A long time ago, an orphan XiaoWu was adopted by an old man who gave him his daughter. One day the old man suddenly fell ill and wanted to eat fresh fish when he was dying, and Xiao Wu risked going to sea. The daughter stood by her mother's side and said, "Xiao Wu will be back in a moment." After hearing this, the old man said, "Good boy, it's hard for Xiao Wu, it's over, it's over." Before he could finish speaking, he swallowed his breath. At this moment, Xiao Wu ran back with a large fresh fish, but the old man had died. Since then, Xiao Wu and his wife have to offer this big fish that was just caught in the early spring in front of the old man's grave every year, and name this fish "Mackerel" according to the old man's mouth saying "just stop".
Sending a few fresh mackerel to your father-in-law and mother-in-law in spring is an ancient tradition of Qingdao people rich in cultural significance, expressing the gratitude and filial piety of the younger generations to their elders, and this custom has been determined as the intangible cultural heritage of Laoshan District of Qingdao City.
In Qingdao, the larger the mackerel given to the mother-in-law, the better, and there are many ways to get them. Smoked mackerel, grilled mackerel, braised mackerel, crispy mackerel, mackerel dumplings, mackerel ball soup, mackerel braised bread, tomato stewed mackerel... At the end of April and the beginning of May, a large number of local mackerel are on the market, and the price of mackerel will rise with the demand for gifts from the public. After "May Day", the price will fall sharply. In addition, there are thousands of tons of mackerel listed from Shazikou Fishing Port in Laoshan District every year, accounting for more than 70% of the sales volume of the entire Qingdao market, so Shazikou has the reputation of "mackerel town", if you want to be cheap, come to Shazikou!
Li Yao, a reporter for the poster news of the mass network, reported from Yu Miao and Qingdao