Cantonese. At the beginning of the millennium, Tanggu's locals were a relatively well-informed circle, thanks to the housing system of the Tianjin Alkali Factory and other state-owned enterprises before and after the reopening of the country, and the former dilapidation of the area. At that time, a large number of immigrants came to expand the local market and labor force, but also brought a sense of nostalgia.
One of my best friends is from Shanxi, and he has now settled here to open a craft beer store. Business is not bad, and life is not very colorful, but still tasty. He's not tall, but he's very handsome, and he's got a lot of spirit, and he's good at sports, too. He has been legendary his father is a coal mining, do not know whether it is true or not, but regardless of whether it is true or not, he was on the basketball court in the wind speed of the appearance of the real had been the first stadium on the only one of the scenery. His father was very busy and seldom came home, and even when he did, he always sighed and sighed with his report card and then gave him a scolding.
They lived, worked, and traveled between the city and the countryside, epitomizing modern Chinese society, and some of their descendants stayed in the city where they struggled, while others went elsewhere to continue their struggle. Some of their descendants stayed in the cities where they struggled, while others went to other places to continue their struggle. They struggled through the times, and also watched over their hometowns as time passed.
During the time of the epidemic, I have not been back for four years, this time back, there is an uncle with my mom often play mahjong, surnamed Ma, invited me to eat a meal, is also a Shanxi people. He came to an unfamiliar city to work alone in the last few years, and has gone from obscurity to a retired life, while his daughter has left him to work in another city.
Uncle Ma took me to a Shanxi cuisine restaurant, although the quality of the food was average, but the decoration was luxurious and the food was expensive. I was quite indifferent, but the food was quite flavorful. In the middle of the meal, the waiter of the restaurant to Uncle Ma to promote their home-squeezed sea buckthorn juice, which I have not drunk but it seems that my father and Uncle Ma heart is very big, so each person asked for a cup.
The sweetness of the old generation's memories rolled into my belly as soon as I took a cup. It was a carefree sweetness, accompanied by the coolness of bare feet stepping over a stream and the silky smoothness of the mountain breeze. Uncle Ma's conversation with the waiter in my ear on the topic of hometowns seemed to drive something in my body as well.
There weren't many foreign restaurants in my hometown when I was a kid, and I seem to understand why such restaurants have been able to open all over China. Commercialization and rising incomes are not the reasons for a change in a region's food culture. It is always the people of a place who really change the food of a place, along with the change of generations and the migration of population, they travel all over the world; their hometown restaurants are opened wherever they are; their taste buds intermingle with each other and unintentionally shape the food culture of the whole China; their spirit and trust are also inherited from one generation to another in the blossoming restaurants of local cuisine.
The taste of sea buckthorn is so sweet, and that sweetness seems to have traveled through time and space, from their golden memories all the way to the present, covering all the scars carved by the years on their bodies as well as the bitterness created by the times. Today they are Shanxi people, tomorrow their children will be Tanggu people, the day after tomorrow, Tanggu people's children, will be where people? Will he be able to eat the eight precious tofu and the roasted eggplant with noodle sauce? Will he be able to meet the people who loved him so much since he was a child? Will he still be able to take care of the house and buy breakfast for his family who haven't woken up before going to work every day, just like the old generation did?
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
我算是一个地道的塘沽人，生长在这里，家也在这里。成年以前未出过远门，成年之后逢年过节走亲戚也总是要回到这里。
塘沽的本地人数量如今看来实际上是远小于其人口的，在滨海的大爆炸之前，这里是经济技术开发区，是北方名副其实的经济重镇。经济的发展将大量的人才吸引到了这个地方，同时这些人也以自己的方式反哺着这个地方的经济与文化。
山西人算是这些所谓的外地人中最有代表性的，这个群体的移民精神相比于福建广东人有过之而无不及。在千禧之初的时候，塘沽的本地人相对而言是一个信息相对迅捷的圈子，这主要得益于改开前后天津碱厂以及其他国企的分房制度以及曾经这个地方的破败。而那个时候，大量移民来到了这里扩充了本地的市场以及劳动力，但也带来了一份乡愁。
我最好的朋友之一便是山西人，他如今定居在了这里开了一个精酿啤酒店，生意还算过的去，生活不算多姿多彩但也有滋有味。身高不算高，但长得很帅，人也精神，体育也不错。他一直传说他爸是挖煤的，也不知道是真是假，但不论是真是假，他在篮球场上风驰电掣的样子却实打实曾是第一体育场上独一份的风景。他爸爸却很忙很少回家，即便回家也总是拿着他的成绩单叹气然后劈头盖脸给他骂一顿。
他们生活，工作，奔走于城市与乡土之间，是近代中国社会的缩影，他们的后代有的留在了他们奋斗的城市，有的去了别的地方继续奋斗。他们在时代中奋斗，也在时光的流逝间守望着乡土。
经历疫情的这段时间内，我已经有四年没有回来了，这一次回来，有一个跟我妈经常打麻将的叔叔，姓马，请我吃了个饭，也是一个山西人。零几年的时候独自来到了一个陌生的城市打拼，从默默无闻到如今自己也步入了退休生活，而他的女儿则离开了他在另一个城市工作。
马叔叔带我去了一家山西菜馆，虽然菜品质量一般，但装修的很豪华，菜价也很贵。我虽然很无感，但是吃的也算有几分味道。饭局中途，菜馆的服务员向马叔叔推销他们家榨的沙棘汁，这东西我虽然没有喝过但似乎我爸爸跟马叔叔心气很大，就每人要了一杯。
一杯入口，老一辈回忆的香甜便滚入我的腹腔。那是一种无忧无虑的甜美，伴随着光着脚踏过小溪一般的清凉以及山野间清风一般的丝滑。我耳中马叔叔与服务员的关于老乡话题的攀谈似乎也带动了我身体当中的某一些东西。
我小的我的家乡没有什么外地的餐馆，我似乎能明白这样的菜馆能够开遍中国的原由了。商业化的运作和人们收入的提高并非一个地域饮食文化改变的原因。真正让一个地方的饮食改变的永远是这个地方的人，伴随着世代的更迭和人口的迁徙，他们途径各地；家乡的饭馆就开到哪里，他们的味蕾相互交融无意间也塑造了整个中国的饮食文化；他们的精神与寄托也在这遍地开花的地方菜系饭馆中一代一代地传承。
沙棘的味道是那么甜，那种甜蜜似乎穿越了时空，从他们泛着金光的回忆中一直可以穿越到现在，掩盖他们身上所有由岁月刻下的伤痕还有时代所造就的苦痛。今天他们是山西人，明天他们的孩子会是塘沽人，后天，塘沽人的孩子，会是哪里人呢？他还吃不吃的上八珍豆腐还有加了面酱的烧茄子呢，他还能不能遇到从小那么疼他爱他的人呢。他还能不能在每天上班之前像老一辈一样，将家里料理的井井有条，为还没起床的家人买回早点呢？