There are a lot of fish in China. For many foreigners, eating fish is a very difficult thing. The smell of fish and the tiny fish bones are unbearable. defects. But from a Chinese perspective, the delicacies of fish are obvious. Stewing, making soup, and shabu-shabu are all very good cooking methods.
Among the many fish species, if you want Chinese people to find their favorite fish, everyone must have different choices. But a kind of fish is very different, because this kind of fish is not very well-known when it is fresh. After being left for a period of time, the taste turns into a strong odor, and it has become a classic Chinese snack. Even if you have never eaten it or even seen it, , you have also heard its name.
These fish are bream, which some people call "osmanthus fish". Because the fish meat is extremely delicious, it is also called "capybara". The capybara here does not refer to the Japanese type. The animals that always go to hot springs are obviously fish, but they have the same fresh taste as pufferfish, so they are called "capybaras" and are a delicacy among seafood.
When bream is fresh, few people care about it because there are many delicious varieties of fish. But once the bream emits a stink, everyone will limit their attention to it, because the bream will evolve into a "stinky mandarin fish" and the smell will immediately change.
Huangshan smelly mandarin fish, I believe you must have heard its name. As a Huizhou specialty delicacy, stinky mandarin fish is so famous that many good friends who visit Anhui cannot help but order a piece of Huangshan stinky mandarin fish to taste. In Huangshan, residents there have a saying, "Don't eat fish if it doesn't stink." No one hurts fresh bream, but smelly bream is considered a commodity. The unique smell can make people eat several bowls of rice. .
Legend, the origin of the smelly mandarin fish came from an accident. Anhui's commercial services have been relatively developed since ancient times. Many Anhui merchants set out from here to do business. Since transportation was not that developed in the past, Hui merchants usually went out for ten days and half a month, which was very energy-consuming. Once upon a time, an Huizhou merchant went out to do business and once took a boat home to visit relatives. The Huizhou merchant originally brought a bream with him to give to his wife and children to taste, but because of the long journey and the hot weather, the bream was not well preserved and had a peculiar smell.
The wife of the Huizhou merchants felt sorry for the Huizhou merchants, who had traveled thousands of miles to go home, and the bream they brought over still smelled bad, so they were reluctant to throw them away. I cooked this stinky mandarin fish with thick oil and red sauce, which was self-defeating. The smell of the stinky mandarin fish seemed to be stinky but not smelly, and the slight odor actually made people appetizing. The Huizhou merchants were very happy after tasting it, so they promoted the recipe of stinky mandarin fish. People in the village started to learn and train the stinky mandarin fish, and the stinky mandarin fish became a classic dish in Huizhou and a signature dish of Huangshan.
Nowadays, the way to make stinky mandarin fish is no longer as in the myth, where you store the bream for a few days and wait for it to become smelly. Instead, we buy fresh bream, do not scrape the fish scales, apply a layer of salt and marinate it until the smell of the bream turns stinky, then add the sauce and bake it, and the smelly bream is made that smells stinky and tastes delicious. , the most delicious when used with meals. If you still have the opportunity to travel to Anhui for vacation, you must taste the smell of this smelly mandarin fish.