For Catholics, Ma Jiexiu has a high status because he is a fast food on Christmas Eve. In the Mediterranean and Latin America, there is the same diet system (with slightly different names).
Eating Portuguese food in China, Hong Kong and Macau is certainly no stranger to Ma Jiexiu, commonly known as "Portuguese salted fish".
The Portuguese call cod bacalhau, transliterated as "Ma Jiexiu". According to legend, it was invented unintentionally in about 1835. Fishermen found that the newly caught cod was stored in wooden barrels. After it is marinated in sea salt for a period of time, it will not rot, but also make the tender cod meat firm and more primitive and rough, which is welcomed by the Portuguese.
At that time, the Portuguese were vigorously developing maritime hegemony. After the cod fillets are salted for a month and a half, the fish will be half lighter than the original weight, and you can eat more Ma Jiexiu as food during the voyage. During the voyage, they can also soak the captured cod in the same way, saving a lot of space when they return home, thus bringing back a lot of property.
The Portuguese and Ma Jiexiu invented thousands of kinds of delicious food together. In Hong Kong and Macao, Ma Jiexiu mostly uses Norwegian deep-sea cod, which is usually imported directly from Portugal and most often chopped into "Ma Jiexiu meatballs" and "Ma Jiexiu fried rice".
If you want to cook Ma Jiexiu, you should first soak Ma Jiexiu in water for more than 20 hours to remove salt, and change the water several times during this period. The soaked Ma Jiexiu will swell more than twice. If boiled in water, the meat will become soft and rotten. Coupled with different cooking techniques, it will become an ever-changing Ma Jiexiu cuisine.
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