Loose and tender large balls, floating in the clear soup of boiled fish balls, should be carefully served. Paired with sliced ham, shiitake mushrooms, and tender pea sprouts, it is a "clear soup fish ball". It is said that Dong Xiaowan is also good at making fish balls, she pinched crab powder in the fish paste, the finished product is "color like amber", and her talented husband took the risk to write a poem for this purpose: "Golden white jade pocket, jade bead bath clear stream".
Southerners have a rich imagination in terms of food, but their love for fish balls is incomparably unified. This kind of food made of fish meat into fine paste, and then kneaded into balls, almost all over the south of the Yangtze River, and a fish with different tables, there are different interpretations of fish balls everywhere.
Hubei and Zhejiang should be the two major sources of fish balls, it is said that it is related to the King of Chu Huai and Qin Shi Huang, most of the plot is nothing more than those in high positions can not remove fish bones, cooks beat meatballs to offer, so they are deeply impressed, so they become famous dishes. Wuhan people call fish balls "fish balls", the local Tangxun Lake has a street of fish, along the road is full of hot fish pots, outsiders here are all sighing spectacular, fish are mixed with pork lard, the strong atmosphere of the river and lake will be the dock culture interpretation to the fullest.
Zhejiang people call fish balls "fish balls", is full of literati feelings of the diet, meat to use delicate silver carp, can not add egg white mustard powder, a loose and tender large balls, floating in the boiled fish balls in the clear soup, to be careful to serve. Paired with sliced ham, shiitake mushrooms, and tender pea sprouts, it is a "clear soup fish ball". It is said that Dong Xiaowan is also good at making fish balls, she pinched crab powder in the fish paste, the finished product is "color like amber", and her talented husband took the risk to write a poem for this purpose: "Golden white jade pocket, jade bead bath clear stream".
Liang Shiqiu's mother is from Hangzhou, and the fish balls he describes as "tender as tofu" are also this Zhejiang-style fish ball.
Further south, the fish balls are further improved. Wenzhou fish balls are actually not balls, they are strips, and the locals mix the minced fish with sweet potato flour, knead them repeatedly until they are kneaded out of the gelatinous texture, and then squeezed into strips and blanched. The fish balls are full of elasticity, the starch adds translucent color and tough taste to the fish meat, and the most authentic way to eat it is to use the original soup of the blanched fish balls with balsamic vinegar, green onions and pepper.
In the same vein as Chaoshan beef balls, Chaoshan fish eggs are also known for their elastic teeth. The preparation method is similar to that of Wenzhou fish balls, in which the fish is beaten into a pulp and gelled with an iron rod. Cheap fish such as sharks, generally add starch, make a square, fried, and then thinly sliced, the outer skin is golden and the inside is snow-white, called "fried fish eggs"; expensive fish such as nine-stick fish, eel, is squeezed into large balls and cooked, called "hand chirping white fish eggs".
Unlike the Jiangnan literati who eat fish balls on a shelf, the Chaoshan people have given fish eggs an unparalleled market atmosphere. In the Chaozhou noodle stall or Cantonese tea restaurant, fish eggs and noodles are eaten in hot soup together, called fish egg noodles, fish egg powder, knowledgeable must come to a fried fish egg and white fish egg double fight, fried fish egg crisp, white fish egg smooth, plus the toughness of Cantonese flour noodles and the freshness of the original soup, both killing hunger and mat hunger. This way of eating was eventually promoted in Hong Kong, and even more people like to use it as a side stove. Although it is an affordable food, it is the Comfort Food in the minds of many people. I tasted a bowl at a fish egg powder shop in Kowloon City, which Chow Yun Fat frequented, and it was really delicious.
But whether it is a fish, a fish ball, a fish strip, or a fish egg, in my heart, it is not a real "fish ball". Only Fuzhou fish balls can be regarded as fish balls that match the name.
In 2005, Chen Sheng wrote a song called "Fish Balls", with loose and serene lyrics: "Tomorrow it will be sunny from tomorrow, and there will be cooking smoke in the alley." Young he was anxious to set sail, and you were a beacon in my life. "I think it should refer to the Fuzhou fish balls that originated in Fuzhou and passed down to Taiwan: delicious, approachable and with the taste of the old people in their hometown, there is no wave, but it is calm and melodious enough."
The biggest feature of Fuzhou fish balls is that they are stuffed, and the Chaoshan-style fish ball skin is wrapped in pork and shrimp flowing with juice, which are beautiful to think about. This is the same as Fuzhou Meat Swallow's emphasis on "wrapping meat with meat". The imagination of the people of Taiwan is richer, and they have also invented a variety of fish ball fillings, such as flying fish roe, sour shoots... I once ate a "three fresh fish balls" in Taipei, the filling is hair vegetables, horseshoes, a bite down to puff crisp, wrapped in the sweetness of the horseshoe, let people tears can't help but fall.
Autumn is getting deeper day by day, and the fish is fattening up day by day, which is suitable for making large fish balls to comfort the thoughts of the perch, such weather, can only miss people.