The taste of millet porridge - a rustic gift from the countryside

Millet is a drought-resistant grain, suitable for dry fields or alluvial soil along rivers. Previously, people in Nam Dan, Thanh Chuong, Hung Nguyen districts...millet cultivationMany. In late spring, farmers start to sow millet in the fields and gardens. When the millet plants are almost a hand's span high, they are pulled out and planted. Millet is planted in rows or intercropped on both sides of rows of peanuts, potatoes, etc.

During the millet planting season, after days of heavy rain, the rural market sells a lot. Millet seeds are tied into bundles like rice seedlings. Households who do not plant millet can just go to the market and buy a few bundles to plant. Millet plants grow quickly, and after a few weeks of being planted in the field, they are green and a meter tall.

The yellow millet variety, also known as foxtail millet, is favored by local people, with large, long flowers. The millet season is all over the fields and fields, golden yellow, the millet flowers are heavy with seeds, bent like fishing rods. Farmers often cut the millet flowers, tie them into bunches, and hang them on poles to dry in the sun.

To have millet porridge, millet seeds must be pounded, which is quite a lot of work. Usually, on the third day of August, when farming is not done, families take out millet to pound. The millet is put into a stone mortar and pounded with a pestle like pounding rice. When the person standing on the mortar gets tired of pounding, the person assisting the mortar gets tired of pushing, then the millet seeds peel off their shells. Each batch of millet must be pounded, rolled, and winnowed many times to be clean. The millet seeds are tiny and golden yellow like fish eggs, but when cooked, they become a delicious and appetizing dish.

Nghe people often use millet to cook porridge and sweet soup. Millet sweet soup made from millet with green beans, sugar or molasses is a luxury dish only cooked on holidays and death anniversaries. Millet porridge is a daily dish, in years of rice shortage it is food used to fight hunger. From family meals, millet porridge is sold in markets and at traditional festivals as a specialty.

No one knows when millet porridge first appeared in the market, but since ancient times, there have been millet porridge stalls in the countryside markets in the province. Small markets have 1-2 sellers, large markets have 3-4 people. Millet porridge has been transformed into many types such as yellow millet porridge, green bean millet porridge, millet porridge with snakehead beans... but when eaten, it is always served with rice paper. The rice paper is crispy and fragrant, the millet and beans are fatty, combined together to create a rustic dish that attracts many people.

At Sa Nam market, when millet porridge was popular, there were 3-4 sellers, such as Mrs. An Tam, Mrs. Sam Thuat, Mrs. Minh De... Mrs. Minh De's real name is Phan Thi Nuoi (85 years old), residing in Nam Bac Son block, Nam Dan town, is probably the oldest millet porridge seller at Sa Nam market.

Mrs. Minh said she got married at the age of 18, and after a while in her husband's house, she started selling millet porridge. Even when the elders who did the same job at the same time had retired from the market, she still maintained the traditional millet porridge business alone. After more than 60 years of working in the profession, millet porridge has helped her raise her children to adulthood.

According to Ms. Minh, selling millet porridge is very hard work, having to stay up late and wake up early, the hardest part of which is pounding the millet. Preparing a meal of porridge to eat is quite simple, but cooking professionally for sale requires pounding the millet every day until your legs are tired.

Back then, at the gable of her family’s small house, there was a stone mortar and iron-covered pestle. After coming home from the market and having lunch, she would start pounding millet, many days she had to pound all night. When her children grew up and could pedal the mortar and help their mother pound the millet, she had less trouble. In addition to pounding millet, she also had to grind beans, stew beans, make rice paper, fan rice paper…there were many steps.

Mrs. Minh said that cooking millet porridge is not difficult, because the ingredients are only millet, lime water and salt, but to cook a pot of delicious, thick, sticky, fragrant porridge, one must have techniques and experience, from weighing the millet, measuring water, adjusting the heat, salt...

She often buys millet at Phuong market (Thanh Chuong) to make a living because “the millet there is of good quality”. Each market session, she only cooks 2-2.5 kg of millet, but has to get up at 3 am to cook the millet and stew beans. She mainly sells at Sa Nam market, and sometimes carries millet to Cau market (Kim Lien), Sao market (Nam Giang), Vac market (Nam Linh) or Con market (Thanh Chuong).

Going out early in the morning and coming back at noon, she carried a pair of shoulder poles, one end of which was a large pot of millet and a basin of beans, the other end was a small pot of millet and a basket of rice paper. Thanh Chuong people like to eat millet cooked with beans, so when she went to Con market, she only cooked a pot of millet and beans, not stewed green beans. Rice paper did not need to be carried because there were many and cheap rice paper.

Her fragrant sticky rice paper with millet and beans is famous for its deliciousness and sells out early every market day. “I have to keep my word in this profession, cook delicious and clean food, sell at reasonable prices, everyone who goes to the market likes to buy it,” said Mrs. Minh.

The most memorable memory of her millet porridge career was the time she cooked porridge to serve as a specialty dish for a district tourism conference. That day, there were many customers, so she and her mother cooked dozens of kilos of millet, and everyone praised it as delicious.

She is the only millet porridge seller in Sa Nam market who can still pass on her profession to her children. Two years ago, when the Covid-19 epidemic broke out, her relatives did not allow her to go to the market anymore, so she had to stop her job at the age of 83. However, her daughter married a man in Ha Long block, Nam Dan town, who used to help her with the millet porridge business, and continued to maintain her mother's old profession. Now, when going to Sa Nam market, people can no longer see the old millet porridge seller with a kind and cheerful face, but they still clearly remember her image with the millet porridge pot with many dear memories.

Ms. Tran Thi Huong, the daughter of the woman who sells goods right at her mother's old seat, shared: "Currently, I am the only one selling millet porridge at Sa Nam market. Customers who come to buy millet still talk a lot about my mother."

Millet porridge nowadays seems to be not as delicious as before. According to people going to the market, the purebred foxtail millet that our people used to grow, small grains, but when cooked into porridge, soft and fragrant has been lost. Nowadays, almost no localities in the province grow millet anymore, the source of millet is mainly bought from China, a high-yield variety with large grains, soft when cooked, and bland taste. Green beans are also brought from far away.

In addition, rice paper used to wrap millet is mainly made by machine and is not as crispy and fragrant as sesame rice paper made by hand and fanned over charcoal. Perhaps that is why millet porridge in Nghe An countryside markets, including Sa Nam market, is no longer as attractive as before.

What everyone in the profession feels is that the job of cooking and selling millet porridge is not too hard or difficult nowadays because the millet and beans have been milled and cleaned by machine, so when you buy them, you just need to pour them into the pot.

However, young people still buy millet porridge when they see it at the market, out of curiosity about a rustic gift that is “half porridge, half cake”. Old people go to the market to buy millet porridge mostly because they are nostalgic for the famous millet rice paper cake dish of the past.

For those who live far away from home, millet porridge has entered their memories. Looking at images of millet porridge on social networks makes them yearn for their homeland, longing to return to a time of beloved memories, filled with memories.