This article was published in Sanlian Life Weekly, No. 2-3, 2020, the original title is "Fish's Rivers, Lakes and Seas", it is strictly forbidden to reprint it privately, and infringement must be investigated
I sometimes think that if I put the best fish of chefs from all over the world on the dinner table, I will incorporate the characteristics of the whole world. So, in the face of such a table of fish, which one would you eat first?
Reporter/Wang Shan
Photography / Huang Yu
Zhu Jianzhong, known as the "King of Sichuan River Fresh", is making sauerkraut fish
Fish imagination
"Do you remember the smell of a fish?" When I do New Year's interviews, I always ask my interviewee this question. Unsurprisingly, everyone has a fish hidden in the depths of their minds, and they draw interesting fish-eating stories along the river of memory.
"Good wine good Cai" restaurant owner Cai Hao lives out all year round, the most loved is the mother's fish, using the Chaoshan area semi-decoction method, so that the fish above the image is complete, no different from boiling, eat fresh and tender, original; the following fish after frying and boiling, the color is golden, the meat is crisp and delicious, it can be described as one fish and two flavors. As for how to ensure that it tastes and is cooked thoroughly, this is all the work on the stove. Mother loves to eat fish, there is a fish on the family table almost every day, make this dish in the New Year, must put some garlic seedlings in it, take the meaning of "settling accounts and making money". After opening the restaurant, many of the dishes in Cai Hao's restaurant were improved on the basis of his mother's method, and every time he came home, he always took a small book and leaned against the kitchen door to record the steps of his mother's cooking. "In Chaoshan, home cooking is the best food." He told me. I read a hint of nostalgia.
Sichuan gourmet Shi Guanghua thought of eating watercress fish in Chengdu more than a decade ago. It was a small restaurant that no longer existed. The restaurant is only open at night, and the number of dishes that can be ordered in the restaurant is less than 8, and there are basically no vegetarian dishes. The main dish is watercress fish, the dish is served, the snow white fish meat is mixed with the thick juice of onion, ginger, garlic and watercress, thick ink and color, a bite to eat, indescribable freshness. Shi Guanghua and his party came to eat, ordered fish, and wanted to order a cold mix to fold the ear root, but there was no on the menu, they discussed with the store, the store coldly said "to eat vegetables to go to the next restaurant", had to give up. After eating for a while, I wanted to order some wine, but the wine was not sold. "There are so many waiting seats outside, you occupy the table and drink for half a day, how do we do business?" The store's answer was slightly angry. However, the fish was so delicious that I patiently came to the store day after day until the store closed.
There are also people who eat situations. I once read about the experience of eating fish written by Lu Wenfu, former vice chairman of the Chinese Writers Association. In the 1950s, Lu Wenfu was interviewing in a small town in Jiangnan, and it was nearly noon, the restaurant was closed and the flatbread fritters were cold. There is only one small restaurant, and there is no food, the vegetables are sold out, and only one mandarin fish is kept in the river, and you can make a fish soup to fill your hunger. Lu Wenfu walked into the small shop. The small shop is a river house that is often found in the water town, and the bottom of the house is overhead, which can be moored or docked. Lu Wenfu sat in front of the window, only to see the lake and mountains, the water was clear to the bottom, the water and grass swayed; the boats in the lake startled the wild ducks to fly, and the green mountains could be seen in the distance.
Mandarin fish has exceeded two pounds, not the best product, just put a little green onion, ginger, rice wine in it. The shop brought two pounds of rice wine, and Lu Wenfu ate very happily, and a fish ate for three hours. Later, Lu Wenfu ate mandarin fish countless times, including Suzhou's famous dishes such as squirrel mandarin fish, unicorn mandarin fish, steamed mandarin fish, mandarin fish snow vegetable soup, mandarin fish balls and so on. These famous dishes are well-made, exquisitely used, steamed or boiled soup, which are added with shiitake mushrooms, ham, winter shoots as accessories, ham must be south legs, winter shoots can not be packed in canned, but he feels that it is not as delicious as the small building. "If you put the mandarin fish on the small restaurant on the feast of the Deyue Building, and put it together with the mandarin fish in the Deyue Building, then you will definitely feel that the Deyue Building is better than the small restaurant." But where are the green mountains, the clear water, the white sails, the leisure, the poetry..." he wrote in the article.
Beijing Kitchen Executive Chef Gu Zhihui pickled fish
In the heart of Gu Zhihui, executive chef of Beijing Kitchen, the best thing to do with a fresh fish must be steamed. Gu Zhihui is a Hong Kong native, with a small stomach soaked in Cantonese cuisine, "not eating from time to time" is the most basic bottom line he faces the ingredients. The eastern star spot in his hand had just been sent from the market, and the color of the fish was delicate red. "It takes almost half a month to have a wild one." We also want to sell for 1300 yuan a catty. Seeing the fresh fish, Gu Zhihui's excitement was revealed. The side dishes for steaming fish are so simple that they only have some chopped ginger and shallots, not even a single garlic head. Before steaming, rub the whole body of the fish with salt, spread well on both sides, sprinkle a little cooking wine, cover with ginger shredded shallots, steam for 7 minutes, the fish will be served out, the meat is pure white like milk, and the red fish skin is reflected, which is beautiful. As soon as the hot oil is poured, accompanied by a "squeaking" sound, a dish is completed. The whole process is smooth and simple enough for me to mutter: "Is this sure it tastes good?" "As soon as you enter your mouth, you instantly understand the benefits of the method, the fish is fresh and sweet, simple and pure to impeccable." To preserve the original taste of the ingredients is to respect the ingredients. Gu Zhihui told me.
There may not be a single ingredient that makes people as exciting as fish, generates so many common topics, and has their own persistence. Human beings have exerted endless imagination in the cooking of fish, including almost all the skills of cooking, steaming, making soup, frying, braising, frying, steaming, and smoking, each with its own method and taste. Behind these flavors, there is a combination of a region's eating habits, family tastes, and even the charm of the great rivers and oceans rich in fish. I sometimes think that if I put the best fish of chefs from all over the world on the dinner table, I will incorporate the characteristics of the whole world. So, in the face of such a table of fish, which one would you eat first?
Gu Zhihui's steamed Eastern Star Spots, the taste is very delicious (Bao Ding photo)
The meaning of eating fish
Fish is the "earliest artificial food" of human beings, starting from the fishing activities of primitive people, fish have had a decisive impact on the survival and reproduction of human beings, the use of fire, the invention of tools and the migration of ethnic groups. It is the fishing activities of the primitive people that have promoted the never-ending great creation of human beings to transform the forces of nature with productive forces. Chinese scientists have inferred from stable isotopes testing the remains of early modern humans that fish accounted for a large proportion of human food structures as early as about 40,000 years ago.
In this long-standing symbiotic relationship, fish has been given many meanings by humans, and the traditions represented by these contents have been extended to generations like a system of rules. Every Chinese New Year's Eve night, there will always be a braised carp on our table. Northerners like to eat carp, and burning a carp during the New Year also has an auspicious saying, taking the meaning of "there are fish every year" and "carp jumping dragon gate". The carp is fried in oil a few days earlier, and according to the braised method, it must be a complete fish, which represents the meaning of "a family in order" in the coming year. The fish should be placed in the middle of the table, and when eating, there is a new emphasis, Chinese New Year's Eve night this dish can only be sandwiched with the meat of the fish, and the head and tail will be saved until next year, that is, the next day.
In the course of my interview, I also wanted to know how the customs and eating methods in other places are different from those in my hometown in northern Anhui, what position the fish are in at their tables, and what factors affect the habit of eating fish? This is not an old-fashioned question, but just through this, it will present the details that we usually bury deep in our lives but are not noticed. For this reason, I went to Zhoushan, Chaoshan and Chengdu in this New Year interview. Zhoushan has one of the world's three major fishing ports, only fish with more than 200 kinds of striped fish, yellow fish, cuttlefish, pomfret and so on, to go to such a place to do an investigation, it is naturally worth it. The Chaoshan people's love of food is famous throughout the country, and it is said that a fish can find a thousand ways in Chaoshan, which is of course a bit exaggerated, but it can be seen that the Chaoshan people are wholehearted in tossing ingredients. Moreover, probably because of the perennial displacement, they talked about food always having a faint nostalgia in it, which deeply attracted me.
Sichuan, however, was improvised. As a northerner who loves to eat spicy food, under the baptism of respect for the original taste of ingredients in Zhoushan and Chaoshan for more than ten days, I feel that I need some thick oil and red sauce in my stomach to neutralize the food I eat, and my taste buds need to burn a handful. Go to nature is not disappointed. There are more than 30,000 Sichuan restaurants in Chengdu alone, eating one a day, and eating until the white head can not be eaten. Moreover, Sichuan cuisine "hundred dishes and hundred flavors", only one "spicy" word, there are spicy, sour, spicy, spicy and many other tastes, corresponding to the color, a variety of flavors, think about it is addictive.
In terms of customs, Chaozhou, which has a strong local culture, eats fish very characteristically, and their understanding of carp is somewhat different from my hometown. Teochew chef Fang Shuguang told me that from the Teochew tradition, Chinese New Year's Eve eat dried carp radish soup at night. In Teochew, the meaning of carp is related to wealth, and stewing a fish means that money is rolling in in the new year. However, there will also be some changes in eating habits, as Buddhist culture continues in Teochew, carp is regarded by more people as a spiritual animal, rarely used for cooking, and every year on the Buddha's Birthday, people will go to the market to buy small carp to release. People believe that the first few releases will bring good luck, and if you stick to it, you will be able to do what you want.
How important is the position of the fish on the Table of the Chaoshan people? A local said to me that in the Chaoshan vegetable market, if the supply of fish is small, the price of other vegetables will rise by one-fifth, "the Chaoshan people's vegetable market can not be without fish." Zhong Chengquan, the owner of Donghai Restaurant, learned to cook, in the 1980s, he followed the master to learn to cook, a feast of 12 dishes, the front of the various ingredients from platter to steaming, stewing, stewing successively sorted, fish is always the last, only because the type of fish at that time is not rich enough, put a fish to represent the attention of the guests, but do not want the guests to eat, so wait until everyone is full of wine and food to serve. The Chaoshan people's pickiness about seafood is also a result of the constant enrichment and change of ingredients. In the early years of chao cuisine, marine culture and pastoral culture were originally on a par with each other, and river fish was also a variety that people liked to eat, but with industrial construction and urban transformation, this clear bottom was polluted and gradually faded out of people's tables.
The most open is Zhoushan. Ancient Zhoushan was an immigrant city that was almost uninhabited in the early days. It was not until the Viceroy of Zhejiang, Chen Shikai, asked the Kangxi Emperor to build Dinghai City that people moved in from the coastal area of Fujian, Zhejiang. The entire survival resources of these newcomers are a sea in front of them. Under the tradition of relying on the sea to eat the sea, Zhoushan people have cultivated a stomach that pursues the ultimate pursuit of "fresh" seafood. The freshest seafood in Zhoushan must be steamed, and sometimes I feel dull when I eat too much, and I am laughed at as "there is no tongue that can taste food". More than one Zhoushan person assured me that Zhoushan's seafood is the best in the country, "eating Zhoushan's seafood, seafood in other places is not called seafood." The New Year that the whole of China is eagerly awaiting, but in the eyes of the people of Zhoushan, it is a little difficult - when the ship stops at the port and does not go to the sea, people cannot eat the freshest fish, they can only eat the chilled, and the taste is naturally a little worse.
Zhang Xinmin, president of the Chao Cai Research Association, saw an eagle pomfret in the wet market and excitedly showed it to us
A good taste is a good one
Since ancient times, there has always been an indistinct connection between the literati and the fish. Leaving aside the story of borrowing fish to express the chest and feelings, there are countless people who praise the taste and record the practice. The most well-known is Su Shi, who is a big foodie and loves fish in his life. When he was in Huangzhou, Hubei Province, he wrote an article called "Boiling Fish Law", which said: "In Huangzhou, it is good to cook fish by yourself." The method is to treat the axe with fresh crucian carp or carp. Under cold water, add salt as usual, and let's still add a few stems of green onions and white, and must not be stirred. Semi-cooked, add a little ginger radish juice and wine, the three things are equal, mix well. When ripe, add orange peel slices and eat them. "This method of making fish is regarded by posterity as a popular boiled fish in Meishan.
In Chengdu, I also went to a restaurant that was once praised by many literary circles, called "Daijiang Caotang", which was opened in 1936 and has a history of more than 80 years. Originally, this was just a tea house near the river, called "Sanjiang Tea Garden", during the War of Resistance Against Japan, the population of Chengdu increased sharply, and because there were many silver carp in the river, it began to cook silver carp for sale. Due to Zou Ruilin's superb craftsmanship, the business is getting better and better. Some customers felt that the name "Sanjiang Tea Garden" was too vulgar, so they borrowed Du Fu's poem "Daily Riverhead with Drunken Return" and named it "Belt River Caotang". In 1959, when Guo Moruo was tasting silver carp here, he wrote a poem that reads, "Spring aquatic life by the Three Caves Bridge, take the River Caotang Wanhua Ming, cook the fish and fill it with trillium wine, and wish the East Wind Ten Thousand Mileage". In 1963, Chen Yi came to this place and improvised the poem "Wild shops watch the crops, drink by the stream".
When I went, I could still see a small river outside the shop, but the shop and the river had been separated by the outer wall of the house, and the river was not clear, and it was no longer a place where fish could be raised. It was noon, there were many diners in the store, more than a dozen tables were basically full, but at a glance, it was basically an old man who was older, and it was the two of us who were as old as Me and Huang Yu. We ordered the shop's signature garlic roasted silver carp, which was served quickly, and the red oil was very large from the outside, and the smell of fish was grilled. I have done my homework before, and I know that the most authentic way to eat is to put the silver carp into the dish, suck hard, the meat into the mouth, the sauce is sour and sweet, and the fish bones are left on the plate. But as soon as I inhaled, a casual fishy rushed into my mouth, and I was discouraged and ate the garlic next to me. Compared to celebrity chanting, the stomach of the diner is more sincere – not to the taste of young people.
Chefs also have to be honest about the changing needs of people's taste buds. Someone always asked Zhong Chengquan: "Which dish is the best in the restaurant?" "This is the question that Zhong Chengquan does not like to answer the most." I never pay attention to the presentation, the most important thing is the taste. Someone asked me, what is the representative dish in the shop? I said no, you eat it and think it's good, even if it's a stir-fried green, it's good. What I want to do is to find good materials, and if you want to eat something good, you will think of the East Sea. As for the addition and subtraction of taste, it changes with people's tastes. Zhong Chengquan said. Good cooks are not limited to tradition and rigidity.
It is also very good to eat a grouper as an ingredient in Shantou
The national popularity of sauerkraut fish is a typical example. Before the 1990s, roasted river fresh was only one side branch under the many branches of Sichuan cuisine, and it was not conspicuous in Sichuan cuisine. In Sichuan, only the areas along the river, including Yibin, Luzhou and Neijiang, prefer to eat river fish. However, with the gradual accumulation of consumption power in Sichuan and Chongqing, Cantonese restaurants have begun to become the first choice for upstart groups, and Sichuan cuisine has gradually declined. After trying to find a way, Sichuan cuisine chefs found that only wild river fresh can compete with the "swallow-wing abalone belly" of Cantonese cuisine in terms of value, and can also maintain the spicy and fresh flavor of Sichuan cuisine in terms of taste.
At that time, sauerkraut fish was just a home-cooked dish in the kitchen of the locals in Sichuan and Chongqing, and it could not enter the restaurant. It's very simple, as long as there is a stove and a pot. Wash the fish and put it in the pot to cook, and fish some home-brewed sauerkraut, ginger, and two thorns from the kimchi jar and put it in, simple, delicious and rice. No one knows which chef introduced it to the restaurant, the fish is finely sliced, the heat and spices are also measured, and it immediately caught fire in Sichuan and then spread to all parts of the country. On this basis, there is also a sauerkraut fish hot pot derived, put into the tofu is the tofu fish, you can also put fat intestines, a variety of changes.
In 2005, Zhu Jianzhong, known as the "King of Sichuan River Fresh" in the industry, opened a cooking class, specializing in teaching sauerkraut fish, a course for three days, and 50 or 60 people registered each session. "Modern people are very afraid of ordering, sitting at the table as long as you call a sauerkraut fish, a big dish has it, and then call a dish, it is enough for two people to eat." Shi Guanghua analyzed the reasons why sauerkraut fish is popular all over the country, "Many dishes in Sichuan cuisine are jianghu cuisine, from families, mountains, rural areas, riverside, lakeside, these dishes are characterized by stimulating taste, prominent and distinct flavor, easy to get support. ”
The more ordinary the dish, the more it can test a chef's craftsmanship. I have tasted Zhu Jianzhong's sauerkraut fish, using only the common farmed blackfish, fried with chicken fat after the fish bones, put kimchi, under the broth, and then under the cut fish fillets, the process looks simple, but it is step by step, for example, the fish fillets should be sliced into 3 mm thickness, so that in case of oil will be rolled up, in the pot is good-looking. The most critical step after the pot is to stir-fry the spicy seeds and pour them on the fish, and the pepper aroma comes to the face. This dish made me know for the first time that sauerkraut fish can be drunk in soup. "The kimchi in the fish was fermented for 160 days in a special way, which is very debilitating, which is the key to drinking soup."
I suddenly remembered a couplet written by Huang Jinglin, a master of Sichuan cuisine in the Qing Dynasty, which, although playful, was quite in line with the mentality of chefs and diners. Shanglian: take a kitchen knife in your right hand, take a spatula in your left hand, hurry up, make some shark fin sea cucumbers, and provide them to your old wife; Lower link: the front of the roasting wood stove, the back of the charcoal stove, vigorously make a fuss, end up with some leftover soup, feed my family's adult dolls. Horizontal batch: Mixed life edge.
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