Author: Pu Fenglin

Last year, when the autumn wind first started, I went to Suzhou to taste the noodles with bald butter. Baldness here, pronounced tei and Wu dialect, means only, unique meaning. Bald butter is actually a method of "saving crabs for hunger". In the season when a large number of crabs are on the market, peel their shells, take their yellow, and cook them with lard, ginger and garlic, about a dozen of them. This way of eating crabs is luxurious enough.

When it comes to eating crabs, Chinese people's enthusiasm for eating crabs has a long history. The "Crab Crab Crab in Qingzhou" recorded in Zhou Li Dong Ren is the earliest record of crabs in Chinese classics. The way of eating crabs also appeared in the barbecue in the Tang Dynasty. After that, the literati and poets of various dynasties were tireless in eating crabs, and they all said different things about how to eat them.

For example, Li Yu, who is known as the crab fairy, mentioned two kinds of crabs that want PK today: steamed crabs and bad crabs.

Li Yu is obsessed with eating crabs, and it is recorded in Casual Messages: "There is nothing that can't be said for the beauty of diet, and there is nothing that can't exhaust his imagination, and he can speak of it in a subtle way; Being alone in a crab's claw, you can indulge in it, and you can't forget it for a lifetime. It is impossible to describe the reason why it can be addicted to sweetness and unforgettable. One thing and one thing, to me, is infatuation in diet, and to me, it is a monster between heaven and earth. I am addicted to this life. "

Li Yu, who was teased by his family for "taking crabs as his life", saved money for crabs early every year before they came into the market, calling it "money for life". He also raised a "crab slave" who made and peeled crabs for him. In his view, the crab's "fresh and fat, sweet and greasy, white as jade and yellow as gold" has reached the extreme of color, fragrance and taste. Therefore, he likes to steam crabs and opposes "harmony with others" again. The details of his crab-eating are also recorded in "Casual Mail". "Anyone who eats crabs only fits the whole body, steamed it, stored it in an ice tray, and listed it for a few times, and listened to the guests to help themselves." It means that the whole crab should be steamed, put in an ice tray and put on the dining table to be peeled by the diners themselves. The taste of this steamed crab should probably be as Zhang Dai, a writer of the Ming Dynasty, said: "The paste is greasy and piled up like jade, and it is United and inseparable, although it is not as precious as eight treasures."

Li Yu is certainly not the only one who advocates steamed crabs as a natural way to eat crabs. As a gourmet, Cao Xueqin also thinks that steamed crabs are the most delicious way to eat crabs.

The description of eating steamed crabs in the book "A Dream of Red Mansions" in the thirty-eighth chapter "Lin Xiaoxiang's poem Xue Heng-wu's satire and crab chant" is meticulous. The ancients thought that eating crabs, drinking wine, enjoying chrysanthemums and composing poems were the four romantic things in autumn, so in autumn, the Grand View Garden could not help but take pleasure in it, and a large group of people drank wine, composed poems and ate crab banquets.

after a large group of ladies and gentlemen sit down. Xi-feng ordered, "Don't bring more crabs, just put them in a steamer. Bring ten crabs and eat them before you take them." At the same time, I washed my hands and stood in front of the grandmother to peel the crab meat. The first time I asked Aunt Xue, Aunt Xue said, "I'll eat it myself, and I don't need anyone to let me." Xifeng gave it to Grandmother Jia. The second time, he told Baoyu, "Bring me the hot wine." After the meal was over, Baoyu took this opportunity to write: "Holding a claw is more like the shade of osmanthus, and throwing vinegar on ginger is crazy. The gluttonous prince and grandson should have wine, but the rampant son has no intestines. Cold accumulation between the umbilicus forgets jealousy, and the fingers are stained with fishy and fragrant. Originally, the world was beautiful, and Poxian once laughed and was busy all his life. "

The crab mentioned here is steamed crab. This cooking method is simple and natural, and it retains the delicious taste and nutrients of crabs to the maximum extent. The reason why it should be served with wine is that eating crabs is cold and hurts the spleen and stomach. It is most appropriate to eat them with hot yellow wine.

As for the bad crab, Li Yu recorded in "Casual Love Letter" that "he was worried that it would be easy to exhaust but difficult to continue, and ordered his family to wash the urn to make wine in case he was drunk. Bad name' crab bad', wine name' crab brew' and urn name' crab urn'. "

Bad crabs, also known as drunken crabs, are generally made of small crabs. After washing, they are directly choked with white wine with a temperature of over 4 degrees, and then soaked in the drunken bittern mixed with aged carved flowers, salt, sugar and soy sauce for at least one week. Take out the drunken crab from the jar, chop it in two, and the wine is rich and the crab smells good.

Once upon a time, a poet in the Southern Song Dynasty wrote a poem dedicated to Bad Crab, which said, "It's a strange thing for you to see yourself drunk and die, and you won't be cooked by the five pots in the world." Don't hesitate to exaggerate compliments. Lu You sang about the bad crab like this: "Old friends have forgotten each other for a long time, and the son has a strong taste, and he will never regret it when he is drunk. It seems that he is heartless." Li Bai also has a poem: "Crab claws are golden liquid, bad hills are Penglai, and you must drink wine and get drunk on the platform by the moon."

The ultimate way to eat this bad crab is probably the "Golden Dragon, Phoenix and Crab" recorded in Qing Yi Lu. One way to do this dish is to stick a dragon, phoenix and flower cloud pattern carved with gold foil on the shell of the bad crab. At first glance, it is the emperor's good bite.

finally, let's look at the stuffed crab. In Shan Jia Qing Gong, written by Lin Hong in the Southern Song Dynasty, a method of brewing crabs is recorded: the oranges are cut off with yellow ripe ones, and the smell is removed, leaving less liquid, and the crab paste is filled with meat, which is still covered with branches and put into a small retort, steamed with wine and vinegar, and served with vinegar, which is fragrant and fresh, making people have new wine and fresh. He praised the crab cloud for remembering the danger: "Huang Zhong is reasonable, the beauty is in it, and it is smooth in the limbs, and the beauty is also the best." This book is all about Yi, but it is what crabs get. " Today, the orange crab has gained it again.

This kind of stuffed crab not only tastes delicious, but also has a nice name: orange stuffed crab. The artistic conception is very beautiful. According to the author, there are "new wines, chrysanthemums and orange crabs." I can't help admiring Lin Hong's mountain life.

Let's take a look at a stuffed crab, which comes from the sixty-first chapter of Jin Ping Mei: "When Ximen Qing saw it, he asked: What is it? The count said, Brother Chang was so kind that he became a house. There is no reward. He taught his wife to make this crab fresh and roast duck in two ovens, and invited me to sit with him. ..... Ximen Qing ordered the left and right sides to open the box and watch: forty big crabs were peeled off, stuffed with meat, wrapped with pepper, ginger, garlic and rice balls, made of sesame oil and soy sauce vinegar, delicious and crisp. " The stuffed crab mentioned here is to dig out the crab meat and crab roe, add seasoning and cook them, and then put them in the crab cover, which not only adds flavor, but also does not damage its interesting appearance.

Compared with steamed crabs, this stuffed crab has more flavor and fragrance, and less drunkenness than bad crabs. But there are more than three ways to eat crabs. Bi Shimao, a famous expert in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, who is known as the Crab God, has a saying in Shi Shuo Xin Yu Ren Dan, saying, "When you get enough wine, you will know two ends when you are sweet at four o'clock. Holding a glass in your right hand and a crab claw in your left hand will be enough for a lifetime." The dashing image of crabby children standing on the bow with a glass in one hand and a crab in the other jumped from the paper, and the crab was drunk, which promoted the poetic mood, and also promoted the literati to eat crabs, and made various methods of cooking crabs develop and spread. Ancient talents have exerted extreme creativity and wisdom in the way crabs are eaten.

The snacks in Hangzhou Street Night Market recorded in Menglianglu are as follows: bad crab, white crab, river crab, red crab, vinegar red crab, river crab, fragrant box crab, spicy soup crab, crab with sticky sauce, crab with vinegar to wash hands, crab with fermented sauce and five flavors of wine.

Diao Ding Ji, recommended by Tong Yue in Qing Dynasty, also records many ways to eat crabs in Yangzhou, such as peeling and steaming crabs, boiling crab tongs with wine, frying shark's fin with crabs, frying pumpkin with crabs, dried crab meat, stewed eggs with crabs, frying crab meat, mixing crab cakes, curing crabs, curing crabs, boiling crabs with wine, and loosening crabs.

Yuan Mei, a writer in the Qing Dynasty, recorded several methods of making crabs in his "Eating List with the Garden": crab soup, "peeling crabs as soup, that is, simmering them in the original soup, without adding chicken juice, it is better to use them alone"; Stir-fried crab powder, "it is better to peel and stir-fry crabs now." After two hours, the meat is dried and the taste is lost "; Shell and steam crabs. "Shell crabs, take meat and yellow, put them in shells, and steam them on raw eggs. When you go to the table, you are a crab, but you have to remove your claws and feet. It's more colorful than fried crab powder. Yang Lanpo Mingfu, mixing crabs with pumpkin meat, is quite strange. "

in addition to the above, there are various crab dishes such as "crab balls, hand-washing crabs and crab dishes". As far as eating methods are concerned, they can also be divided into "rough eating" and "literary eating". Rough eating means eating directly with a good hand, while literary eating means eating with tools. Here, I want to talk about eight pieces of crabs, which were originally invented by a man named Cao Shu, creating a hammer, a knife and a knife. When a crab comes to the table, it takes nearly an hour to eat a crab, but because of its complicated and slow process, it has become a kind of elegant and chic eating enjoyment, and eating crabs has gradually evolved into a table culture.

At the beginning of the 87 drama version of A Dream of Red Mansions, Zhen Shiyin invited Jia Yucun to have a banquet at his Mid-Autumn Festival home, so he gave Jia Yucun a close-up of eating crabs with eight pieces, which not only reflected the occasion of the Mid-Autumn Festival, but also reflected the elegant and decent manners of two literati, Zhen and Jia.

For me, the most attractive thing is eating, whether it's rough eating or gentle eating. Today, the three kinds of crabs in PK have their own flavors, and the orange-brewed crab is delicious and poetic, which especially makes me covet. As a gourmet, it's only three months before the crab season. Otherwise, why don't we revert to the practice of "Mountain Family Clear Supply" and make an orange-brewed crab with a historical flavor and a natural beauty of Mountain Family?