The year before, I heard several Comrades-in-Arms in Beijing say that they went to Tianjin to eat mackerel stuffed dumplings - are Tianjin's mackerel dumplings really so delicious? If you have the chance, try it too.
When fishing in Heilongjiang, I ate fish every day, and I also ate fish stuffed dumplings, usually carp. Because, carp have fewer spines. However, the stingy sturgeon (sturgeon, scientific name Dashi sturgeon) is not suitable for dumplings. Because the oil is large and the fishy smell is heavy (cod liver oil smell), it is only suitable for stewing.
It's funny, the fish and an uncle. Let's introduce it.
This big loach is generally more than a meter long, but its uncle is only less than a dozen centimeters long ( zha sound ) long, and, with a lewd appearance, the destructive power is very large, and the fishing net is often broken by it. When it was caught, the shark fin struggled and moved, rattled, very violent, and if it was not good, it was tied to the hand, severe pain, and high suspicion of poison. This fish we called "Gayazi" at that time, "its uncle" is the nickname of the old people who fished on the river at that time - this name may be old, and now I don't know if there is such a name.
When fishing, we never eat "it uncle". Too small, covered in mucus, not easy to clean up. However, now, the fish (a first-class protected animal) could not eat it, but its uncle had quietly caught fire. People are no longer called "the old uncle of the fish", it is called "cow's tail".
In recent years, in Beijing, you can actually see the figure of "its uncle". However, the weight is larger, and it feels much more beautiful, which may be farmed. When I remembered, when I returned to Heilongjiang last year, I also ate this kind of fish, which was bigger than what I saw in Beijing.
On the menu in Beijing, "its uncle" is called "Gayu".
In those days, when fishing on the island, I ate fish almost every day, and my face became pimples and caught fire. However, although fish eat a lot, not every fish can eat. Salmon is, we've only eaten it once. Because, only one has been hit. Because there was only one, it was not transported back to Lianli and ate it myself. The reason is that there are too many people in the company, and there are not enough points.
Salmon's habit is migratory. In the autumn, the eggs migrate from the sea to the upper reaches of the Heilongjiang River to lay eggs, and in the spring the eggs hatch into small fish and return to the sea, and in the autumn they migrate again, and the cycle begins again. When we hit that fish, it must have been autumn.
Fish made stuffing, curious, but still did not understand too much. I remember the approximate steps, the fish meat deboned, chopped the filling, added chopped green onion, put salt, as if it did not feel enough to eat, and added some cabbage.
I wondered that fish should have spines, except for the big spines like spines, but also small spines in the meat. Do you have to spit out thorns to eat dumplings? Eating a bite of dumplings and spitting out a few mouthfuls of thorns is not normal. A table of people eating dumplings and spitting out thorns while eating, that scene is ridiculous to think about. Besides, it's too much trouble, isn't it?
In addition, meat fillings other than pork and beef and mutton are certainly not the taste of the public's habits. Therefore, I don't think it will be delicious. However, seeing the interest of the old workers in picking the bones and chopping the stuffing, I thought: They must have eaten, maybe the taste is good.
Previous experience has proven that it is not wrong to follow their feelings. For example, when we first arrived at the fishing steak, the big pot stewed fish, we only knew how to eat meat, the old staff picked up the remaining fish heads, and also ate the taste, which made us feel strange. Later, I deliberately tasted the fish head, and I thought that the fish brain and fish oil of the fish head were really better than the fish meat. So, we also began to grab fish heads and eat them. If you don't go to the countryside, who would have thought that the head of the fish would be better than the meat of the fish.
The dumplings are wrapped, the pot is lowered, and after a few rolls, the noodles are first floated out of the cauldron. Boiled noodles also have this taste, which arouses people's appetite. Then, in the aroma of the noodles, there is the taste of green onions and meat fillings. There is no fishy smell of fish, but it feels similar to pork, anyway, there is no odor.
Each person filled a large bowl, poured vinegar directly into the bowl, and then ate it with vinegar dipped in the bottom. A few of us who ate fish stuffing for the first time thought it was incredible: not only did it not have a fishy taste. Take a bite, and it's still full of fresh flavor. So, I ate it while admiring it, but no one explained it to us. Everyone was eating beautifully, mouths, dumplings, chopsticks and bowls, and throats, making pleasant jingling and grunting sounds, and everyone looked like they were enjoying and satisfying.
To be honest, the salmon stuffed dumplings I ate that time were the best dumplings I've ever eaten. After returning to Beijing, I couldn't buy salmon, and I made dumplings with carp, which was better than other meat, but it didn't taste as good as salmon dumplings.
The rarer fish, also ate the "Seven Mile Fuzi (sound)", and later learned that it is the Heilongjiang sturgeon, which should belong to a kind of sturgeon. The largest of this fish can grow up to 1000 kg. In our memory, we once hit two, one was handed in and one small one we ate.
The one handed in is caught with a "wading net", that is, the net is crossed in the river, going down the current, and the boat follows the floating of the net. After walking a long way, I will lift the net and see if there are any fish. That day the net was very heavy, knowing that there were fish. But I didn't expect a fish, very large, more than two meters. The boats were about to tip over, but thanks to someone hooking the fish with a hook, the fish might have run away.
The fish we ate was hit by the "four 0" class (bazooka class, we were the six0 mortar class) and didn't know how big it was. Anyway, after stewing, a large iron pot was full, and more than 20 people ate the rest.
This fish is a cartilage, and the flesh is very tender. But I don't think there are salmon dumplings as good. Remember to cook it, a lid, a layer of oil on top, very greasy feeling. But when you eat it, you don't have the pork grease you usually eat. The meat is also very easy to taste, very tender. The color of the broth seeps into the meat a lot, and it is not easy to eat like other big fish, and it is not easy to taste in the meat, and it must be eaten in the soup.
The steamed bun dipped in fish soup is delicious, much more delicious than the steamed bun soaked in vegetable soup. It should be a deluxe version of the "steamed buns and soups" that are eaten every day (limited edition). The steamed bun in the vegetable soup is the aroma that can eat the noodles, but it only spices up the dullness of the soup, that's all. Steamed buns that can be soaked in fish soup, in addition to the aroma of the noodles, can also taste the fish flavor and moisturize the different taste of the noodles. Moreover, this "bubble" alone makes people feel a temporary sense of abundance when food is scarce, and the hiccups are more domineering than when drinking vegetable soup.
It was the first and last time in my life that I had eaten this fish. Because, in 1999, this fish has been listed as an endangered species by the United Nations.
The most nostalgic thing in nostalgia is the memory of eating. And these memories of eating have also melted into my taste, making me often think of this mouthful, and have a deep-seated prejudice against some of today's "delicacies".
I myself wondered how difficult it was to cultivate such picky taste buds at that time.