People at the water's edge are familiar with water. Throw children and daughters into the water, eat a few sips of water, and climb like a toad a few times under the chin of an older brother or sister or mom and mother, and they will swim. Especially in the pillow river people, it is very dangerous not to be able to swim, that is, in the countryside of shaoxing in the past, every year there are always a few children who are taken away by the falling water ghost (ju). My brother Shui Fa was captured by the water ghost at the age of six, and we did not dare to swim in the water for more than half a month. Originally, my cousin was also going to be caught by the falling water ghost, he was playing by the lake when he was four years old, accidentally sinking into the water, his playmate is still sensible, slowly came back from the lake and said that he fell into the water and disappeared. I happened to come back for dinner, there were no adults at home, and when I heard it, I ran quickly to the lake, where the wind and waves were calm and there was nothing. I did not go directly into the water, but put my face on the surface of the water to look for it, there was nothing, but a tuft of moss in the depths was darker in color, I estimated that it might be hair, so I lightly entered the water with my hands, slowly grabbed a mention with my hand, and sure enough, it was a cousin, took out of the water shore, actually alive, according to time, he was more than five minutes at the bottom of the lake, and I was only a teenager at the time.
Peasant children can swim, not only for survival, but mainly for life, for survival. The easiest practical skill in the water after swimming is to touch the snail lion. Water village people, to say that there is no dish to eat, either people are too lazy, or there are no children at home. To get some aquatic products to eat, as long as you are diligent and fast, it is very convenient. In particular, the snail lion, this ring mollusk, as long as there is water, there will be his figure. Snail lion is also a regular dish for every household in our rural households, and many people have a large pot and a small bowl in front of their homes to raise snail lions, which are eaten tomorrow after touching today.
Every year in early summer, the neem tree flowers, our riverside children boys and women children will take off naked and jump into the water, the water floating wooden foot basin or washbasin, everyone is like a duck who has not played with water for a long time, one after another into the water to touch the snail lion in the underwater stone crevice, a handful of touch, sometimes touch a few millet shrimp, the bold child will eat raw on the spot, saying that it is good to eat water.
The place where the snail lion grows is different, and the snail lion is also different. The snail lion that generally grows in the stone crevice is a red shell snail. Growing in the rocky sand at the bottom of the lake is a clear gray snail lion; and growing in the silt of the grass is a turquoise snail lion, which is what we call the green shell screw, this screw shell is turquoise, round, no edges, the snail meat is white and delicious, is the top of the snail lion. Because it is far from home and the water is deeper, we five- or six-year-old children do not dare to touch this green shell snail.
When touching the snail lion, there are unexpected gains from time to time. In the mud at the bottom of the lake, there will be a lot of river mussels, yanyan (freshwater clams that are a little larger than sea flower clams), long materials, fragrant snails, although the snails are small, but they are really fragrant when eaten. If you go to the deep water area, you can also step on the chicken crown mussel, the large chicken crown mussel weighs eight or nine pounds, deep into the mud at the bottom of the lake, only a few centimeters of outcrop, to dig out from the bottom of the lake needs excellent water, after growing up to step over the cockscomb mussel, occasionally will be cut to a few natural pearls.
Shaoxing rural snail lion will generally choose to eat dinner, because there is time in the evening. The way to eat is very simple, after two days of snail lion washing, the water boiled directly into the pot, and then after the water boiled, put a handful of salt, immediately put into the bowl, to the bubble tree to cut a long spike for picking snail lion meat, pick out and eat. If there is time, the snail's ass will also be cut off with a vise and sucked. It is rarely fried with oil sauce because there is no cooking oil.
After the water is cold, the children can no longer go into the water to touch the snail lion. But there are still many ways to eat the snail lion, of course, the twist lake mud has a lot of snail lions in the mud pond, the lake mud into the mud pond, the next morning a look, the mud surface of the mud pond as if aliens have come, all irregular snail lions walk through the figure, you can pick up half a basket every day. My second brother and I imitated the professional conch lion ourselves, weaved a pair of pickpockets and pickpockets out of bamboo, and went to the river to pick up the snail lions. Every day I pick up chicken dung before going to school, and every day when I come back from school, I put down my school bag and go to pick up the snail lion. If you have too much grilling, you can't finish eating, your mother will go to the small market the next morning to sell, but your mother doesn't have time to sell snails, people have three pounds of dime and she has four pounds, sometimes I see acquaintances simply give things away, but the next day I will also bring back oil tofu, dried tofu and other things that others send her.
Since leaving my hometown, I have never picked a snail lion again. However, after getting married and returning to Shaoxing, the snail and lion pickpocket at home was still there, and I took my Shanghai wife to let her see my ability, and she picked up a large bowl of snails, and she couldn't believe it. In Shanghai, although there is no steaking of snails, I still like to eat. But now eating is exquisite. Buy a clean snail lion, oil the pot, add onion and ginger to fry out the aroma, pour in the snails, stir-fry a few times, add rice wine, soy sauce, salt and other seasoning, and then stir-fry a few times, then add water to the high heat to collect the juice, sprinkle with green onions and add pots to the table. Although the snails are also full of fragrance at this time, but the main taste is still the taste of the seasoning, compared with our past original taste, there is still a big gap, especially the Shanghai snail lion can not eat the taste of Shaoxing, whether this is because of the feelings of the hometown garden, or there is indeed a regional gap, I can not say clearly.
Snail lions basically exist as long as there are rivers and rivers. In the past, I thought there was no north, but in the 1997s in Beijing, the canteen actually had a fried screw without a butt, each person gave a needle, picked to eat, Beijing people said "we don't eat that thing." At present, the lion is distributed in eastern China (including Guangxi, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Fujian, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Guangdong and Yunnan). Even North Korea, Japan, and Vietnam are distributed. This thing has a tenacious vitality, does not die for a few days, works for half a year and still lives in the water, and his close relative Fu Shou Luo, after the introduction, is now easy to ask God to send God.
On September 3, 2020, the procuratorate of Huai'an District, Jiangsu Province, prosecuted three criminal suspects who fished for snail lions. After trial, the court found that Yin X, Dou X and Wang X, who were fishing for snail lions, constituted the crime of illegal fishing for aquatic products, and were convicted of the crime and sentenced to one or two years respectively. This made me stunned, I thought about retiring, returning to my old business and touching the lion, it seemed that I had to worry about eating a lawsuit. Therefore, thinking of the difficulties of the farmers in the mountains, planting some crops, letting the protected animal wild boar harvest in advance, the farmer can not beat him, otherwise it is illegal, so the wild boar has to inch in, more and more arrogant, even people attack. Now the conch lion is also protected, fortunately, the conch lion will not bite me after all, but I can no longer touch him, or not.
