As the saying goes, "March snail April mussel", whenever the Spring Flowers bloom before and after the Qingming Dynasty, it is the time when the snails and river mussels are the fattest, and now the most beautiful river fresh in the vegetable market is the snails and river mussels. Compared with the snails that everyone will burn, the river mussels are slightly more difficult, and if they are not handled well, they will be fishy and old, and they will not be able to bite and chew.
A reporter from Hangzhou Foodie came to the Zhaohui Five District Farmers' Market to look for a senior aquatic product salesman and ask about how to choose the river mussels and how to deal with them to be delicious.
Stall No. 103 of the Zhaohui Five District Farmers' Market is a stall specializing in shellfish aquatic products, and the stall owner Lao Yang has been guarding this stall for 25 years, which is one of the stalls in this market. Lao Yang told reporters that the river mussels have sold particularly well in recent times, and when the market opened, the river mussels on the stalls were piled up like hills, and the woven bags under the stalls were also filled with river mussels, and then they looked at the river mussels piled up less, and when they were more, they could sell more than 300 pounds a day.
River mussels after a whole winter of dormancy nourishment, this time is the most delicious and tender state, now listed river mussel shell is very thin, and the earthy smell is not heavy, the key is that the price is cheap, as long as 3 yuan per kilogram.
Lao Yang told reporters that once the Lantern Festival is over every year, the river mussels will slowly begin to be popular, and by June, there will be fewer people buying river mussels, selling river mussels is a hard job, one by one must be cut out to deal with, such a cheap aquatic product, equivalent to making a manual money.
Lao Yang said that the common river mussels in Hangzhou are grass mussels and chicken crown mussels, and what he sells at his stall is grass mussels, which are also varieties that most Hangzhou people like to eat. In addition to eating, chicken crown mussels can also be used to cultivate pearls, and fewer people buy them to eat. The two kinds of river mussels are easy to distinguish, the shell of the grass mussel is black, the flesh color is reddish, the shell of the cockscomb mussel is blue, and there will be a protrusion like a chicken crown on the edge, and the flesh color is white.
Talking and talking, Lao Yang wanted to find a chicken crown mussel to compare to the reporter, but he turned up and down for half a day, and did not find one. Lao Yang said that chicken crown mussels usually occasionally mix into one or two, today there is no one, in fact, the river mussels are good or bad, all depend on the water quality, and it is not that the chicken crown mussels are not delicious.
Speaking of picking river mussels, Lao Yang said that the first thing to see is whether it is fresh. The shell of the river mussel that no one disturbs will open slightly, and when you touch it with your hand, the shell will be closed tightly, and it is easy to judge whether it is alive or not. If the mussel shell is tightly closed, a section can also know that when the live river mussel is cut open, there will be a stream of clear water flowing out, no clear water flowing out or there is a clear smell, that is, the dead mussel that cannot be eaten.
About the size of the head, varies from person to person, medium-sized river mussels are the most popular, easy to handle, meat is enough, too small river mussel meat is too little, eating is not addictive, some people especially like to eat the yellow of river mussels, will choose a large head, the larger the yellow more, but the meat will be older.
The people who buy river mussels at Lao Yang's stall are old customers, because Lao Yang handles the river mussels carefully and carefully, washes and kills them very cleanly, and will not mix in with a dead mussel. Lao Yang would help customers cut open the river mussels, remove the gills and the silt in the mussel meat, and then knock the sides of the mussel meat one by one with a wooden stick.
The part that Old Yang knocked with a wooden stick is actually the axe foot of the river mussel, the flesh of this part is relatively hard, the force should be moderate when knocking, knock this part as much as possible, and feel soft when knocking to the hand pinch. Lao Yang said that many people do not eat river mussels because they will not deal with it, if there is no such knocking process, the river mussel meat will not be crispy, and it will be old and hard to eat.
Before the river mussel is burned, it is also necessary to treat the mucus on the mussel meat with salt, rub it repeatedly with salt, and then rinse it with water, so that after treatment, the river mussel will not have an earthy smell when it is burned.
Now is the time to eat spring shoots, the local white water chestnut shoots are listed in large quantities, and the stew of river mussels and bacon spring shoots together is the classic way to eat in old Hangzhou. Lao Yang suggested using a pressure cooker to stew, after the sound of the air simmering for 15 minutes, the river mussels are crisp and rotten, and the taste is very delicious.
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