舌尖上的航海丨第20集 带铜钱的月饼

“船长，‘船影’饭店送来一盒月饼。”

中秋前夜，靠泊在美洲西雅图港的“星河”船长唐撰收到一盒奇特的月饼；发出阵阵香味的月饼上，用铜钱镶嵌一个“梦”字。

按惯例，中秋期间来往船上参观的侨胞很多。做上几个家乡菜招待侨胞是人知常情。

但是，由于船期紧张，船上备用食品有限，决定在当地采买一些。

当地华侨饭店都愿意全力支持，特别一家叫“船影”饭店老板愿意免费供应。

见多识广的海员见过许多华侨开设的饭店，都带有浓浓的乡情：“江南春”，“天府鱼”，“福来顺”，“大红灯笼”······

“船影”饭店的店名引起人们极大兴趣。

船长唐撰准备当面婉言谢绝“船影”老板的好意，也想了解这家奇特名字的饭店。

饭店设在唐人街。门前的横匾上两个苍劲有力的汉字：“船影”十分醒目。

黑面的设施具有深厚的中国特色：古色古香的八仙桌，精巧玲珑的宫灯，古朴典雅的山水画，雕龙画凤的屏。

老板是位年逾花甲的老者，地地道道的华侨。

老人热情地把唐撰船长迎进内室。

内室正中墙上有幅身着长袍马褂的老者画像。

老人告诉唐撰船长，画像上的老人是他的祖父，清朝时期船上一名厨工。

老人听完船长的来意，执意不能收钱。经过再三商量，才勉强同意收些成本费。

告辞前，唐撰船长准备顺便问一下店名的来历。由于当时客人很多。唐撰船长只好作罢。

唐撰船长望着镶有“梦”字的奇特月饼，想起几年前一段往事。

同样是中秋前夜。唐撰船长随船来到新加坡。

唐撰船长带领船员来到唐人街购买月饼。在一家中餐馆发现一排用铜钱镶嵌着各种图案的月饼，饭店老板说，这是家乡习俗，在中秋之夜期盼团圆和梦想。

这块镶有“梦”字的月饼定有隐情。

正当唐撰船长疑惑不解时，中秋节当天，“船影”饭店老板在儿孙的陪伴下来到船上。

老人讲述了六十多年前的故事。

那年，老人随父母和祖父为谋生闯了外洋。临行前，他们东拼西凑总算带足了盘缠。

经历了千辛万苦总算在这里安顿下来。

祖父临终前，把儿孙唤到身边，拿出积攒多年的一袋铜钱。嘱咐说这些钱他无法带回家乡。有朝一日就把这些铜钱请过海的亲人带回去，捎给帮助过的乡亲们，也带去祝福。

但是，几十年过去了。老人的父母也相继过世。这个愿望终未实现。

一天，总算盼来了祖国的轮船。不巧，老人正患眼疾，老人在儿孙的陪伴下，用手把船从头到尾摸了一遍。正当老人要上船观光时，港方通知船方提前开船了。

老人站在码头上望着远去的船影久久不愿离去。

归来后，老人几天几夜都在念叨家乡来的那条船，甚至梦里还在喃喃自语。

儿孙们为了安抚老人，把饭店的名字改为“船影”。期盼祖国家乡的轮船再来。

老人的讲述，深深感动了唐撰船长。

中秋之夜，唐撰船长把那块用铜钱镶有“梦”字的月饼放置在轮船餐厅的大台上，给船员讲述了这个动人的故事。

后来，一位爱好摄影的船员把它拍成了微电影：“带铜钱的月饼”，在网上热播，一时传为佳话！

“Captain, the Chuan Ying Restaurant has sent us a box of mooncakes.”

Captain Tang Zhuan of the SS Galaxy docked his ship at the Pier 57 in Seattle right

before the Mid-Autumn Festival. The box of mooncakes gave off an inviting aroma and had

bronze coins with the chinese character “梦”, meaning dream, layered on top of them.

Every Mid-Autumn Festival, the SS Galaxy welcomed the Chinese populations of

whichever city they sailed to onboard their ship for a short tour and a visit. Sometimes, the

ship’s visitors brought with them a present or a dish that they prepared themselves as a

thank-you gift, so receiving mooncakes shouldn’t come as a surprise.

This year especially, the food storages on the SS Galaxy were very limited. Frantic,

Captain Tang decided to search for Chinese restaurants in Seattle to cater traditional cuisine

for the Mid-Autumn celebration.

Sailors who had sailed to many countries all knew that most restaurants opened by

Chinese people living abroad usually featured simple dishes that reminded them of home.

Meatballs shaped like lanterns, fish with multiple tails, and of course, the classic

dumplings… Tang hoped to come across any one of those dishes, but began to feel worried

when he noticed the large amounts of people that filled up Chinese restaurants in Seattle on

this special day.

Finally, after arriving in Chinatown, Captain Tang found the home of the mooncakes

that he received just earlier. The restaurant stood on a busy street in the heart of the Chinese

district, and had the words “Chuan Ying” written on a large wooden banner above the door.

What caught Captain Tang’s attention was the name of this restaurant - “Chuan Ying '' meant

“Shadow of a Boat '' in Chinese, which to Tang seemed very unusual. Captain Tang knew he

had to thank the owner of the Chuan Ying for his wonderful gift of mooncakes, and to also

find out the meaning behind the restaurant’s peculiar name.

Captain Tang pushed the doors open and walked inside. The interior of the restaurant

was heavy with Chinese design influences - rosewood tables and chairs, intricate red lanterns,

elegant traditional Chinese watercolor paintings, and even window panes carved with details

of dragons and phoenixes.

The owner of Chuan Ying was an elderly Chinese man with a white beard and a walking

stick. He pleasantly greeted Captain Tang and welcomed him into the dining room.

As they sat down, Tang noticed a portrait of an Asian man wearing a traditional ancient

Chinese robe hung on the walls. The owner explained that this man was his own grandfather,

who worked as a cook on an imperial ship during the Qing Dynasty.

Captain Tang was fascinated by the restaurant’s history, but decided to first focus the

urgent task at hand. He told the owner that the SS Galaxy was suffering from a shortage of

food stock on the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival, and asked if Chuan Ying could provide

them with a few delicious Chinese delicacies on short notice.

The owner smiled at Tang and immediately agreed to his request, even telling him that

Chuan Ying’s services for SS Galaxy would be free of charge. After Captain Tang’s many

protests, he finally agreed to charge a low catering price for making delicious, festive food

for SS Galaxy’s crew on such an important Chinese holiday.

Before leaving, Captain Tang wanted to ask the owner about the story behind the

restaurant’s name, but because of an overflowing number of guests, he chose to not bother the

owner any longer, and walked away from the restaurant with a subtle sense of longing left in

his heart.

As he got back to the ship and shared mooncakes with his crew, he recalled a moment on

Mid-Autumn Festival a few years ago. Captain Tang and his crew sailed to Singapore deliver

some cargo, and walked around Chinatown to see what festivities and events were on display

for the multicultural holiday. Within his hazy memory, Tang seemed to see a similar Chinese restaurant that served the

same kind of mooncakes with bronze coins layered on top of them. The Singaporean

restaurant owner told him back then, that it was a tradition for his family to put coins with the

character “dream” on top of mooncakes, because Mid-Autumn Festival signified the reunion

of loved ones and the fulfillment of dreams.

The mooncakes at Chuan Ying must also have a story behind them.

As Captain Tang wondered to himself, a shiphand notified them that visitors were

arriving to tour the ship. Captain Tang walked outside and saw none other than the owner of

Chuan Ying and his grandson standing in front of SS Galaxy.

Captain Tang invited them in, and asked the old man to tell him his story.

The old man sat down slowly, picked up a mooncake, and started to recount a tale that

began sixty years ago.

When the old man was young, he boarded a ship with his grandparents in the hopes of

escaping poverty. Before leaving, they scraped together all their belongings and sold them off

for a little bit of money, enough to sustain their lives onboard a transpacific voyage.

After many years of struggle, they settled down in Seattle and opened a restaurant.

As the restaurant owner’s grandfather laid on his death bed, he called him to his side and

took out a bag of bronze coins. He said that he originally wanted to make a living for himself

in Seattle, and one day travel back to his hometown and give these bronze coins to his

relatives and friends who still lived in poverty. He asked his grandson to one day pass the

coins and his well wishes onto the people in their hometown.

But years had passed, and eventually, even the restaurant owner’s parents also passed

away. The restaurant owner still hadn’t come across a single ship that was set to sail back

home.

The restaurant owner visited the pier everyday in hopes of coming across crew members

from Chinese ships. When he finally met a young Chinese shiphand, the restaurant owner

was unfortunately suffering from a disease that caused him to temporarily go blind. The

restaurant owner, now also an old man, walked around the outside of the ship with his

grandson and ran his hand against its walls.

Just as they asked to go onboard for a visit, the pier announced that it was time for the

ship to set sail.

The old man set on the pier for a long time, and spoke of the ship that got away for days

to come. His wife noticed that even in his nightmares, he was heard muttering, “Please don’t

sail away yet…”

To comfort the old man, his grandchildren changed the name of their family restaurant

to Chuan Ying, in the hopes that a ship from their hometown would soon visit Seattle again.

Captain Tang’s eyes filled up with tears as the old man finished his story. He noted the

whereabouts of the old man’s hometown, and told his crew to keep an eye out for any future

destinations that sailed close to the town.

The sailors spread the old man’s story by mouth and by posting about it online. A few

years later, not only were the bronze coins delivered back home to help the old man’s old

friends and relatives, a Chinese filmmaker also picked up this heartwarming story and

decided to develop it into a movie named “The Mooncakes of Dreams”.