The highest definition of delicious food in Laodizi Shanghainese is that it has a crab flavor.
I strongly agree on this matter, more resolutely than I support the salted bean blossoms.
The plump crab yellow crab paste, broken open like a sparkling vault, eating into the mouth sticks to the mouth, so thick that after washing the hands, there is a sticky feeling of crab paste.
Crab yellow is the ovaries of female crabs, and crab paste is the gonads of male crabs
Slightly roasted crab feet, take a crab skewer to scrape the white and reddish meat a little, the aroma brought by baking drills into the nose, and the meat is sweet and soul-destroying. The old aunt picked fresh crab meat crab powder, stewed tofu dipped in a little vinegar, as if eating a cloud that sucked enough of the lake's water essence.
There are also raw pickled crabs, spicy stir-fried crabs, curry crabs, fried crabs, crab rice cakes, crab powder steamed buns, crab yellow buns, bald butter... Well, I have to admit that as long as the dish with crab in its name will definitely attract my attention, and a lot of saliva secretion.
Chinese eat crabs, the history is more than 5,000 years. Archaeologists have found a large number of crab shells in the sites of the Liangzhu culture in the Taihu Lake Basin and the Songze culture in the Shanghai area, and there are also folk legends that the ancestors of ba xie took the lead in eating crabs when the Dayu ruled the water.
Mr. Lu Xun once said in "Two Impressions today", "The person who eats crab for the first time is very admirable, who dares to eat it if he is not a warrior?" ”
Although modern technology has not yet been able to verify the first person to eat crabs, it is still an interesting process to explore the history of Chinese crab eating.
01.
Relatives of the Emperor: Pike crab
According to written records, the earliest crab that has been recorded in history is him, the pike crab.
Open the barracuda crab, and there is a dry crab in the crab
The Zhou Li Ku Ren wrote, "The fish of Jingzhou and the crab of Qingzhou, although they are not very things, they are filial piety." "It is said that the princes used the fish of Jingzhou and the crabs of Qingzhou to pay tribute to Zhou Tianzi. The meaning of Crab Xu in Qingzhou is the crab sauce obtained by the ancient Shandong people after chopping up the barracuda crab and marinating it. In this way, the pike crab has been a tribute more than 3,000 years ago.
Pike crabs, also known as three-wart pike crabs, are almost all over the coast of Chinese mainland.
A large meaty, yellow and full of pike crabs, Zhejiang will be made into choking crabs, that is, raw pickled pike crabs. The shells of live crabs are stacked into a porcelain altar in layers facing down, two pounds of water, one pound of salt are poured into the altar, sprinkled with a little pepper and brandy (whisky is also good), raw and pickled for 24 hours, chopped pieces, and eaten. Fragrant, salty, sweet and fresh four flavors unfold in turn at the mouth, and then blend together, under the wine and rice are the best.
Raw choking is a very exciting practice, suitable for eating and drinking
The Chaoshan region is rich in products, and it is worth flying over to eat a few times, and making pike crabs is also a must. I ate a wonderful sichuan pepper baked pike crab in the gourmand Zhang Xinmin's Chao Cai Cai Research Seminar, and the pike crab with overflowing red paste mixed with stir-fried peppercorn baked was simple and the taste was very wonderful. The crab meat sucked enough of the taste of peppercorns, spicy and fragrant, and the mouth and tongue were numb, as if they were spitting bubble crabs.
The peppercorn baked crab sets off the sweetness of the crab itself
Pike crab, although not as valuable as butter crab hairy crab, I have ever seen the best way to eat it is actually very ordinary. Fishing boats go out to sea, catch fresh pike crabs, cook directly into the pot, and eat a bowl of ginger vinegar for each person. Looking at the deep blue sea, the surrounding sea breeze whistles, the taste, vast and majestic.
Pike crabs have the taste of the ocean
02.
Fame: Hairy crabs
Butter crabs are the new favorites on the table, and the hairy crabs that have been most praised throughout the ages are probably hairy crabs.
Hairy crab, full name Chinese river crab, is a species that appears in the circle of friends of the people every year after the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the leader of which is the hairy crab of Yangcheng Lake. Today, a standard Yangcheng Lake hairy crab has a laser logo on the shell, a plastic ring on the crab claw, and an 18-digit anti-counterfeiting code and dealer inquiry number on the ring.
Very "identity" of the Yangcheng Lake hairy crab
As a Suzhou native, after eating thousands of hairy crabs, my advice is that yangcheng lake hairy crabs are indeed good, but there is no need to be so fundamentalist, as long as they are picked well, the flavor is not inferior.
TIPS
How to pick a hairy crab
1. Look
Good hairy crabs, pay attention to green back, white belly, golden claws, yellow hair, smooth color, majestic appearance, do not pick the sick and pitiful, live jumping is a good crab.
2. Sweep
The perfect hairy crab, the female crab is about 3 double, and the male crab is around 3.5-4, which should be a bit falling in the hand, rather than floating lightly.
3. Pinch
Hairy crabs grow intermittently, and after molting, the internal flesh may not be strong. Pressing the breastplate with your hand, the hard one is a good crab.
In this way, hairy crabs need to be steamed or boiled for a while, and the so-called ginger balsamic vinegar hot yellow wine is not needed, and simply breaking the crab lid can fascinate people. The plump anointing is reminiscent of the splendid Vienna Golden Hall, and after eating one, it is the satisfaction of a New Year's concert.
Crabs in Yangcheng Lake, crab yellow color bright, natural loose
However, in the distant ancient times, at least before the Tang Dynasty, everyone still ate sea crabs. Around the Song Dynasty, the aesthetics of society changed from plump beauties and sharp Tang knives to small milk beauties and cold furniture, and the requirements for diet became light and exquisite, and the river crabs with less fishy taste entered the Chinese table.
03.
Rising Star: Butter Crab
If you go up against the current, throughout the history of Chinese eating crabs, the latest to appear should be butter crabs, and now the "king of crabs" who often spend 2,000 yuan a year has risen for no more than 20 years.
Click on the image below · You can buy butter crab
Butter crab is a kind of diseased crab - in the hot summer spawning season, mature green cream crabs inhabit the shallows of the Pearl River Delta to lay eggs, at low tide, the temperature rises sharply, the egg cells of the cream crab are stimulated, decomposed into golden oil penetrates the whole body, and any short joint will drip butter. It is said that only one out of 100 such crabs will be produced.
Butter crabs are full of golden grease, and the current market price is higher
Butter crab rivers and lakes
In the rivers and lakes of butter crabs, there are also grades, which are first-hand, second-hand, cream oil and water oil.
1. Headman
Among them, crab oil penetrates every crab foot is called the head hand, the most precious.
2. Used
After picking the head hand, the remaining cream crabs that are full of oil, with a light red color, but no butter at the joints, are called second-hand;
3. Paste the crab
The first level again is the cream oil crab, the oil is not completely dispersed, the oil has a small red hard paste, the disease is not thorough enough.
4. Water and oil crab
The second is the water oil crab, which is completely watery oil.