Dig purple clams on the shores of Laiyang T-shaped Bay
Text / Sun Rui
In 1998, near the end of the year, Jiang Shijieto, the director of the shrimp farm in Yang county, brought a few pounds of purple clams, thin skin, fan noodles, and patterns. It was curious to see such a beautiful clam for the first time. Lao Jiang said that this is a major specialty of our Dingzi Bay, which belongs to the treasures of the shellfish, which is very delicious and tastes fresh.
When leaving, the old ginger told the purple clams to have sand, slow down with salt water for 20 hours, and then put the pot after the sand is spit clean.
I followed Ginger's "instructions" and slowed down for a whole day and a night. Only to see that under the basin, the purple clam spat out fine sand.
Over the weekend, the brother-in-law who had been a soldier in the 26th Army returned, and the purple clam came in handy. A few dishes down, and finally the "finale" is, boiled purple clams. When the purple clams are brought to the table in a soup bowl for a moment, the milky white soup, with an aromatic atmosphere, is extremely fresh, and the white and tender meat, tender and smooth, has been fresh to the throat eye.
After a delicious meal, I deeply "fell in love" with the purple clams, and I deeply remembered it, paying attention to the beach in T-Shaped Bay.
Purple clam, grown in Laiyang Wulong River estuary of the T-shaped bay, the beach shallow sand fine, brackish water salinity is moderate, its scientific name purple color blood clam, known as "soft gold", shell in the "sea cucumber", because of the high price, low yield, delicacies, so the value is not cheap.
As the saying goes, cold digging clams, hot clams; crabs roll in the bean yellow season. Right now, it's the best time to dig up purple clams.
There is a folk proverb, October 1, empty seabed. Seaside people know that the tide recedes on the first two or three days of the first month of the tenth lunar calendar, and catching the sea can often harvest full.
On December 15th, coinciding with the first day of the first month of the winter month of the lunar calendar, the astronomical tide receded, and I, who had been coveting for decades, finally seized the golden opportunity to dig up purple clams.
Winter was short, and at half past seven, I climbed up and wore a pair of borrowed water shoes to "sail away." Although size 43 is a bit big, I still take a small hoe, turn a small basket, and drive to T-shaped Bay to "treasure hunting".
Just arrived at the East Beach of Xiangdao island in Laiyang T-shaped Bay, the sea began to recede gradually, and the vast beach opened the curtain like a mysterious stage, revealing a large mysterious beach world to people.
On the beach, squatting, hawking, and kneeling, sitting with small stools, all kinds, all kinds, men, women and children, invariably, tirelessly, rushing to get the gifts brought by the sea.
I grew up on the shores of T-Shaped Bay, have a special love for the sea, have picked up sea canopy vegetables, caught crabs, caught light fish, picked clams, and deeply understood the laws of tides.
When I was a child, I grew up listening to the proverbs of my elders.
"The crops look at the sky, and the people who catch the sea see the tide"; "the fish and birds do not lose faith, and the tide does not wait for people".
Children by the sea are more familiar with their own curriculum when the tide rises and when the tide falls.
I squatted on a stretch of sand, bent at ninety degrees, and kept waving my hoe like I used to do in the production team to collect peanuts and sweet potatoes.
There are many flower clams in T-shaped Bay, and sometimes you can dig two or three flower clams with a hoe. Sometimes, accidentally digging up the clam skin, the flower clam meat reveals a white soup, which makes people feel painful.
Things are rare and expensive, and shellfish are beautiful with freshness. The number of purple clams in T-shaped Bay is not much, as precious as "rare earth", even if it is a sea master, when the tide comes down, you can dig up as many as two or three pounds.
An old man surnamed Yu next to me, a native of Namyang County, speaks a strong Yangjun dialect. He belongs to the professional sea, which can be described as a battlefield-hardened and experienced.
The old man was dismissive of the flower clams, focusing on "staring" and "soft gold" to spread fire. Only to see him carry a relatively long shovel, walking and stopping on the beach, using the lift on the beach to point the "crypt", the purple clam hole will emerge from the water, as soon as it is lifted, the purple clam is "invited" out accurately.
The purple clams are very beautiful, like fan faces, with patterns, and the thin skin sparkles with colorful light in the sun.
I worship him as a teacher. The old man opened the conversation box like a number of treasures: purple clams are different from ordinary clams, to see the purple clam hole, the general clams are harvested in the spring, but the purple clams are just the opposite, in the hot summer, they will drill into the deep mud and sand to "summer sleep". When it is cold, the purple clams that have enough energy will grow and mature. When the tide is low, the beach is silent, at this time, bring tools to dig up purple clams.
I asked, how many pounds can a tide dig at most, how much is the income? He said, not necessarily, when the tide is big, four or five pounds, sell for two hundred yuan, when the tide is small, two or three pounds, sell for a hundred yuan.
I broke the casserole and asked to the end. So why don't you dig up flower clams? He said that flower clams are not worth much, and twenty pounds are only a pound of purple clams for me.
The old man humorously asked me: "Can gold and iron be the same?"
After the old man's "point dial", I "improved very quickly", eliminated the "carpet" tactic, adopted the "point hole", and looked for the purple clam hole.
Not far away, only to see a clear small gap in the beach, I judged, quasi-nest. Several hoes went down continuously, and in the sand about thirty or forty centimeters deep, a large purple clam was revealed.
In less than two hours, I actually found more than fifty purple clam holes and dug more than a pound of purple clams with one breath.
At this moment, the tide began to rise, and the sun used up her last shred of strength, wave after wave, with a roll of white foam, the sea rushed to the shore with enough strength.
Returning home with a full load of booty, the fatigue of the whole body was swept away.
The purple clam on the shore of Laiyang T-shaped Bay is a very special shellfish, with the taste of seafood and the umami taste of fresh water, which is really evocative.
It is said that in Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and other southern cities, purple clams are not inferior to the "Buddha jumping the wall" famous dish, purple clams are suitable for stewing soup, three or five purple clams, with pigeon meat, sand ginseng, quail eggs together to boil soup, not general fresh, fresh enough that no words can describe, and finally sprinkled with a little coriander, is a bowl of extremely beautiful cuisine. It is said that Li Ka-shing, Fok Ying-tung and Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor often eat it.
According to reports: Purple color blood clam, commonly known as "purple clam", flat body, thin shell, shell mask has several circular purple bands and different from ordinary shellfish, in the T-shaped Bay Baima Island west, east of Xiangdao Island, Wulong River mouth Laiyang, Jimo side of the shoal. This clam has tender meat, delicious taste and strong aroma, and is a valuable edible shellfish.
From December to March of the following year, the harvesting period of purple clams in T-shaped Bay is held. Its burial depth is generally 15 to 25 cm, and after spawning from late March to early April, it is gradually buried to 30 to 40 cm with the increase of water temperature, and the soft body is partially emaciated and enters the "summer sleep" state. During harvesting, the average shell length of clams was 34.8 mm and the average weight was 5 g.
At present, the T-shaped bay purple clam has been listed as a rare species of geographical indication in China.
【About author:Sun Rui, a native of Laiyang, Shandong, graduated from secondary school.] He has been engaged in news and propaganda work for more than 20 years, and thousands of news articles and hundreds of prose works have been adopted by people's dailys, Qilu evening news, Yantai evening news, Qingdao morning post and other media. 】
[Laiyang Focus, original works, without permission, shall not be published, infringement must be investigated.] 】