The cricket is the "gentleman" among crabs. Usually when talking about crabs, "tyrannical" is synonymous with them. In fact, crabs are very aggrieved. Its four pairs of legs can move up and down but cannot move forward and backward, and it is difficult not to move sideways. Although Crab is domineering, there is a polite person in his family - Crab. The scientific name of this little creature that grows on the tidal flats of the river is "Xianghou Crab". Due to its habit of running wild, when it occasionally walks straight, its two front chelae hold each other, and it kowtows step by step, swaying, and is polite, just like the ancients saluting with a bow, so it has an elegant name. "Liyun". The sentence comes from "The Analects of Confucius·Yang Huo" "Liyun Liyun, Jade and Silk Clouds", so its eggs also have a brocade-like name: Liyunzi.
The cricket is a small freshwater crab that can walk fast and have strong burrowing ability in the fields and river tidal flats. Generally, they build their nests on the gentle slopes of river embankments and canals. They feed on grass and humus in the mud. They also use their claws to cut off the stems and leaves of reeds or rice to absorb the sap. Ordinary crabs are meat eaters, but crickets are vegetarian, so even though they are small, they can be regarded as "eminent monks" in the crab world.
When I was a child, crickets were often seen on the riverside, river ditches and rice fields in Jingjiang. However, you cannot eat crickets in summer. In summer, crickets eat reed leaves, which gives off a grassy smell. In the past, they were caught to feed ducks or used as fertilizer. I remember that there was a family in the village who often fed crickets to their ducks. Their ducks were different from other ducks. They had huge buttocks, bright wings, and even walked with an imposing manner. Cockroaches are often caught and played by children. They are tied with a rope and placed on the ground. White foam will appear in the mouth of the cricket, as if rice is cooking in a pot. In the past, there were crickets on the banks of the inland rivers in Sixugang. Fishing for them was also a great childhood fun. The cricket fishing competition I played in when I was young is still fresh in my memory. At the end of autumn and early winter, the crickets are ready to hibernate and stop eating. This is also the time when they are most plump, and the crickets at this time are ready to eat.
? In fact, the crab meat doesn’t have much to eat. It’s a little bit bigger. If it’s a little bit cooked, the crabmeat will be gone. The male crickets were better, with larger chelicerae, while the female chelicerae were smaller and lacked crab meat. However, in the past two years, the wine-soaked crab claws from Jiangyin have become a favorite snack of many people. These crab claws are actually cricket claws. Break off the large claws of the crickets and wash them, add rice wine, five spices, dried red peppers, minced garlic, green onions, ginger, salt, sugar and other seasonings and cook over low heat. After cooling, soak in a little soup. The color will be ruddy and the meat will be fresh and tender. With wine pesto aroma. Just open the crab claws and suck gently, and the snow-white crab meat will come out. My wife is a fan of crab claws. When she watches a TV show, eating crab claws is like eating melon seeds. She can’t stop eating until she finishes a box. The price of crab claws on the market now is quite high. A box of crab claws costs only 50 yuan, which is estimated to be 40 to 50 pieces at most, which is about one yuan a piece. This is something many people don't expect.
? In Guangdong and Fujian, there has been a tradition of using another kind of cricket called "shrimp spicy" to make sauce since ancient times. After mincing the crickets, put them into a stone mill and grind them into paste. Cockroach sauce is used as a condiment for dipping fried fresh fish. It has a meatier taste than soy sauce and shrimp oil, and is very popular among locals. It should be noted that beetle sauce is a raw food, and those with weak gastrointestinal issues will not be able to consume it, so be careful with it. The other method is more advanced, which is to only take the seeds, which is the "Li Yunzi" mentioned in the Analects of Confucius. A mere "spicy shrimp" only has soybean-like seed balls, and it is really not easy to squeeze a pot of "sauce" into it. The crickets are uncovered one by one and squeezed out a few seeds from the abdomen. If there are not one or two thousand, there is no hope of squeezing out a pot. The locals call it "Tianji's No. 1 delicacy" and "the essence of top-notch farm food", praising its deliciousness comparable to seafood and river freshness. The particular way to eat it is to put the sauce on steamed eggs or tofu and chew it carefully. Do not eat it at this time. Noisy, listening carefully to the sound of crab roe breaking in the mouth is like the sound of nature, everyone sighs "the world is so delicious". It is said that this delicacy is especially produced in Panyu and is the best. I regret that I have been to Guangdong several times and never tasted it.
? As I talked, I thought of the riverside in my hometown. During this epidemic, I have become more and more aware of the value of "freedom" while staying at home. After the epidemic is over, you must take your children for a walk along the river, listen to the whistle on the river, look at the green reed leaves, and look for the frogs spitting bubbles and bowing.