Eat well and don't eat from time to time. All you want is that fresh, March snail, April eel.
Many people should have heard this poem by Liu Yuxi: "The lake is light and autumn and the moon are two phases, and the pond surface is not polished without goggles." Looking at the landscape of the cave garden, a green snail in the silver plate. "Today, we are going to talk about this snail.
Qingming snails are field snails and snails. Because before and after the Qingming Dynasty is the best season to eat snails, the snail meat is fat at this time, and there are sayings of "Qingming snail, fat like a goose" and "Qingming snail, top goose".
In the past, people who could not afford to buy geese, went down to the river pond to touch the pot snails, raised them with water for two days, and then clipped off the tail end, put some onions, ginger and peppers to cook, which is a good dish. Some are boiled with pickles, which are light and refreshing, and the taste is very delicious.
Snails
Snails are single-shell shellfish and are closely related to field snails, so snails and field snails are very similar in all aspects. It's just that it's not as common all over the world as the field snail, it's a specialty of our country, and it's only produced in the lakes of Yunnan Province on the southwest plateau of China.
Snail, scientific name Margarya melanioides. A common name for the genus Snails of the gastropod family In the phylum Mollusks. Endemic to China,
It is found in lakes in Yunnan and Jiangsu. The shell is large and more than 70 mm high. The shape is conical or conical , and the shell surface has spiny or papillary protrusions , or only smooth spiral edges. The three are flakes. Hermaphroditic, oviparous, and can reproduce all year round. The snail crawls to the bottom of the lake with its wide feet. The meat is delicious, and snail yellow (male reproductive glands) is a good product that people like to eat. Fossil species of the genus Snail have been found in the Cenozoic strata of Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi.
Adult snails are about 7 cm long and weigh about 55 g. Their flesh and conch reproductive glands (commonly known as "snail yellow") are delicious and have high economic value. The lake is endangered due to heavy pollution and overfishing.
Snails are found in Dianchi, Erhai, Yangzonghai, Yilong Lake, and Fuxian Lake in Yunnan Province. It is not as easy to find as a snail on the shore or in a paddy field, because it lives creeping at the bottom of a lake, so it must be caught with a special trawl.
Relationship with field snails
Snails are single-shell shellfish and are closely related to field snails, so snails and field snails are very similar in all aspects.
Snail
It's just that it's not as common all over the world as the field snail, it's a specialty of our country, and it's only produced in the lakes of Yunnan Province on the southwest plateau of China.
The snail is much shaped like a field snail, and it also has a right-handed spiral shell. However, the surface of its shell is not as smooth as that of the field snail, and many rotating ribs grow. Ribs either form spines or bead-like protrusions, and the shape varies by species.
Snails are not the same as field snails. The snails are small and pointed and live in a variety of natural freshwater water bodies; the field snails are large and round, and basically live in the fields. Snails are more delicious than field snails.
It is recorded in the "Compendium of Materia Medica": "There are lakes and streams everywhere, and there are many rivers, summers, and rivers. It is as large as a finger, and the shell is thicker than a field snail. "It can be seen that the field snail and the snail are obviously different.
Tianluo has the reputation of "pearl on the plate", the meat of tian snail is plump and delicate, delicious, light and refreshing, it is not only a banquet dish, but also a local snack with a unique flavor of street stalls, which is deeply loved by urban and rural residents. According to experts, the Chinese snail is a delicacy that can be equally divided with French snails. There are many famous snails around China. Some big restaurants in Guangzhou have listed "fried field snails" as a delicacy on the table.
The history of eating snails
In fact, our ancestors discovered this delicacy very early. Guess how long we've been eating snails Chinese? Tell you what, it's at least 7,000-10,000 years old! I can't imagine it. It is longer than the history of many ancient civilizations.
In 1978, archaeologists discovered the site of a snail shell in the Koshipiyan Cave on the southern outskirts of Guilin. When you hear that there are snail shells and shell ruins, the first thing that many people will think of is that the vicissitudes of the sea are mulberry fields. Ancient oceans or lakes turned to land? In fact, the snail shell site here is really not a marine or lake ruins, nor is it an ancient "currency" accumulated by a local tycoon, but a ruins left by authentic foodies. Because the tails of these snail shells are artificially removed. It's not the foodies who do it, who else is so idle?
Snail shell site
Of course, the history of eating snails is much later, and the "Chinese" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" both record that after years of drought, the people could not find food, so they went to pick up "snails" to eat. Of course, it is likely to be a field snail. At that time, snails had become people's daily appetizers.
The myth of the field snail
In China's long history, the relationship between food and legend has always been inseparable, and the story of the snail girl has become popular. In the "Afterword of searching for gods", it is said that during the Jin Dynasty, an orphan named Xie Duan picked up a particularly large field snail in the field one day, thought it was a strange thing, and took it home, put it in a water tank, and raised it for dozens of days.
Xie Duan went to work in the fields every morning, but when he came home, he saw that there were meals, drinks, and hot water in the house, as if someone had made it. This has been the case for several days, Xie Duan asked the neighbors. Neighbors said they didn't do it themselves. After this, Xie Duan went out when the chickens were chirping, and quietly returned when the sun had just come out, peeking outside the fence and seeing a young girl coming out of the water tank and making a fire under the stove.
Field snail girl
It turned out that this woman was a fairy in heaven, and the Heavenly Emperor saw that Xie Duan was pitiful, and specially sent his subordinates to help Xie Duan take care of the housework, so that he would become rich within ten years, start a family, and marry a good wife.
Stir-fry the snails
Historical records
Snail, in fact, is the oldest chinese snack, the earliest record of picking up snails can be seen in the "Chinese" 2500 to 3000 years ago, when the territory of Wudi was in a great wilderness, the city had no food, the treasury was empty, and the people moved to the coast of the East China Sea to feed on Pu Win.
Pu Ying, that is, shellfish seafood such as mussels, clams, and conchs, also has a similar record in the Book of Wei during the Three Kingdoms period: after years of drought and famine, the people cannibalized each other, Yuan Shu led an army to fight in the Jianghuai area, and ordered Pu Win to be picked up for food. The ancient snail is not inferior to the oyster oyster, one to eliminate hunger, two tubes to be full, according to the Southern and Northern Dynasties period literature described at that time the snail as large as pear orange, small as peach plum. Seeing such a description, there are only two words: want to eat.
Clear soup snails
Snail is one of the most popular snacks in ancient times, but because of its rough appearance and indecent eating, it is difficult to board the literary lobby. In the time of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Northern Zhou poet Yu Xin took a sip of fine wine, sipped a fragrant snail, and wrote a poem: "Xiangluo drinks fine wine, and the dead clams are from Lan Cuisine", which is the first poem in the history of literature to write a poem on the front of eating snails.
In the scene of the Han Dynasty portrait stone sitting on the ground and eating, the host and guest are staggered, and the food case is placed with snail-shaped food.
Han Dynasty portrait stone
Today's diners know how delicious a snail is. As early as ancient times, because the snails are "full of condiments and colors, and the taste is cheap and can be drunk", so the street squatting to eat fried snails has become one of the ancient home dailys. Shaoxing has a folk proverb cloud: "Pecking the snail over the wine, the robbers come to refuse to go", it is said that the snail is delicious, even if the robbers catch up behind, the diners are reluctant to escape, and there is a great spirit of "desperately eating pufferfish".
Such a diet and pastime is not only the daily life of ordinary people, but also the dignitaries and nobles are rarely allowed to take a sip. The "Night Banquet Map" in the mural of the Tomb of the Wei family in Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty depicts the story of the banquet between Yang Guozhong and Lady Yu Guozhong on the qu river at that time, and there are many snails on the dining table.
Night Feast Chart
Even some imperial court officials secretly ordered farmers to fish and sacrifice in order to eat snails. During the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, You Dongsheng has a poem as evidence: Tian Luo is on the shore of the grass, Gou Live Hope Chunhe; under the order of the snail catching yesterday, shrink the meat and body to the soup pot.
Even the imperial generals who tasted the taste of mountains and seas were inseparable from the snails. The Southern Song Dynasty's "Past Events of Wulin" records that Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty only went to the homes of two ministers in his lifetime, one was Qin Jun, and the other was Zhang Jun, the king of Qinghe County. In order to please Emperor Gaozong, this Zhang Jun set up a banquet for the biggest scene of the Song Dynasty, and among the 30 imperial meals on the table, there were two snail dishes, "fragrant snail fried belly" and "ginger vinegar raw snail".
Xu Huadong's Collection of "Past Events of Wulin"
Purple Light Pavilion Feast Map
In those years, when Qianlong went down to Jiangnan, the taste of a snail that could not be forgotten for a long time. It is said that in Xianghe County, there is a Wang Xiao who sells snails, on this day, Qianlong disguised himself into Xianghe City, while walking and watching, before he reached the cross street, he heard Wang Xiao eating and drinking loudly: "Fragrant snails, fragrant snails, will sell as much as you will buy, will be fried as you will taste, Xianghe production of snails." ”
The Qianlong Mountains are tired of eating the treasures of the sea, and I have never eaten snails. So I squeezed over, and when I saw the snails in the bucket, I wanted to taste it. Wang Xiao grabbed a handful from the bucket, put it in a bowl, added a root, and handed it over: "No incense, no money." ”
Inui Takashi Images
Qianlong had never eaten snails, and he didn't know where to start. He peeked at the person next to him, and also picked up the root, and with a flick of the turn, the bald man came out with a spiral-shaped snail meat, ate it in his mouth, and sprayed incense! In the blink of an eye, a dozen snails finished eating, licking their lips, and didn't eat enough. Wang Xiao saw that the guests had not tasted enough, and now he was happy, so he grabbed a handful and put it into the bowl, telling Qianlong to eat it satisfactorily, and also made him the king of snails.
Sauce popping snails
If you want to talk about this snail, you can see it everywhere in the country fields. In ancient times, the value of the snail was different depending on the status level. The poor people eat snails to quench their hunger, the officials eat snails to taste, and the poets eat snails with taste.
The sentence at the beginning of the article, "A green snail in a silver plate", is the Tang Dynasty Luoyang poet Liu Yuxi's sigh when he traveled to Dongting Lake, tasted the fresh flavor of the time, and never forgot the snail.
In the Ming Dynasty, Yang Shiyun, a scholar of Yunnan, abandoned his official position and returned to his hometown in his later years, and the imperial court invited him to go out of the mountains, but he did not do it. Some people were puzzled, he laughed and did not say a word, and wrote a couplet with a wave: "Swallow gold and silver rice in the day, and drink dragon's whiskers and tiger's eye soup at night." Among them, "dragon's beard tiger's eye soup" is sea vegetable snail soup. No wonder there is an old saying in the Han Dynasty: "The eldest husband lives in the world, is born as a marquis, dies as temple food, and returns for food." ”
Soup snails
In the "Yunlintang Dietary System Collection", he talked about the field snail: take the big field snail and knock off the shell, take its head, do not see the water, mix it with sand sugar, pickle a meal, and then wash it. Or marinate in batches with green onions, peppercorns, and wine for a while, and then cook them in the original chicken juice. It can also be soaked in green salt and cumin for three or five days, dipped in vinegar and eaten raw.
Xu Huadong's Collection of Food and Beverage Systems in Yunlintang
"Yunlintang Food System Collection"
The Qing Dynasty Anon. "Tuning Ding Ji" also introduced the method of cooking field snails: "Remove the tip of the field snail, sprinkle it with salt, cook it and cut it into slices, and the juice in the shell is stored with lard, peppercorns and condiments." ”
Xu Huadong's Collection of "Tuning Ding"
The Song Dynasty poet zeng Gong, who was particularly particular about eating, traveled to the South Lake, brought Mei Ji with him, and did not forget to bring food. He put the snails and spring shoots together and fried, "the bottle is drunk like water, the white bamboo shoots and green snails on the plate", the fragrant bamboo shoots and the tender snail meat are added together, the tongue is fresh and the taste is refreshing.
Stir-fry the snail meat
The deliciousness of the snail is very unique, compared to the fish, broiler, chicken and duck, better than the seafood, and the seafood is not inferior, in the Jiangnan water town, the seafood is fresh, the river fresh is the taste fresh. Although snails exist all year round, Qingming is the fattest and most tender season for snails, and Dong Weiye's "Yangzhou Bamboo Branches" in the Qing Dynasty said: "The Qingming Festival is clear and peaceful, and there are many indiscriminate knifefish entering the market." The most is that wine glasses are forbidden, and cauliflower weather sells mud snails."
"Yangzhou Bamboo Branch Words"
Qingming snail is fat but not greasy, tough but not old, and captures the spring taste that is deepest in the bone marrow. Jiangsu and Zhejiang have a folk proverb cloud: Qingming snail dragon shrimp, eat crawling (crab) in Chongyang season, also known as "Qingming snail, fresh over the goose", there are also metaphors for it as "poor people's version of abalone".
Stir-fried spring leeks with snails
In fact, snails are not only the most popular seasonal ingredients, but also have a long history of medicinal use. Tang Bohu of the Ming Dynasty prescribed a prescription to a child who had a bad bowel movement in Zhuzhishan: "On the fifth or sixth floor of the spire pagoda, the monk goes out on a slow walk; a round fan is half-covered, and when he hears people coming, he closes the door." This mysterious and poetic square is written by Tian Luo.
During the Qianlong period, Zhao Xuemin, a Confucian physician in Qiantang, dried up his throat and withered his tongue every night, and took Mai Dong and other gunpowder, which had no effect. One day, he occasionally ate field snails, and at that time he felt that the taste was extremely sweet, and when he thought about it at night, he suddenly drooled. This famous doctor wrote an article praising Tian Luo: "Raw jin liquid, nourishing the spleen and yin power is also great, tonifying the liver and kidneys, and the eyes and ears are also"
Egg stew with snail meat
Eating snail food is a very Chinese aesthetic life interest record
The way to eat snails lies in a "hiss" word, the magic is that it is not enough to eat for a long time, and enjoy the leisurely taste of eating.
Lin Yutang's "My Country and My People" describes that Chinese has a kind of simplicity, and they can eat willingly, live in peace, and enjoy their customs, which can also be seen in the text.
Many old gourmets, indulging in the delicious taste of the snail, completely disregarding the image, holding the snail, sipping on the fingers dipped in the soup, not only spitting out the snail meat with elastic teeth, but also exuding the original taste of the snail, attracting ancient and modern diners to come near and far, one after another, and the rhythm that cannot be stopped.
Wu language has always been particularly kind to the name of the food, there is a simple charm, Suzhou people have a saying about snacks "wind cool tuk tuk, salted eggs snort, snails and snails". The cool breeze is called "cool tuk tuk", and the word "tuk tuk" sounds light and comfortable; the peeled salted egg is called a salted egg, and the "salted egg snorts" is like hearing its sound; the most amazing thing is to eat snails, called "snails and snails", not only hear the "long-winded" sound of snails, but also feel the deliciousness of the snail soup and imagine the funny eating. The three sentences are connected together, which is a picture of the cool night meal of the common people in the city, which has the artistic conception of Feng Zikai's folk painting.
The snail was also once known as "canned meat" by Suzhou people, and it is also a very image, the shell of the snail is like a miniature can, and there is a cup of meat in it. There is soup and meat, which is a must. Snail is a very interesting way to eat, eating witty, the sound is lively, the table is full of "long-winded" sounds, just like chickens competing for food, the flock is noisy. Chinese culture has always paid attention to etiquette, and the "Book of Rites" does not eat food, and the "Analects" does not eat, which are all the measures of silent observance on the table. However, when the ritual law encounters a snail, it is completely invalid. This small food that cannot be put on the table has fulfilled the pleasant state of the Chinese people to eat small food and live a life.
Waxy snails
Spicy snails
Screw up the lobby, down to the stalls, is a kind of longevity, blinding enjoyment. But the highest order to see people snails is undoubtedly beautiful and edible, there are many "red curtains and colorful viewers, and beautiful people sit on the double moth." Broken bottle to drink like water, white shoots and green snails on the plate", now there are "pear cheeks slightly swirled mimosa kiss, hungry mouth King Sun with three swallows." Sip bright red lips blow jade flute, abandon the shell vegetarian hand to knock the tung kite."
Beauty snail, beauty is not beautiful?
For a foodie, what is most expected during the Qingming period is not a small long holiday, but a snail in the Qingming time! "Qingming snail raced over the goose" This is the foodie experience handed down by the old bottom, "the robbers come and don't want to go", that is the feeling of turning back three times to this delicious taste, I can't stop it!