Bamboo pipe for blowing fire

( Quang Ngai Newspaper) - Bamboo tubes were indispensable tools for lighting fires in the kitchens of rural families in the past whenever they cooked. The image of the fire, the bamboo tubes, and the sounds from the old kitchens are still preserved in the memories of many people.

According to ancient beliefs, the kitchen is where the Kitchen God resides. Initially, cooking stoves were simply three cylindrical stones, later replaced by a three-legged stand or two iron bars placed across two stones at either end. Before modern kitchen appliances like oil, gas, or induction stoves, the kitchen had to have a bamboo pipe to blow air into the fire, helping rice boil faster and soup cook more quickly.

Bamboo fire-blowing pipes were a familiar item in the kitchens of many families in rural areas in the past.

Bamboo fire-blowing pipes were a familiar item in the kitchens of many rural families in the past.

The bamboo pipe is made from the plant of the same name. A mature bamboo tree with a slender trunk, about 5 meters in diameter, is selected, and a section about 40 cm long is cut to make the pipe. The pipe is small enough to fit comfortably in the hand, making it easy to use. The pipe can be stood upright or left lying around in the kitchen. It has two ends: one for blowing and one for air to escape. One end is slightly charred from frequent contact with the flame.

The bamboo pipes were always shiny and blackened by kitchen smoke and ash. After cooking rice, people didn't immediately turn off the stove but usually left a few glowing embers in the ash. Inside the house, the hearth was always kept clean; before leaving, people would sweep it clean with a broom and extinguish all the fire, leaving only a piece of wood buried in the ash to keep the fire burning. When they needed to relight the fire, they would stir the flames.

With just a handful of pine needles, bamboo leaves, sugarcane bagasse, straw, or sawdust as kindling, and blowing into a bamboo tube, a fire will erupt. Blowing through the bamboo tube requires a specific technique. The cook squats or sits on a small platform, holding the tube, leaning slightly forward, and pursing their lips to blow long, drawn-out breaths into the mouth of the tube. The function of the bamboo tube is similar to that of a blacksmith's blower, hand fan, or electric fan – all create airflow, supplying oxygen to the charcoal to ignite the fire.

Bamboo pipes are simple tools, yet they are intimately connected to the lives of grandmothers, mothers, and sisters in the countryside. They are hardworking and resilient people, always staying up late and waking up early to keep the fire burning. The sound of the fire being blown on, "pho pho," echoing through the quiet night and early morning, becomes even more soothing and familiar, like a melody of life.

To produce that sound, they also needed to build up their "inner strength" and be in good health. Because blowing fire incorrectly can cause temporary dizziness due to oxygen deficiency. If a person is tired and weak, lacking the strength to blow, the fire will take longer to burn, especially when dealing with charcoal or wood that doesn't ignite easily. In the past, in rural areas, people often went to chop firewood and gather pine needles... for fuel. When cooking rice, animal feed, or cakes, they always had to be "on standby" by the stove to watch over the fire.

People sit on a raised platform, adding fuel to the stove while repeatedly blowing on the fire with a bamboo tube. This keeps the fire burning strongly and evenly, or slowly, depending on the food and drink, and the cooking method, such as "reducing the heat when the rice boils"... When the soup is cooked, the fish and meat are stewed, and the rice pot has almost finished steaming, they lift the pot off the stove, remove some of the ashes, and leave the pot by the stove. Only then is the process of "lighting" and blowing on the fire complete.

The hearth is where the whole family warms themselves in winter, and even pets like dogs and cats choose it as a place to sleep to escape the cold. And, in the kitchen, mothers and grandmothers work hard, especially cooking rice on sweltering summer days. They diligently work three times a day by the fire to provide hot rice and delicious soup, creating a source of sustenance for the whole family.

For ethnic minorities in mountainous regions, the hearth is indispensable in their customs and daily life, which is why bamboo tubes are still present today. In particular, the kitchen loft is also used by the people to dry various foods such as meat and fish to preserve them for longer periods. The kitchen loft serves as a "warm cupboard" that helps the people store and preserve food.

Many dishes of the ethnic minorities in the highlands rely on the heat and smoke from the kitchen hearth to acquire their distinctive flavors. The most popular dish, and one that has become a specialty of the ethnic minorities, is smoked meat. The kitchen hearth also helps the ethnic minorities preserve seeds for the next season and protect materials from damage by insects...

Nowadays, almost every home has a gas stove, induction cooker, or electric stove... Just press a button and you have heat and fire for cooking. Traditional open-air stoves are gradually disappearing from life in rural areas. During holidays and Tet (Lunar New Year), people build makeshift stoves outdoors to cook banh chung and banh tet (traditional Vietnamese rice cakes). Electric fans whir to create airflow to burn large logs, replacing the bamboo pipes used for blowing fire not so long ago. However, the image of the fire and the sounds from the old kitchen still remain in the memories of many, especially when remembering the grandmothers and mothers who dedicated their lives to keeping the fire burning, raising and educating them to become mature individuals.

Text and photos: TAN VINH

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