In the 1970s, after I graduated from elementary school, I went to live with relatives in Beijing for a while. It was the first time I ate rubber fish, which the people in Beijing called rubber fish. Because the skin on this fish is very thick and elastic, it has to be peeled off before it can be cooked. The conditions of our relatives are not bad. They usually eat yellow croaker when there are guests, and eat fish during the tooth festival. At that time, yellow croaker with tender flesh could only be bought with a ticket, but croaker fish could be bought by the handful.

It seems that Chongqing people have the best way to deal with these things that are regarded as "rotten and cheap". For example, scraps such as hairy tripe and yellow throat can be dealt with with spicy hot pot, which can turn decay into magic. . Therefore, it is reasonable for the "dry" Chongqing people to turn the fish into a delicacy. Jianghu dishes like this are very popular among Chongqing people. Marijuana is very spicy and rich in flavor. Although the meat is slightly thicker, it has no fishy taste and few thorns. It is most suitable for the bold Chongqing people to enjoy it with beer.

A year or two ago, the popularity of eating fish in Chongqing was very strong. This dish, which used to be mainly used for hot pot, began to become its own restaurant. There are shops all over the city specializing in selling various kinds of fish. Countless. Steamed, braised, boiled, dry pot, double pepper, spicy, pickled, barbecue...you can think of it, and there are also things you can't think of. What impressed me the most was the boiled fish in Jiangbei, which was made with soybean sprouts and duck blood. The fragrance of the fish, the crispiness of the soybean sprouts, and the smoothness of the duck blood were a perfect match. When you are sweating from the meal, the cabbage and fat intestine soup served by the boss, the soft intestines and the sweet cabbage, will awaken your taste buds dulled by the spicy food again, and then you can roll up your sleeves and work hard.

Another distinctive Hueryu restaurant is also located in Jiangbei. The owner of the store has incorporated the Jianghu atmosphere of Hueryu both internally and externally, using the Shuibo Liangshan Neiran brand name. As soon as you enter the store, you will see a pot hung with iron chains, hanging in the center of the table. After the fish is put into the pot, the bottom is slowly cooked with charcoal over a low fire, which is very extensive. The Liangshan heroes painted on the wall make you almost shout: Boss, buy ten catties of wine and get ten catties of fish!

My cooking skills of making fish were also learned in a small town called Shixie in Jiangbei, Chongqing. That was more than ten or twenty years ago. At that time, I drove back and forth on National Highway 210 several times for work reasons. The drivers always arranged their meals in Shixie. At one end of the town, in a shabby tile-roofed house, five or six wooden tables were always full, and almost all trucks parked on the roadside outside the door were full. The large stove for cooking is in the hall. After ordering the dishes, everyone gathered around the stove to watch the chef operate. There are two dishes that everyone cannot live without: fish and tofu. After the master boiled the oil, he quickly put down a handful of Sichuan peppercorns and a handful of dried sea peppers, and the pot immediately exploded. Then ginger, garlic, and fish were put into the pot in sequence, adding ingredients, thickening, and the fish was on the table in a few minutes. . No one spoke at this time, only the sizzling sounds of fish spitting out its spines and the pleasant hissing sounds stimulated by spicy food.