Part 1: eating raw fish when studying abroad
To study in Japan, half work-study, poor days three meals three days and nine meals, are the same piece of salted fish, once the money to eat a lot of food.
Sushi is the most expensive, initially only to choose one of the price of cheap MAGURO, deep red color. Hong Kong people still look down on, but really in the Sea of Japan to catch the "real tuna HON MAGURO", than in recent years from India or Spain to the tuna fish belly TORO more flavor, sometimes marinated in soy sauce for a bell, sliced on the table, is a high-class food, and the Japanese people to talk about eating sashimi, if you say that you appreciate the MAGURO, they will be in awe.
In fact, TORO is too oily and greasy to compare to "onyx shima aji". This fish is inexpensive and delicious, but not too many people know how to eat it.
Japanese people eat fish, to cut neatly and beautifully, the belly side of the most fat fish oil cream is also thrown away, I instructed the master to scrape the layer of TORO fat cream, slightly burned with a musket, delicious.
Bonito KATSUO can also be eaten raw, but be sure to put the skin and stomach part of the fire a burn, once saw the domestic people so raw? to eat, a little scary, because bonito skin and belly have parasites, especially its belly, parasites grow into a grain of yellow sores, not burn is not possible. Skipjack tuna dried hard like wood, we commonly known as wood fish, wood fish scraped out of the silk can be boiled in soup or put on top of the tofu, a drizzle of soy sauce, as if it will move.
Eating sashimi has been a part of Hong Kong people's lives, and they are very familiar with it, so I won't go into the details of other fish, but I will say that I have tasted some strange and bizarre ones during my study abroad years.
In Hokkaido there is a kind of called "octagonal HAKKAKU", the fish body is really octagonal, eight raised scales and bones, do not see also do not believe that this fish peeled and sliced into a sashimi, the meat, although not much, but very sweet.
The same in Hokkaido, there is a kind of stone fish, the name is called GOKO, a lifetime of sticking to the rocks, motionless, do not have to swim, bone degradation, only cartilage, chopped into pieces to cook noodle and black bean soup, the texture and flavor are good.
The appearance of strange ugly known as "tiger fish" OKOSE, legend has it that the hunter went to the mountains, must bring this fish in the body, because there is a demon in the mountains, called for the ugly woman of the mountain god, when encountered her, take out the dried tiger fish. Found that there are more ugly than their own, great joy, will let go of the hunter does not go to eat him. In real life, the tiger fish cut into sashimi, there is a light fragrance, very delicious.
Speaking of ugly, the stone fish "Anko" is also impressive, when I first came to Japan in Shinjuku, outside the kiosk, hanging with an iron hook, half a man high. Because it is cartilaginous, the weight of its flesh will break its guts when it is out of the water, and the whole fish will be thrown away. The fish is divided into seven parts, including the liver, which can be eaten raw or cooked. Shark fins. Ovaries. Willow flesh*** including cheeks***. Stomach. Gills. VII. Skin. When you cook it in a pot with all the parts, it is called "pot ANKO NABE".
The one called MANBO is the "cartwheel fish", the English SUNFISH, which is literally as round as the sun. It has two huge wings on its tail, thick skin and little meat. The sashimi of the fish is snow-white in color and has a very unique flavor, which is good when you are used to eating it, or you can cook it with black beans and eat the skin with vinegar.
Talking back to the more normal shaped fish, salmon Japanese call "salmon", divided into white salmon, sockeye salmon and hime salmon, salmon can still be seen in the river from the sea swim into the spawning, but this time it has been deformed, jaw up, hideous and terrible, no one dares to eat it, except for grizzly bears.
Japanese people have long known that salmon is very parasitic, never eaten raw, most of them salted, sliced and burned or boiled, that is, when I was poor, the main food. Once you get a paycheck to eat salmon roe IKURA, fresh and never dead salty, is the world's delicious. But rarely can taste ***, only once in Niigata Prefecture to do the "Murakami Banquet" ate, including the salmon head cartilage, called "ice head", pickled in vinegar, and salted stomach and intestines, a *** twenty-two products.
The belly side of salmon is called harasu, which used to be cut up and thrown away, but today it is also sold in bags, and it is the most fatty and flavorful, and high-class sushi stores will also burn it for you to eat. You can buy it from the Tsukiji fish market and fry it without using any oil, and it is also a food for the immortals.
Along with salmon, catfish, which are the sweetest and tastiest in summer, swim back into the streams to spawn, and are known as "fragrant fish" in Taiwan. Strangely enough, when you grab a live fish in your hand and smell it on your nose, it doesn't smell fishy at all, and it smells like cucumber.
Catfish is usually burned to eat, I believe we have tried, rare is its intestines and liver marinated in noodle sauce, called URUKA, that bitter flavor, very addictive.
Speaking of offal, Hong Kong people's biggest misunderstanding is the roe called crab roe, that crisp and crunchy texture, arising from flying fish. Another piece of very hard Japanese called "counting the roe", that is the eggs of the fish bundle fish.
The most famous type of roe is the mullet, also known as "mullet" or "mullet", which is divided into freshwater and saltwater. Sea fish is larger to make the roe Karasumi, the Japanese called "Tang ink", looks like the Tang Dynasty when the imported to Japan ink bars. Later, it was spread to Taiwan and was developed by them, and the general public thought that it was Taiwan that first learned to eat the roe of the otoro.
The most precious fish roe I've ever eaten is that of puffer fish, which is salted and takes three years to detoxify for a drink, and is nothing special, but is salty in flavor.
The puffer fish, of course, can not be talked about, first of all, the meat to cook the soup, the sweetness, a meal addictive. The marvelous thing is that it is not fishy even when it is cold. Eat sashimi, the first time I felt very hard meat, not much to eat, but to the second or third time, chewing, full of sweet liquid, only to realize why we have to desperately die to eat.
Sin, sin, sin. Also tried the whale, it is a treasure, subcutaneous fat called Bergen, because like fat pork. The small intestine is called the hundred search, the stomach is called Tingji, the kidney is called the bean, and *** can also eat, but the tail of the meat is the most beautiful, not worse than TORO, only to know why the Japanese are so obsessed with love.
In Japan also ate countless fish, eaten raw is good, but with sake and soy sauce to cook, and not inferior to the Hong Kong people's steamed fish, especially the tail called KINKI's "Xi Zhi times", a layer of fat under the skin, never get tired of eating.
There are countless other types of fish, too numerous to mention. After studying abroad, I wandered to various countries, and on the one hand, I worked for a movie, and went overseas to eat fish.
Part 2: Noodle Nerd
I don't remember when I became a noodle nerd. I only know that since I was a child, my mother told me to eat white rice, I always push three push four; encounter noodles, I grab, afraid to give my brothers and sisters first sweeping light. "Three hundred and sixty-five days a year, every day for you to eat noodles, okay?" Mom asked with a smile. I nodded my head vigorously in a very serious manner.
First time out of the country, to Kuala Lumpur, the open space across from the Federal Hotel is a cab stand, specializing in long-distance buses to the Cameron Highlands, three or four people who do not know each other can **** ride one. Late at night, I saw a hawker stall called "drooling", serving cab drivers. Hungry, eat so a dish, delicious, from the face of the poison deeper.
This is a kind of Hokkien fried noodles, only in Kuala Lumpur, I grew up to go to Fujian, but I have never eaten the same flavor of things. First, there were the noodles, which, unlike the usual yellow oily noodles, were thicker than Japanese udon and cut into long, quadrangular strips.
Down with a generous amount of lard, stir-fried on one side and sprinkled with ground earthfish and lard residue, the aroma is predictably sweet, with a sweetness that is drizzled with thick, dark soy sauce, like the kind you'd find on Hainanese chicken rice.
The ingredients are only a few small pieces of squid and sliced meat, fried to seven mature, sprinkled a handful of cabbage bean sprouts and lard residue into it, on the lid of the pot, so that the juice braised into the noodles, open the lid of the pot, and then turn the pocket for a few times, a dish of black, oily Fujian fried noodles is complete.
After having a girlfriend in Kuala Lumpur, you can go back again and again, and eat Hokkien fried noodles again and again, there is a stall behind the bank, there is a stall in the satellite city of PJ, and there is also the most famous Tsz Chien Street "Golden Lotus Kee".
The first contact with the wonton noodle I also like, I remember is the "big world of amusement park" in the hawker stalls from Guangzhou, the stall owner and staff are all one person to do. Even the factory is also a contractor. In the morning, he used a bamboo liter to beat the noodles, and in the afternoon, he used pork bones and big fish to roll the soup, and then sold the noodles in the evening. He was also in charge of the publicity department, knocking the bamboo chips to a resounding thud.
The soup and noodles are authentic, except for the barbecued pork. The pork is made entirely of lean, coated with malt sugar, and burned only red, not burnt black, because it doesn't come with fat, so it can't be burned red and black. Since then, a lineage, the Southern Ocean barbecue pork noodles with barbecue pork, are withered and thin. Some hawkers have also learned the craft poorly, difficult to eat to death, but this difficult flavor has become nostalgia, will be specifically looking for to eat.
Nanyang's wonton noodle has its own style, I love to eat is dry fishing, in the empty dish under the black vinegar, soy sauce, tomato sauce, hot sauce. The noodles are strained, drained and mixed into the sauce, topped with a few strips of vegetable hearts, not too fat and not too pretty in the Southern weather, and a few slices of snow-white, reddish barbecue pork.
A small bowl of soup is also served, with a few wontons in the soup, wrapped very small, with a lot of skin and little filling. The fatal lure was a generous amount of lard drippings, and sweet and sour green chili peppers in that small dish of soy sauce, with which one could eat three plates in a row without adding anything to the mix, for the noodle portion was small in the end.
When I arrived in Japan in the 1960s, their economy hadn't yet taken off and people's livelihoods were quite poor. The station at the west exit of Shinjuku was made of wood, and when you stepped out, there were still stragglers under the bridge, and their late-night snack was ramen from hawker stalls.
Come up and try a bowl, what kind of noodles are those? The soup has no meat flavor at all, it is made with soy sauce and water, and of course a lot of monosodium glutamate (MSG), but the price is cheap, so it is the best choice.
The Japanese ramen we eat today is the result of decades of refinement, and only then what pork bone soup, black bean soup base, if you eat the original Japanese ramen now, you will certainly spit out.
Instant noodles were only invented in those days too, but arguably just as tasty as today's offerings before they became addictive, or forced to be! That was the cheapest and most convenient food back then, and the family bought it by the box, twenty-four packets in a box, and with a young appetite, they had to eat five or six boxes a month.
What? I'm not going to be able to get a good deal on this. I'm not a bad guy at all, but as soon as my salary is paid, I treat myself to a meal, and my visiting friends don't know how expensive things are in Japan, so I often eat eighty-nine-tenths of my income for a single meal, and then the rest is for transportation and instant noodles.
The most primitive instant noodles, in addition to the packet of monosodium glutamate (MSG) powder, there are two slices of dried bamboo shoots wrapped in transparent plastic paper, which is more luxurious than what is available today without any material, remember that you don't have to cook them, and soak them in boiling water on the line. Doctors advise that too much MSG is harmful to the body, and some old ladies say that there is a layer of wax on the outside of the instant noodles, so if you eat too much of it, it will accumulate in your stomach. It's total nonsense. Instant noodles are a boon, and I've been eating them for decades, and I'm still alive and well.
Traveling to South Korea, their noodles are made from mixed grains and are hard and tough. For the first time in my life, I had a big bowl of cold noodles with a few pieces of ice floating on top, which the waiter cut with scissors before I could swallow.
But this kind of noodle can also eat addictive, especially dry fishing, mixed with spicy, fragrant and sweet sauce into it, never get tired of eating, and still like, but also made into instant noodles, often buy to eat.
As for the kind of instant noodle soup called "Xin", I stay away from, although I can eat spicy, but I can not drink spicy soup, a drink of the throat will be red and swollen, desperately coughing up cough.
Today's Korea as a national food fried noodles, that is the specialty of Shandong immigrants, that is called that pull. Into the restaurant, a call for noodles will hear the bang bang touch the sound of ramen, what material is not, only a dark sauce, plus a few slices of onion, eat ah eat ah, into the Korean people's favorite thing, a foreign country, the most want to eat is the bowl of fried noodles, and the people of Hong Kong miss the same as the wonton noodle.
Speaking and remembering a little episode, a group of our friends, there is a painter, broke an arm in elementary school, he is an orphan, fell in love with another Chinese daughter, we went to his girlfriend's father to make a match, the guy said my daughter to marry a man who can pull noodles, we are furious, said you know that we are a friend of one-armed, but also can pull what noodles? Said he was going to hit someone and that father got away.
When I went to Europe, I realized that the Italians love noodles so much, but they don't call them noodles, they call them flour. You are what you eat; the Italians eat pasta, but it's totally different from ours, they cook the pasta and rice half-cooked from the beginning and say that's the most "toothsome" or "biting", which I don't agree with at all.
The only thing I could accept was the "angel's hair" ***Capflli D'angelo***, which is similar to wonton noodles. Later, after living in Italy for a long time, I could also appreciate their thick pasta, the so-called spaghetti.
It's not easy to make spaghetti, but it's usually perfected by following the instructions printed on the paper and adding a minute or two. In Italy, there is a type of Mediterranean shrimp whose heads turn black from freezing and whose flesh is a bit moldy. But don't underestimate this kind of shrimp, use a few tails to mix with spaghetti, it is the world's delicious.
No other shrimp will do. With Hong Kong shrimp, even if it is alive, it does not have that Mediterranean sea water flavor. It's abstract to talk about, but those who have tried it will know what I'm talking about.
There is also spaghetti sprinkled with udon roe, which the Taiwanese don't know about, thinking that udon roe is only eaten by Taiwanese and Japanese. Spaghetti sprinkled with powdered cheese never blends with the pasta itself. Cheese is cheese, powder is powder, but there is a cooking method that takes a piece of cheese as big as a chef's chopping board, digs it deep to become a tripod, strains the pasta and puts it in to strain the pasta, and then fishes it in for mixing, and that's what makes it the best spaghetti.
In the former Yugoslavia, I couldn't find pasta. Later, when I lived there for a long time, I realized that there is a kind of chicken noodle, as thin as a toothpick, and as long as a toothpick, so it is very easy to cook. After rolling the soup, sprinkle a handful of put in, that is done. Because there is no wonton noodle to eat, take it as it is, very little soup, more noodles, comfort nostalgia.
Going to India, looking for hours to eat Indian fried noodles, it under a lot of tomato sauce and soy sauce to fry, the ingredients are only some cabbage, boiled sweet potato pieces, beans and a little bit of lamb, fried noodles completely broken, is my favorite. But no luck finding it; it turns out that the kind of Indian fried noodles I ate were invented by Indians who immigrated to the South Seas.
Living in Taiwan in those years, the noodles eat the most, that year, there is still a legacy of Fujian, fried Fujian noodles are very authentic, using, of course, yellow oil noodles, under a lot of material, counting sliced pork, squid, oysters and eggs. The noodles are fried half-cooked, then put down a big bowl of soup, put the lid on, and braise them until they are cooked, which is really delicious, and you'll have a great time eating them.
The local people do called the cut son noodles, the so-called cut, is the meaning of strain. Cut, can also be really cut, the pig lungs, pig liver, smoked blackfish and other slices, cut a pass, also known as "black and white cut", sprinkled with shredded ginger, drizzled with thick soya sauce cream as a material, very rich, is my never get tired of eating.
The best thing they do is, of course, the "Duo Xiao Yue" style of Dan Zai Noodles, where the noodles are strained and cooked, then a teaspoonful of minced meat sauce is poured over them. The tradition is still alive and well today, and there is always a vat of meat sauce on the noodle stretcher, and when you eat it, you get a ball of rice or half a marinated egg, and on top of it you have sprouts and chives. The most important thing is the crispy fried red onion, which Hong Kong people call dried onion.
Returning to Hong Kong and settling down, I also ate the noodles made by the Shanghainese people, without eggs, and without lye, which is not fragrant and does not pop the teeth. This kind of noodle I think no flavor, just instead of rice to fill belly only, but Shanghai friends never agree, scolded me do not know how to appreciate, of course I do not care.
Shanghai noodles is the best coarse fried, thick oil and sauce will be fried up, under a large number of cabbage, meat is very little, but I like to eat, as for their simmering noodles, boiled soft, I have little interest. The burnt head, equal to a small dish of vegetables. A big bowl of noodles in a soup with no flavor whatsoever, topped with the dish, is ready. I don't think it's anything special either. My favorite is the noodles with scallion oil. The scallions are sliced and caramelized in oil, and the noodles are tossed with this without adding any ingredients, and they are very tasty. Unfortunately, when I go to a Shanghai restaurant today and ask for this kind of noodle, they all shake their heads when I ask if it is served with lard. If you don't use lard to mix noodles with scallion oil, you might as well eat styrofoam. There is also a workaround, that is, another call for a guest braised hooves, fishing up lard, used to mix noodles.
Hong Kong what noodles have, but the Thai dry noodles called Ba-Mi Hang, it is rare, I repeatedly advocate this street food, today in Kowloon City, there are a few people are willing to do, with lard, burned good minced pork, pork liver and pork meatballs, sprinkled with fried dried onions and garlic paste, under a large number of lard residue, there are countless other ingredients, the noodles, on the contrary, is a small handful of just, but also is my favorite.
When I want to eat noodles like crazy, I can make my own, and I eat a different kind of noodle for breakfast every day, and my domestic helpers are so trained that they can go back to their hometowns and open noodle stores. On Mondays, I make wonton noodles, on Tuesdays I make Hakka noodles with tea oil, on Wednesdays I make beef noodles, on Thursdays I make fried noodles, on Fridays I make marinated noodles, on Saturdays I make shrimp noodles from the South Seas, and on Sundays I make Choy's Fried Noodles.
Caijia fried noodles to bear the tradition of Fujian fried noodles, with oil noodles, first lard popped garlic, put noodles into the pot, frying a pass, see the noodles are too dry, it is under the soup simmering, and then frying, to see the dry, playing two or three eggs, and noodles mixed in a piece of this time under the slices of preserved sausage, fish cakes and shrimp, and then frying, and other materials are cooked, under the thick black soy sauce and fish sauce taste, this time you can put the bean sprouts and chives, and then stir-fried on the lid of the pot!
These are the most important things that you can do to make a good meal, and they are the most important things that you can do to make a good meal.
Dreaming of eating noodles. Satiety can no longer hold into the belly, the Chinese say full, patting the stomach; Japanese say full, with a hand on the neck; Spaniards eat full, is pointing to the ears with both hands to show that has been full from both ears out. I dream, most of the flow out of the noodles.
Part 3: Fish Eaten While Traveling
Taking a boat from Kokura, Japan, arriving in Busan, South Korea, and then taking a train, stopping at one stop to enjoy the local seafood, and finally arriving in Seoul*** present-day Seoul***.
Japan's over-capture, fish and shrimp has been less, but Korea's still very rich, the price is cheap to the extreme. See the tank of live fish, call the waiter? to eat, the Japanese rarely fish guts as sashimi, Koreans eat all, intestines and liver eaten raw is very delicious, the former crisp, the latter soft and sweet.
They do up gold stains, the raw fish intestines sandwiched between the cabbage inside the pickle, so that its flavor is intricate, but also a culture. The strangest of all is the devil's fish, which is pickled and fermented and stinks, but once you're addicted to it, you want to eat it again.
Another kind of sea eel, living on the seabed, open the mouth, there are floating animals to eat, the eyes gradually degraded, blind; the body is also up to the mutation, the bones are gone. Fishermen fish up a handful of dozens of tails, with straw to build a fire, the blind eel thrown in, a short while, the skin scorched. Hand grasp, forward a stroke, revealing white meat, then eat up, not tough, have bite, chewing under a burst of sweet, very delicious.
Going to Europe, the main dish on the menu always have a choice of fish and meat, I never call the former. Because the foreigners eat fish, come and go is cod HAKE, grouper GROUPER, Lapfish SEA BEAM and the same family RED SNAPPER, mackerel MACKEREL, amberjack YELLOW TAIL, halibut SOLE and sea bass SEA BASS, and of course the most is salmon and tuna.
The fish is wild, fresh and sweet, innocent in itself, but the practice is not afraid to appreciate, either baked or boiled, never steamed. And how to do it all, must squeeze lemon juice into it, these two ingredients never cooperate, is a bad habit left over from the former do not fresh fish.
In the United States from time to time to see the trout swimming in the water, colorful, called "rainbow trout RAINBOW TROUT". I was so happy that I bought it and steamed it, but the meat was rough and the flavor was so strange that I couldn't swallow it.
Think no fish to eat, to the Netherlands, see the street vendors selling herring, pickled and fermented so swallowed whole. Tried a tail, ah, sweet and fat, and not at all fishy, really delicious.
Pickled Portuguese favorite, the Macau people called "Magahue", I'm sorry, I do not feel what flavor. On the contrary, in Portugal, when the Sardinia Festival, we do not do anything, the big celebration, eat when made Sardinia, meat fine, oil and more, that is really a treasure.
To the neighboring country of Spain, the deepest impression is the young eel. With a pottery bowl, burning red, under the olive oil and a lot of garlic, on the lid, off the fire, the residual heat of the fish baked, delicious and still unforgettable.
On the small island of Ibiza IBIZA, lived a group of old hippies, they traveled all over the world, enjoying all the delicious, landed in the local seafood restaurant, the choice of halibut FLOUNDER, only sold its edge of the part, grabbing the long bones, sucking and chewing on the bone side of the young meat and gelatinous fish gelatin, is a delicacy that can not be eaten with other fish.
Scottish salmon, smoked, is delicious, but otherwise, boiled or fried, not much to eat. FISH'N CHIPS in England, they can't live without it, but I've never lived there long enough to appreciate it because it's not fresh fish.
When I went to Italy, I realized that they also eat fish roe, salted and dried, crushed and sprinkled on pasta. Among the roe, the best quality comes from the Greek islands, and has been wrapped up by a famous French store, sealed with wax, and sold at a price higher than gold, and the French also send slices of wine.
But among the world's caviar, the most precious is of course caviar. Sturgeon from the sea swim into the river, in Russia on the banks of the Volga River, fishermen caught a large sturgeon, that is? Belly, take out the roe, salt is not put, so send strong vodka, a handful of hands to eat, not in vain.
If the octopus is also regarded as fish, then the countries around the Mediterranean Sea octopus is the most delicious, with an iron net clamped, on the charcoal burning, under the olive oil and salt, but also less lemon juice. I found that the original is not hard at all, the Mediterranean species and other different, can not be compared, if the same concoction with the octopus bought in Hong Kong market, it must be as tough as chewing the soles of shoes.
Buye Pace fish soup eaten on the Marseille beach, and other places are completely different, with fishermen in the sea on the day of the catch of miscellaneous fish to cook. Those varieties are unique to Marseille. The word "soup" is not used because drinking the soup is only a part of it. The main part is to eat those miscellaneous fish fished out of the soup, which is exceptionally sweet.
Turkey, Istanbul, the sea, see a fishing boat on the sale of fish, are roasted on the fire, and not afraid of the boat was burned down. All kinds of fish, mainly mackerel, baked a tail to sell a tail, but also because it is the same day to catch the sake, or eat over.
Back in Taiwan, eat the meat is the most delicate, flavor the most fragrant is their "flower jump", this is a kind of mud fish, living in the mud, look like Macao's fish, but ten times sweeter than it. A few tails of this fish can be used to make ginger soup, which is already sweet and does not need to be flavored with monosodium glutamate. There is another way to eat this fish, and that is to roast it on charcoal, but the restaurant thinks it takes too much time and it has been lost.
Tuna tuna sold in the Tsukiji market, because it has been shipped too long, has been frozen like a big ****, head and guts are removed, so as not to rot. But in Kaohsiung near the East Harbor, not far from the sea can be caught black tuna, viscera are still fresh, you can do all kinds of dishes, such as fish intestines brined, the heart used to cook, liver steamed with garlic, fish spine soup, sucking the bone marrow in the middle, the head of the fish baked, the eyes are as big as an apple, people who love to eat the fish eye can be happy.
The mainland's Mandarin fish, sturgeon, fish, fish, white fish, Wuchang fish and sea bass and so famous throughout the world, but for me, this is not from the childhood to the big people, is not too know how to appreciate.