Wen | Zeng Qingwei
One of the top ten classic dishes in Hubei: steamed catfish
An old classmate of mine returned to Han Province before the Spring Festival, and after graduating from the school we attended, he was assigned to work in the northeast for nearly 40 years, and during this time, he only returned to Wuhan three or five times.
This time back in Han, he found all the old classmates he could contact to get together, including most of my classmates, which was the first time to gather nearly 40 years after graduation.
Come and go without being rude also. It makes sense that I have to do the East Grand Grand Reply to the old xuetong. Therefore, I asked the guest to kill the chicken, and directly asked the old classmate: "What do you want to eat most when you go back to Wuhan?" The old classmate replied: "I most want to eat 'steamed catfish', in our Wuhan side of such a simple dish, in the northeast that knot is so difficult to eat?" ”
I understand very well the nostalgia on the tip of my old classmates who have worked in the field for decades.
He was born and raised in Wuhan, and his family lives near the current Hankou Aviation Road New Century Department Store, which used to be the site of the famous "Old Daxingyuan" restaurant in Wuhan, and the distance between the old classmate's home and the "Old Daxingyuan" restaurant is less than 150 meters. Residents living in this area, where there are major matters in the family that need to be picked up for dinner, "Old Daxing Garden" is their first choice. The "Old Daxing garden" with The Yangtze River catfish as the ingredients cooking catfish dishes is the treasure of the town store that has been passed down for more than a hundred years, especially the "braised catfish" and "steamed catfish" are famous in the three towns of Wuhan, and this restaurant has successively born Cao Yuting, Liu Kaibang, Wang Xianshan and Sun Changbi in more than 100 years.
Coming to the "Old Daxing Garden" to eat and invite guests, ordering a signature dish "tamale catfish" is the normal way of hospitality. From childhood to adulthood, old classmates eat in the "Old Daxing Garden", at least dozens of times, right? According to the memory theory of human organs, it is also reasonable that "steamed catfish" leaves a deep taste memory on the old classmates.
Although the "Old Daxingyuan" has been closed for two or three years, it is not difficult to find a restaurant in Wuhan that can eat "tamales". So, on a day of choice, I invited a group of old classmates from decades ago to go to the "Juyuanzhuang" Ecological Park on the Wuchang Third Ring Road not far from Huashi No. 1 Affiliated Middle School to have a dinner and reminisce about the past.
Why did I choose to have dinner at the "Juyuanzhuang" Ecological Park, which is nearly an hour's drive from downtown Hankou? Because the owner of this hotel, Xu Shuiyuan, is a chef and a disciple of Sun Changbi, the "King of Catfish", who is good at making catfish dishes, and the "tamales and catfish" cooked with Yangtze River catfish as the ingredient is also one of the signature dishes of "Juyuanzhuang", which has a good reputation among the delicious guys in Wuhan who are good at "steamed catfish".
"Steamed Yangtze River catfish" is indeed worth mentioning. Yangtze River catfish is a valuable freshwater fish ingredient, "tamales catfish" is a classic dish in traditional Hubei cuisine, which has been enduring in Wuhan and even Hubei catering markets.
"Steamed Yangtze River catfish" can become a classic Hubei dish, in my opinion, it probably meets three conditions: one is precious ingredients, the other is unique cooking methods, and the third has beautiful stories and legends.
According to the data, the Yangtze River catfish, also known as the River Tuan, the scientific name of the long-snout, belongs to the catfish, the family Catfish, the genus catfish, is China's unique freshwater precious wild fish, distributed in part of the Yangtze River Basin. The catfish is fat but not greasy, and the spring and autumn seasons are the fattest and tenderest. Pharmacologically speaking, catfish has the effect of tonifying qi and appetizing water.
According to the conditions of the fresh and abundant production of the Yangtze River, Hubei chefs are extremely good at cooking catfish dishes with catfish ingredients, of which "steamed Yangtze River catfish" is the most famous catfish dish in addition to "braised Yangtze River catfish". The cooking method of "steaming" is one of the cooking techniques that Hubei chefs are best at. Cooking with steamers as cooking utensils, originated in the Han Dynasty, is a strange flower of Han food culture, of which bamboo steamers are known for their original taste, steam water does not flow backwards, and their colors and aromas are all famous all over the world. Hubei traditional cuisine in the "Qiuyang three steaming", "Tianmen steamed dish" and so on are steamed in a steamer, is a special business card of Hubei food culture.
Many people think that eating catfish dishes is somewhat fatty, and the method of mixing yangtze river catfish with rice flour and steaming it in a steamer better solves the problem of some greasy catfish. The basic procedure for making "tamales" is to cut the catfish from the abdomen, remove the internal organs, wash and drain. Cut the fish into 6 cm square pieces, wash them with water, drain and place in a large bowl. Add rice noodles, salt, sake and other spices to marinate for 5 to 8 minutes, then put the marinated fish on a plate and steam in a steamer for 10 minutes. Spread lard in a bowl, remove the steamed fish pieces from the cage, neatly stack them into the gauze drawer one by one, steam on the high heat for another 10 minutes, and flip them into the dish. Heat the lard in a wok over medium heat, add chicken broth, soy sauce, cooking wine, vinegar, monosodium glutamate and wet starch to form a marinade, pour over the fish, drizzle with sesame oil, sprinkle with green onions and minced ginger.
Steamed bilge
In the process of steaming catfish, the rice noodles absorb water vapor and also absorb the oil overflowed by the catfish during the steaming process, so that the "tamales" after cooking have the delicious characteristics of fat and not greasy.
In folklore, catfish also has a mythological story.
Legend has it that catfish was originally the god of the heavenly supervision of the fish clan, and because of his yearning for the love life in the world, he took the opportunity of the relaxation of the guards of the heavenly court and flew from the heavenly court to the mortal world. Later, he was discovered by the Heavenly Court guards and reported to the Jade Emperor. The Jade Emperor decreed that the god of the fish clan be placed under a boulder at the bottom of the Yangtze River. One day, the Yellow Crane flew on the surface of the river, heard the cry for help coming from the bottom of the river, so he sneaked into the bottom of the river, saw the tragic situation of the god of the fish tribe being crushed by the boulder, and was very sympathetic, so he flew back to the heavenly court to play to the Jade Emperor, hoping to save the god of the fish tribe from hard labor.
The Jade Emperor said that the god of the Fish Clan had violated the Heavenly Rules and was not tolerated by the Heavenly Law unless he gave up his identity and waited for ten thousand years before serving in the Heavenly Court with a new identity. The god of the fish tribe responded, I would like to transform into catfish, swim in the Yangtze River Jiayu Guizhou Bay section, in the spring and autumn season let the fishermen catch up, let the chef cook dishes, for the people of the world to fill their hunger.
The Jade Emperor nodded his head. As a result, there are many catfish dishes in the world, which have been enjoyed by the people for generations...
The "steamed Yangtze River catfish" of the "Juyuanzhuang" Ecological Park did not humiliate me as a guest: the fish meat was white and delicate, the fat was tender and rich; the rice noodles were mixed and steamed to maintain the original taste of rice noodles, and the fat of the catfish could be felt...
I asked my old classmates who returned to Han Province from the northeast how the taste of this "steamed Yangtze River catfish" tasted, he said: "This is exactly the taste in my memory, just to be able to eat the old taste of 'steamed Yangtze River catfish' often, I quickly returned to Wuhan after retirement, then please help Zhang Luo, see where the house in Wuhan is suitable, first set the place to live, and then go home." ”
Oh, the legend of food has its own power of food, this time, a piece of food but let the deceased who went out to make a living speed up the pace of returning home, happened to the students who were close to me, let me see it as a reality.
This article was published in Nostalgia on the Taste Buds (by Zeng Qingwei, Beijing Daily Publishing House)
About author:Zeng Qingwei, a native of Wuhan, writer and food critic, is currently the editor-in-chief of Yanhuang Cuisine Magazine, a distinguished professor of Wuhan Research Institute of Jianghan University, the deputy secretary-general of Wuhan Catering Association, and has published many books such as "Chu Tian Talks About Eating", "Nostalgia on Taste Buds", "Taste of Wuhan" and many other books.