The land of fish and rice, small bridges and flowing water ...... poetic and picturesque Jiangnan, how can you not love the water does not compete for fresh?
Although the branches are still craggy, but also can not stop the Chinese people on the pursuit of spring seasonal. Fish in the water after a cold day, naturally become the glory of the spring table king, or the most delicious, or full of fat, straight to teach people hard to part with.
A "Su" word, grass, fish, water, harvest, directly point out the fish (river food) in the South of the recipe weight. With the Yangtze River in the north and Taihu Lake in the south, and the resulting dotted water network, people in Jiangnan have been eating fish since thousands of years ago.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, the Taihe Duke of Taihu Lake was good at cooking fish sizzling (similar to grilled fish), and the butcher Zhuanzhu specially worshipped him as a teacher, and cast Wu Wangjia's favor, practiced a handful of sizzling fish, and ultimately, with the sword of the "fish intestines" hidden in the fish's belly, staged "Zhuanzhu into the sizzling fish," and then "Zhuanzhu into the sizzling fish" in the "Fish Intestines. " This historical drama turned Gong Ziguang into the famous King Helu of Wu. This fish sizzle is revered as the originator of a number of contemporary dishes, including the sweet and sour Yellow River carp from Henan and the squirrel Mandarin fish from Jiangnan.
"Food is always welcome." Chopped meat is raw meat, and chopped fish is one of the great specialties of Jiangnan , which can be compared to the introduction of Japanese sashimi much earlier. The finely sliced freshwater raw fish meat, served with a finely chopped sauce marinated in a variety of seasonings, is estimated to rival today's Cantonese fish sashimi, so much so that legend tells that chopped fish from the King's Palace of Wu became silver fish (脍残鱼) when they were sprinkled into the Taihu Lake. After that, Fish Soup, Pan-fried Fish, Fish Fresh (fermented fish with salt and rice, isn't it déjà vu?)
Fish cake, fish paste and so on, which basically established the richness of fish cuisine in the south of the Yangtze River.
In the Three Kingdoms lord Cao Cao's table, there has been famous fish in Jiangnan - Songjiang perch seats, but also recorded in the "Book of the Later Han", the Western Jin Dynasty Zhang Han and "Ulva's thought! " successfully disengaged from the officialdom and returned to his hometown. In the Northern Wei Dynasty's "Qimin Yaojutsu" recorded a fish dish called "Golden Finely Scattered Jade Chopped", Golden Finely Scattered *** with seven ingredients: garlic, ginger, salt, white plums, tangerine peels, cooked chestnut meat, and round-grained rice, and Jade Chopped refers to the silver-colored slices of raw fish in general, and it is said that Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty when he traveled to the south of the Yangtze River, he defined chopped sea bass as It is said that Emperor Yang defined chopped sea bass as "golden finely chopped fish" when he traveled to the south of the Yangtze River, and the dish became even more popular on the tables of the Tang Dynasty after that.
Song's wife's fish soup and West Lake Vinegar Fish is undoubtedly the folklore of the Song Dynasty Jiangnan famous, and Mandarin fish meat stuffed into the holes of the Lotus Room steaming "Lotus Room Fish Buns", it seems to be more of an economic prosperity of the Song Dynasty
The Yuan dynasty was the first in the history of China.
Ni Zan, the famous calligrapher and painter of the Yuan Dynasty, not only painted the "Lion Grove", but also wrote "Yunlin Hall Dietary System Collection", which describes a lot of South China's cuisine from the perspective of the people of Wuxi, of which the river food also takes up a lot of space. In addition to crabs, snails, arkshells, and carp, there are some technical dishes, such as crucian carp belly, head, and back, which are processed separately. There is also a "Cold Amoy Noodle Method", which is to make fish jelly from Mandarin fish, perch, and river fish, put it into a flavored salty sauce, and then add coriander, bean sprouts, and other small ingredients, and use it to mix with cold noodles.
By the Ming and Qing dynasties, from the "Tune the tripod set", "with the garden food list", "wake up the garden book" and other gourmet books, you can get a glimpse of the unprecedented development of the fish food, from which you can almost always find the shadow of the modern home cooking or the prototype of the river food cuisine.
"Three fresh fish from the Yangtze River" can be called the most beautiful opening of the Jiangnan spring , although the swordfish, anchovies, puffer fish, these three kinds of fish can be found elsewhere close relatives, but with the aura of the Yangtze River, they have become an insurmountable pinnacle of the flavor or price, are time and time again, breaking through the ceiling. Unfortunately, The Yangtze River is now also the death of the Yangtze River, the wild population was eaten up, on the verge of extinction.
Possibly out of this embarrassing situation of self-healing, folk and put forward "four fresh Yangtze River", will be more prolific catfish included in it.
In order to protect ecological diversity, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development announced that from 0:00 on January 1, 2020 to start the implementation of the Yangtze River ten-year fishing ban plan, the Yangtze River trunk and important tributaries in addition to aquatic organisms nature reserves and aquatic germplasm resources protection zones outside the natural waters, during which the natural fishery resources are prohibited from productive fishing. After ten years of rest and recuperation, we can look forward to the return of fresh flavors.
As the first of the three delicacies of the Yangtze River , the legend of the swordfish has caused a lot of controversy in the community - a thousand dollars to start, soaring to nearly 10,000 yuan / catty of the crazy price, fishermen in the Yangtze River in the painstakingly guarded and not a tail of the reality, have made the "myth of the swordfish".
Every year, before the Qingming Festival, the knife fish in the sea to eat and drink enough along the Yangtze River all the way upstream, and ultimately in the Nantong to Yangzhou section of the wandering, to complete the spawning, breeding. When they swim to Jiangyin, Jingjiang area, it evolved into the top "river knife", rich and not greasy, fresh and delicious, is considered to be the best of the best. Those who are entrenched in the sea is not willing to go forward guys are called "sea knife" , is the next product; and year-round life in the Yangtze River Basin lakes, never migrated is called "lake knife" , bone hard and spiny , the lake knife , the next product.
"Fish bones before the Ming Dynasty are as soft as sheep, fish bones after the Ming Dynasty are as hard as iron", the swordfish is so capricious. The neatly steamed swordfish is bound to win the "world's first fresh", but the milky white broth in the swordfish juice noodles has also been able to make people fresh eyebrows fall down. Jiangyin's swordfish wontons to pure fish as a filling, if you add the same accounted for the seasonal chives, but also to solve the fishy fresh, the most difficult is to remove the thorns, knocking, filtering, pinching and so on under a variety of techniques, in order to get that no trace of the fresh.
Jiang knife is hard to find, the sea knife, the lake knife also from people dislike to enter the hall of elegance, anyway, in the eyes of the people in the south of the Yangtze River, this bright "knife" is the opening of the spring weapon, not to stimulate the taste buds, will not be enough to stir up the breath of spring.
"A chopsticks fishy wind to eat belly fat, tender as a bear white greasy as crisp, Jiangnan refined flavor world should not." steamed anchovies on the table, the diners can not help but glittering scales, the layer of grease rich fish meat convinced. The shad, melting fish and meat of the fresh and moist as one, if the use of steamed fish soy sauce to simply treat, it is a waste. Steamed with scales, with lard, ham and sweet wine, the three treasures, after the aroma of the oven, the different fats in the scales of the fish above and below each other , the first chopsticks to suck the scales of the fresh, the second chopsticks to taste the middle layer of fat, the third chopsticks to eat the fish meat delicate, the heart naturally will be born out of the Mr. Dong Po's feeling: "There are still peach blossom flowers The flavor is better than Brasenia schrebergeri."
Yellowtail migrates from the sea to the Yangtze River every year in April and May of the lunar calendar, and even the name is due to the "time". It is said that the shad at this time almost do not eat food, after Zhenjiang, Yangzhou around the Yangtze River, the meat is the most fertile , continue upstream, will consume too much fat accumulated in the body, the taste of the poor a cut, to return to the return trip is more of a lost soul.
When people are still for the knife fish is a river knife, lake knife, sea knife entanglement, shad did not give everyone a chance, as early as 30 years ago in the Yangtze River is extinct. Nowadays, wild anchovies from the Americas and Southeast Asia have been farmed and used to replace people's thoughts on the Yangtze River anchovies, the sky price began to fall, ordinary people can also taste the spring fresh. Just don't want to roll the Yangtze River, the waves are not heroes, is actually shad.
Many ancient books mention "Wu people love river triggerfish", and put out a lot of deaths to tell us that although this thing is beautiful, but "Where the abdomen, son, eyes, sperm, spinal cord blood toxic!
However, including food super blogger Su Dongpo, including a group of ancient people also very much do not buy it, so the folk will be more than a "desperate to eat blowfish". When I saw this, the people of Jiangyin laughed - originally, the people said in the dialect "to wash and eat puffer fish", and after thousands of years of eating it, the locals have long since figured out a reason to wash it clean, so as to save their lives. The poison of wild puffer fish needs more than 220 to be removed, and now most of the puffer fish are farmed in river ponds, without a long migratory path, without a cavity of the spring, the puffer fish is almost no toxin, only to wait for the chef to spend some effort to cook.
Braised Pufferfish is the mainstream, full of thorns in the pufferfish skin is not friendly enough, only those who know how to eat people know that the fish skin backpack, thorns rolled in the inside of the entrance to the mouth is smooth, and it is said that the skin is also a good product to nourish the stomach. A Three Treasures of Pufferfish comes up, between the thick oil and red sauce to see the real chapter, full of tough fish skin, the liver of the fish in the past is known for its poisonous, and the beautifully named "Xishi milk" of pufferfish white son (sperm nest) gathered , adrenaline before eating, eat after eating, cholesterol will certainly not be able to bear. The cholesterol must be unbearable. Of course, in the Huaiyang Cuisine area, there is super deluxe lion's head made of puffer fish skin wrapped in puffer fish meat , and a bite of it is the feeling of heartbeat.
Although slightly ordinary, but catfish itself is rich in fat , but also the Yangtze River system is worth a taste of delicious. Only compared to the other three fresh, both price and value are not superior, but take it as one of the representatives of the grounded, or the first three complementary are good. This long four "beard" scaly fish in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River are distributed, the river group, Xi fish are its alias , it is said that in Zhenjiang Jiao Shan area of the Yangtze River there is a white fish , also belongs to the family of catfish, the body is white and hidden red! "Pink stone head is still boneless, snow-white dolphin is not medicine people" is to describe it both the freshness of the dolphin and no carp thorns, known as catfish in the white rich beauty.
Interestingly, the two sides of the Yangtze River cooking catfish method is very different. south bank is good at braising, adding a lot of garlic, directly to the pot stewed gelatinous overflow, garlic soft that is melting, the fish is fat and flavorful; north bank is good at white burning, by the influence of the Huaiyang cuisine is greater, the soup is milky, thick enough to stick to the lips.
"In the first month of snakehead meat head fine, February peach blossom Mandarin fish fat, March turtle tonic body, April anchovies with onion whiskers, May white fish to eat the belly, June bream as fresh as chicken, July eel stewed in soy sauce, August barbel to eat the lungs, September crucian carp to plug the meat, October grass carp to play the toothsome, November chub fish only eat head, December The green fish will eat the tail." Suzhou people eat fish form most representative of Jiangnan.
Jiangnan water system is developed, in the Jiangnan people "from time to time, do not eat" in the menu, the river is beyond the seafood of the colorful, four big fish to the Jiangnan, will have to be added to the crucian carp and bream, these are also common delicacies. There is an invisible biological clock hidden in everyone's body that specializes in scheduling these ingredients, and it's a great way to find a few springtime favorites.
Yuan Mei in the garden food list said, "Hangzhou to soil step fish as the best. And the people of Jinling low, eye for a tiger snake, can be a laugh." Nowadays, the south of Jiangsu Province are commonly known as snakehead fish for the earth step fish, Suzhong area is called it tiger head shark - do not be scared, in fact, they are less than a tiger's mouth long. Spring head chip, returned to this looks a little ugly little fish, secret is that its meat is less prickly, delicate and delicious, especially to the cheeks of the two pieces of meat such as the size of the gills of the bean petals known, and snails, river shrimp, bamboo shoots, spring leeks *** known as the Jiangnan five spring dishes famous fresh.
The whole fish stewed eggs is very common, but a bowl of national feast on the "savory bean paste soup" is more absolute , a bean paste is in fact the snakehead fish cheeks meat, a fish only two, a bowl of soup to how many snakehead fish to serve it! "The flap slippery tender extreme beauty fat, and fall down the throat three two gold", this fresh, this bold!
Growing up in the river in the old generation of Jiangnan people, have had the childhood fun of hand touching the snail, along the small embankment in front of the house to touch a few hand, you can fry a pot. The snail has been raised for a winter, and after the Qingming Festival, it will give birth to a small snail, and the taste and quality of the meat will deteriorate, so there is a "snail before the Ming Dynasty is as good as a goose" saying. Soy sauce pop snail often become the home table or late-night snack stalls, if you are willing to pick out the snail meat to fry spring leeks, it is a deep understanding of the beauty of the spring fine people.
When it comes to matching spring vegetables, mussels are even better. Spring mussels are the most fertile, inside the most clean, to the summer breeding season is prone to breeding a variety of microorganisms and parasites. Jiangnan grass head, leek is green, and mussels with stir-fried, golden green, first-class rice. Stir-fried mussels and salted meat with soup, can be regarded as a low-pairing version of the "pickled dukshuixian", but on the freshness of the aroma, no less.
Jiangnan into the plum, white fish is the right time. Slightly upturned corners of the mouth of the white fish is the signature staple of many ancient towns in Jiangnan, but in terms of the best, it has to be the one in Taihu Lake. The whitefish, which is also known as "dilli white", comes at a time when rice paddies are being planted and is divided into the first dill, the second dill, and the third dill. Whitefish is rich in fat, but there are a lot of small thorns, only take the middle part of the aeration and marinade after steaming, slightly patterned fish meat is tender, so people do not want to waste a penny, have to eat until the bones are clear enough to taste.
In the same period, there are also silverfish and white shrimp, the other two of the three white Lake Taihu. The former run eggs most tender, can also be made into spring rolls, wontons and other snacks; the latter crystal clear, is the first choice of drunken shrimp, or salt water boiled to eat a fresh original flavor. It's worth noting that May crabs, which are anchovies, are also considered lake knives in Lake Taihu, and were once included in the "Three Treasures of Lake Taihu" before they were replaced by the whitefish, which made them the "Three White Fish of Lake Taihu" of today. , before being replaced by whitefish to achieve today's "three white Lake Taihu". Every year at the end of summer, when the fishing season begins, there are fried crabs along the coast of Lake Taihu, a little fresh with a small drink, naturally excellent.
Since October 2020, Lake Taihu has been closed to fishing for ten years, making it difficult to find real wild aquatic products from Lake Taihu. However, after ten years of meeting again, I think there will be a bigger surprise. It must be known that the table of Jiangnan people will never be lonely.
This issue's topic of discussion:
What are some of the springtime delicacies you still miss?
These are the most important things you need to know about your favorite brands.
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