Text/Willow Shade
When I was a child, the family killed a little rooster, and the chicken head was always mine. Eating chicken head requires grasping and eating with your hands to enjoy it. First tear your mouth open, eat the scraps of flesh on the bones, of course, you can't forget the chicken tongue, that's a good thing. Chicken crowns are also delicious and fatty. The outward flesh of a chicken head was thus nibbled clean. Then, with a slight bump of the upper and lower teeth, the chicken brain was exposed, only the white fruit was large, which was the soul of the chicken head, and gently sucked in and slid into the throat. Although the chicken head meat is small, the taste is very delicious.
Everyone in the circle of friends knows my hobbies, and every time I eat roast chicken, I leave the chicken head for me. The chicken head is big, there are two or two, the chicken crown is also large, the chicken brain is also more, and it is delicious. Later, I heard that Wenzhou people also love to eat chicken heads, and there are merchants who specialize in brine chicken heads, it is said that there is a hometown Bahru merchant brine chicken heads are not generally delicious, but unfortunately there is no chance to taste, some regrets.
Braised chicken head
In fact, the rabbit head is better, larger than the chicken head, and it is more enjoyable to nibble. Nibbling on the head of a rabbit is a slow job, and it is not urgent to get up, just like Shanghainese people eat crabs, and not a trace of meat can be spared. When the author was running a restaurant, rabbit heads never dared to sell, and good things were naturally left for myself to taste. A rabbit head three or two shochu, the mellow aroma of shochu mixed with the fresh aroma of rabbit head, the ordinary life is noisy and flavorful.
Chongqing people also love to eat rabbit head, spicy and fragrant, eat hot mouth, appetizing, nibble one, and then another, eat addicted, can not stop at all. Rabbit brain, rabbit eyes, rabbit tongue, the same can not be let go. The lean flesh drilled in the cracks of the bones can not be spared, with a toothpick to pick out finely, the meat in the cracks of the bones is the most fragrant. There is not much meat itself, eating is a mouthful of spicy, eating rabbit head, you need to fully mobilize the mouth, lips, tongue, in order to taste the taste of rabbit head magic.
Spicy rabbit head
Falling in love with the sheep's head was when I was working in Jiangyin in my early years. There is a dilapidated alley next to the unit, actually called Nanhao Street, the alley is not wide, nor long, only about 40 meters, but it is very lively. There was an old woman in the alley who specialized in sheep's head soup. In the evening, after work, sit in her old little shop, ask for a bowl of sheep's head soup, and then bake a baked cake in the oven, and start a simple night life. The sheep's head soup is milky white, with sheep's head meat, sheep eyes, sheep tongue, sheep's blood, and a layer of turquoise garlic leaves floating on it. On a big winter night, drinking a hot mutton soup, full of warmth, forgetting fatigue, forgetting the cold.
The one who can make the sheep's head tall and noble should be regarded as an old Beijinger. Beijing has a famous dish called "white water sheep's head", the knife work is exquisite, the finished product is white and clean, the meat slices are large and thin, dipped in special pepper and salt to eat, soft and crisp, mellow and not greasy, unique flavor. I don't have many opportunities to go to Beijing, and I have been there twice. There is a restaurant on Baiqiao Street that focuses on white water sheep's head, called "Li Ji sheep's head", I had the pleasure of tasting it, the sheep's head meat was neatly stacked on the plate, a whole sheep's head, sheep's ears, sheep's tongue, and sheep's eyes were inside, crystal clear and pleasing to the eye. Taste it, soft and crisp, mellow and not greasy. The author also tried to do it a few times, the taste is similar, but can not reach the "crisp" texture, so I gave up promoting in my own store.
White water sheep's head
Duck heads are not called to eat, to be nibbled, to nibble on duck heads. Going to Wuhan that year was a return visit to a literary friend. Wuhan people can eat spicy, a five-seven oil braised prawns is enough to let you appreciate the "pepper addiction" of Wuhan people. Wuhan people can nibble on the head more, duck head, rabbit head, pig head, are delicious, the head is not called the head, called "brain wide", "pig brain wide", "duck brain wide". In Wuhan, there are duck heads sold in the streets and alleys, remember that there is a family called "Eight Commandments of Duck Heads", the duck heads are very bad, easily divided into two, and then put half of the duck heads into the mouth, with teeth to tear off the largest piece of meat outside. The first taste is hemp, followed by a spicy taste sweeping between the tongues, the duck head meat tastes extremely soft, even the bones are soft, I want to eat it with bone and meat. A duck's head was finished, and beads of sweat appeared on the tip of his eyebrows.
Whether it is in my second hometown of Changzhou or my hometown of Taizhou, I have the habit of nibbling on duck heads. The southern duck head is brine, ruddy, salty and fresh, the heat is just right, and the duck skin is as elastic as a rubber band. In fact, I have not seen others nibble on the duck head, and the strength to see others nibbling on the duck head seems to be very delicious, and the saliva has already rolled in the throat. In fact, girls like to nibble on duck heads the most, and also gave birth to a pair of eternity absolutes: yatou nibbles on duck heads, and yatou feels that duck heads are salty; outside the garden, outside the garden, clean members outside the garden. In "Dream of the Red Chamber", there is a section describing a woman nibbling on a duck head: "Shi Xiangyun ate wine, picked a piece of duck meat to sip, and suddenly saw that there was half a duck head in the bowl, so he picked it out and ate his brain." "The essence of the duck head is the duck brain, which is as tender as the inner fat tofu."
Marinated duck head
It is said that eating fish heads is smart, Baidu Cloud: Fish heads have high nutrition, good taste, rich in essential lecithin and unsaturated fatty acids. It helps to enhance male sexual function, and has benefits for lowering blood lipids, strengthening the brain and delaying aging. The vast majority of people only know that the head of the fat head fish is delicious, known as "silver head, meat steamed buns", stew a pot of casserole fish head, soup color milky white thick, fish head meat smooth and tender fat. However, the heads of other freshwater fish are also good things.
Since I was a child, the author has a special love for fish heads, as long as it is a fish head, as large as the head of the carp, as small as the head of the crucian carp, are delicious. The head of the little milk carp is also the size of a coin, but the head contains a little-known delicacy, gently suck the fish lip into the mouth, the skull at the mouth of the fish becomes a hole, gently suck, "grunt" a sound, the fish brain marrow sucks the throat mouth, fat and smooth, the entrance is melted. Take the black fish head, a brain shell of a hard stick, and there is not much meat, however, if you use it to stew a pot of fish head tofu soup, it is absolutely delicious, and there are two pieces of meat on both sides of the main fish face, white as jade, tender and delicious.
When doing catering, I often go to the aquatic products wholesale market to get fish, and the fish killer often chops off the head of the grass carp and throws it aside, that thing is so cheap that you dare not imagine, one dollar or two, the author often buys one or twenty to bring back to relieve hunger. After washing the fish head, use rice wine, salt, green onion and ginger to remove the fishy taste, spread garlic on the casserole, yard the fish head in the casserole, make a spicy baked fish head, both under the wine, but also under the rice, but also the two pieces of meat on the chin of the main fish, the meat is firm, full of fresh mouth, rare delicious.
Casserole baked fish head
As for the pig's head, it is not a rarity, from snacks to large, and from large to old, but it has not been eaten. In the 1970s and 1980s, Chinese New Year's Eve family roasted pork head meat, a large rosy pot was served on the table, a large piece of food, a big chew, that is called pain. As for the grilled whole pig's head, it is even more flavorful, soft and rotten in the mouth, fat but not greasy. The most delicious is the pig's eyes, lips, ladder and two pieces of peach meat on both sides of the cheek, the famous Song Dynasty minister Wang Quanbin has the "Pig Head Poem" as evidence: "The long hair of the mouth is short and shallow, and it has been eating medicinal seedlings in the mountains for a long time." The banana leaves are wrapped in steaming and poured with apricot pulp when cooked. Red fresh and elegant called golden plate, soft incense is really jade pick. If you compare the roots together, the roots will only eat the vines. ”
Even now, every mid-winter season, the weather is cold, the author will be hand-pickled salted pig head, after the pig head is marinated, hung until the sun to get oil, hung to the ventilation place for several months will not deteriorate. When you want to eat, cut a piece, soak some of the salty in the rice water, scrape it clean and put it in the rice pot to steam, the fat of the pig's head penetrates into the rice, the pulp of the rice penetrates into the pork head meat, the rice is fragrant, the pork head meat is sticky, it has a unique flavor, I have to take out a bottle of old cellar hidden under the bed, drunk with the breeze, drunk with the bright moon.
White simmered salted pig's head
The headlines are full of foodies, and I believe that many friends are like me, and this bite is also good. "I'd rather be a chicken head than a phoenix tail" has become "rather nibble on a chicken head than eat a phoenix leg" in my eyes. What other heads do you like to eat? Share it in the comments section. Follow @Liu Chengyin LCY and share more excitement with you every day.