After the fish is deboned, it is chopped into surimi, added sweet potato flour and stirred into fish syrup, grabbed the appropriate amount of fish syrup as the crust, wrapped in pork filling, squeezed out of the tiger's mouth, cooked in the pot, and the fragrant and smooth fish balls are formed. Traditional handmade Fuzhou fish balls have preserved nostalgia for countless people in the coastal areas of Fujian.
The scene of the fish ball stall in the Fuzhou Fish Ball Museum is reproduced. (Photo by Deng Qianqian, Xinhua News Agency)
There is a saying in Mindi that "no fish balls are no seats", and fish balls are one of the traditional foods that must be required for new year festivals in Fujian and other regions. Zhang Zhenying, an expert in literature and history in Lianjiang County, said that as early as the Ming and Qing dynasties, the local people who relied on the sea to eat the sea repeatedly tried to do it and studied techniques in their daily lives, and successfully preserved the fish meat through the method of making pills. Soon, fish balls rose in coastal areas such as Lianjiang and Jinjiang in Fujian Province, becoming a common food snack in people's homes, and fish ball shops and stalls gradually spread throughout Fuzhou City.
"When I was a child, as soon as I heard the sound of knocking on the bowl with a spoon and shouting, I knew that it was a fish ball seller. We'll catch up and buy a bowl to get over the hook. When it comes to fish balls, "post-80s" Zhang Bin's memories are full of childhood joy. She said that every New Year's Day, the family often makes their own fish balls, a pack, a squeeze, a scoop, the elders' "busy" is to understand the children's "hunger".
In recent years, with the upgrading of industrialization, the production of Fuzhou fish balls has gradually developed from the traditional small workshop manual to standardization, mechanization and scale. At present, Fuzhou fish balls are well-known at home and abroad, sold to many countries and regions, and have become a taste of nostalgia in the hearts of many people.
Young tourists watch a documentary at the Fuzhou Fish Ball Museum. (Photo by Deng Qianqian, Xinhua News Agency)
Today, Fuzhou Fish Ball has entered the museum to show more people the reunion taste it contains. The newly launched Fuzhou Fish Ball Museum, located in an ancient Ming Dynasty house in Kuilongfang, Lianjiang, Fuzhou, has become a local scenery during the Spring Festival. Scenes such as traditional fish ball shops and hawkers selling in quaint buildings are recreated, as if traveling through time and space, showing the long history of fish balls to the public.
Searching for roots, taste, blessings, fate and fishing are the five themes of Fuzhou Fish Ball Museum. Through cultural relics exhibition, interactive punch card, immersive experience, combined with digital technologies such as sand painting, projection, and multimedia, the museum shows visitors the history and culture of fish balls, production techniques and industrial development.
In the fish ball experience hall, Lin Yu, the inheritor of the Huangqi fish ball making technique of The Lianjiang Huangqi Fish Balls of the Fuzhou Intangible Cultural Heritage Project, skillfully prepares fish balls and sends the fish balls that have just come out of the pot to tourists to taste. "The handmade fish balls are more Q-bombed, like table tennis balls, and the fish aroma combines with the taste of the middle burst pulp, and the aftertaste is endless." Lin Yu said, "I think the ancient taste of Fuzhou fish balls is like the taste of mothers, and the handicraft skills behind it need to be passed on." ”
For the new generation of young people, this traditional flavor is often thousands of miles away from home. Chen Hua, a volunteer docent at the "Post-00s" Museum, said that he went to school in other places, and every time he ate the quick-frozen packaged Fuzhou fish balls, he would think of the cordial taste of his hometown.
Lin Yu, the inheritor of the Huangqi fish ball making skills of Lianjiang Huangqi Fish Balls, an intangible cultural heritage project in Fuzhou City, gave the freshly cooked handmade fish balls to tourists to taste. (Photo by Deng Qianqian, Xinhua News Agency)
At the opening of the Fuzhou Fish Ball Museum, the Shanghai Exhibition Hall, the Philadelphia Exhibition Hall and the New York Exhibition Hall associated with it also opened their doors at the same time. The Shanghai Exhibition Hall is located in the New World Commercial Building on Nanjing Road; the Philadelphia Exhibition Hall is located in the Chinese Overseas Chinese Museum of the United States, which is a permanent exhibition hall; and the New York Exhibition Hall is located in Chinatown.
"With the assistance of overseas Chinese, we have spread the Culture of Fuzhou Fish Balls overseas, and this small fish ball has been affirmed by many foreign friends." Zhan Likun, chairman of the Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese in Lianjiang County, said that fish balls symbolize reunion and also hope to send the blessings of their hometown to overseas Chinese and overseas Chinese.
Reporters: Deng Qianqian, Guo Xi, Chen Wang
Editors: Jie Wenjin, Wei Hongyi