Remember the bean candy poured on the banana leaf

Mom looked at the bright eyes waiting and nodded slightly. Just waiting for that, we ran to scoop up peanuts and peel them quickly. Mom opened the cupboard and took out some brown sugar to save for when we suddenly craved sweets or candy.

Everywhere in my hometown, I see peanuts and green corn. When I was a child, I often followed my parents to plant beans. My father went first to dig holes, my mother and I followed behind to drop two beans into the soil and then cover them up.

Joy arises from the moment I see tiny bean sprouts emerging from the ground. I ride my bike to school across the fields, peacefully watching the green beans dotted with yellow flowers covering the land of my homeland.

I still remember the eyes of my parents sparkling with joy as they bent down to pluck the hanging bean bushes. My mother held the plump beans with her dirty hands. My brothers and I helped her pluck the beans, occasionally picking some young beans from the stream, washing them and putting them in our mouths to chew deliciously. Then we eagerly waited until evening when my mother brought the pot of fresh peanuts to the stove to cook.

The summer sun dried several trays of beans in the yard. Mom packed them and took them to be pressed for oil. The remaining dried beans were stored in the corner of the house to eat as snacks.

The peanut plant is truly amazing, from root to tip nothing is wasted. The peanut cakes (the residue after pressing) are left in the corner of the kitchen. Every night when cooking pig feed, Mom breaks off a few pieces and puts them in the boiling pot of feed. Then Mom praises the pigs in the pen for growing so fast these days!

Anyone back home must have been excited by the smell of roasted peanuts from Mom on the stove. As soon as Mom brought it down, she reached out to pick up a few and put them in her mouth, not waiting for the moment when the crispy, fragrant peanuts were sprinkled on a bowl of hot Quang noodles.

If Quang noodles sprinkled with peanuts makes people excited, peanut candy on rainy nights makes people excited twice. When Mom caramelized sugar on the stove, when the roasted peanuts had just blown off their silk skin, our mouths were already watering!

The sugar used to make candy must be genuine country sugar. Of course, the part of making the sugar is Mom’s because we don’t know how to watch the fire, we don’t know when the sugar “reaches”. The sugar melts and boils on the stove, Mom quickly pours in the roasted peanuts, then pours it on the golden brown rice paper.

My family rarely had rice paper available because our candy cravings often came suddenly, so my mother asked me to go to the garden to cut the banana stem. I chose the biggest banana stem in the garden, peeled off the outer leaves to cut the white inner stem.

Bean candy poured on a banana leaf was definitely the most delicious food in the world for us back then. When the candy cooled, Mom used a knife to cut the candy and divided it among us. But sometimes no one wanted to wait until the candy cooled. The still-warm piece of candy was already in our mouths.

The initial excitement passed, I carefully held the crispy and fragrant candy in the banana leaf, eating it slowly, afraid of running out. Just need to gently separate it with my hand, the candy came off the banana leaf as easily as peeling a cake.

That sweetness followed me until I became a wanderer. When it suddenly rained outside, or when I suddenly tasted the bitterness of life, that sweetness would rekindle and comfort me.

My friend in the countryside bragged about just pouring peanut candy for the kids to eat. Peanut candy has many variations now, sprinkled with dried coconut, roasted sesame, fragrant sliced kumquat peel… Seeing the kids eagerly holding the peanut candy in their hands, I felt like I was a kid again.

On rainy evenings outside the banana garden, I would beg my mother to "pour out peanut candy to eat, Mom!"

Source: https://baodanang.vn/nho-keo-dau-do-tren-be-chuoi-3297339.html