When the weather is hot, the barbecue stalls on the side of the road are set up, and the snails that must be ordered on the plate are fresh and spicy, so unhappy.
I love to eat snails, and this special flavor can be said to start with dolls.
I remember that I was still in elementary school, and there were all kinds of small stalls in front of the school, selling soda, frogfish, small snacks, baking cakes... There are many eyes, everything, I love the field snail alone.
Every time I came home from school, I spent a triangle to buy thirty, peeled them with a toothpick, and ate them as I walked, ten minutes away, because there were snails to eat, happy and satisfied. The shop will fold the paper into a funnel shape in advance, and thirty of them will be in the palm of the hand. At that time, the joy of summer school, in addition to crazy play, was the sweetness and sourness of frogs and the fresh fragrance of field snails.
Dad loves to eat field snails and also loves to catch field snails. Every summer vacation, when my father returned to his hometown, he would take us to the lake and ditch in the village to touch the snails.
Gathered my family's five or six children, each of them wore a pair of rain boots, Dad rode a tricycle, the car pulled a large bucket of small barrels, and the field snail squad set off. We adopt a concentrated and decentralized strategy, first targeting a large area, such as a fish pond, and then patrolling the small ditches and rivers near the fish pond to follow the edge.
Five or six children played and laughed with us, holding their pants legs, climbing on the rain boots, bulging round and pointed stomachs, funny and ridiculous.
A group of children together, the desire to win and lose, labor efficiency can soar. We followed Dad, humming and scrambling to fill the vat with our own work.
If the water is particularly clear, you can see the bottom of the water at a glance, you can see the snails leisurely sucking on the side of the stone or sinking under the water, the hand reaches down, steady and accurate, can catch a full handful, luck comes, slow and leisurely pick up can also quickly pick up a small half bucket.
If the water is very muddy, it will be a little harder, only to see the younger brothers and sisters take off their boots, go straight to the bare feet, first step on them, generally explore the direction, and then use their hands to dig carefully. After some playing and working, everyone poured a small bucket full of snails into the big bucket, and the bucket came straight out with a tip, that is, it was time to go home.
When I was a child, there were many ditches and rivers in the village, and the corresponding fish and shrimp snails were also many, basically half a morning we could go home satisfied with the results of the battle.
At this time, look at everyone, every child has changed, the face and head are full of mud, barefoot, carrying rain boots, living like a group of fleeing people.
Catching the snail is only the first step, cleaning and spitting sand is still a big project. Dad took out a large basin and took us to the pond behind the house to wash the silt several times, the water was not muddy, and then went home, rubbed it with his hands, brushed it with a brush, that is, to remove the dirty things such as moss adsorbed on the surface of the snail.
After a few times, you can finally start to do it later, hahaha no, but also put it in the water to raise it for a few days, let it spit sand and mud.
In the past few days, the snails stretch out their tentacles, probe the brain, occasionally crawl slowly, and even produce a lot of small snails.
So I squatted by the basin and observed again and again, and the day to end the hundred claws scratching my heart finally came. Finally it's time to stew and eat.
Dad rubbed the snails one by one, rinsed them clean, and then took the pliers to cut off the tail one by one, and slowly worked out of the fine work, so that it was convenient to suck and easier to taste.
Boil a pot of boiling water and fish out. Mother burns the fire, children gather around the pot to make an atmosphere, Dad puts oil in the hot pot, adds green onion, ginger and garlic with a little pepper, constantly stir-frying, stir-fry after adding water to stew for half an hour, and then open the pot to collect the juice.
Made delicious, are to share, uncles and aunts also came, everyone mouthed Zhang family Li short, only to wait for a few days of delicious out of the pot. Ding, the time is up, with the friction of the shovel and the iron pot, the collision sound of the snail and the basin, and the unique fresh aroma of aquatic products, the spicy stir-fried field snail is grandly on the table.
Pick up one, fill it with soup, suck it all up, use a toothpick to pick up the tight meat lump in front of you and send it into your mouth, vigorously bounce your teeth, spicy and refreshing, the special aroma flows through the mouth, and the hard work and waiting for several days are worth it.
When I was a child, I had a lot of time to do things slowly and wait slowly, and the pleasure of doing it myself and delaying satisfaction made me unforgettable. Now it's convenient, a barbecue stall to sit on, in the takeaway software to move the fingers, delicious is reached, we enjoy this convenience, but also lost the pleasure of doing it ourselves and delaying the satisfaction.
At that time, Dad also took us home for vacation, and in the current education, complete stocking is not efficient, but how healing the happy childhood memories he participated in together are enough to support a frustrated adult through a difficult time.