Around the house

Honeycomb coal stove

The round briquette was full of holes like a honeycomb and sat inside a round metal stove. Lighting it took scraps of paper, a bit of charcoal and a lot of furious fanning with a bamboo fan, while smoke drifted all down the alley.

Once it glowed evenly it boiled water, cooked rice and simmered braised fish. At night the grown-ups closed the air vent to bank the fire so they would not have to relight it in the morning. That smell of coal smoke at dawn belongs to a whole era.

Do you remember? Were you ever sent out to light the coal stove?

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