The disappeared chaff shrimp from the old records of Gangnam

The little thing of the bran shrimp, I haven't seen it in many years.

Many people do not know what is bran shrimp, check the literature, but also only tell you that bran shrimp is a small shrimp in the sea.

In fact, the bran shrimp I remember is a small shrimp rice, a small shrimp rice that is active in fresh water.

In my hometown, when I was a teenager, there were bran shrimp in almost every river and every ditch, as long as there was a place where aquatic grasses grew.

In Mr. Wang Zengqi's "Shadow of the Heart of Green Lake" written in Kunming, the old man wrote about the bran shrimp:

"The inside of the xuan is empty, there are no tables and chairs. There is only an old woman selling 'bran shrimp' under the porch. 'Bran shrimp' are small shrimp with only a shell and no meat. Dried and sold to tourists to feed the fish. For very little money, you can buy half a bowl from the old woman, sprinkle a handful in the water, and the red fish more than a foot long will swim over excitedly, grabbing the bran shrimp on the surface of the water, and chattering. After the bran shrimp were fed, the mermaids were scattered, and the Xuanzhong was empty, leaving the old woman sitting there alone. ”

Elder Wang wrote about his hometown of northern Jiangsu, and many scenes I read were like my own childhood experiences. I don't know whether the "chaff shrimp" by the green lake is the name of the Kunming people, or his old name in northern Jiangsu.

When I was a child, this small shrimp rice in my hometown was called bran shrimp.

I never knew the origin of the rumors of the bran shrimp, and I never asked my grandfather at that time. It's just that it has been passed down from generation to generation, and we will call it by the mouth.

Later, I believed in the reins of the horse, diverged my imagination, and guessed from the name that this bran shrimp was a small and delicate shell, like a chaff shell that had been shed from the rice grain, probably hence the name.

When I was a child, whether it was in the river or in the ditch, the water in my hometown was clear and could see the blue sky and white clouds, and I could also see all kinds of aquatic plants in the water.

This bran shrimp and small fish like to roost and play in the aquatic plants.

Three or four hundred meters north and south of our village, a wide trench in the east-west direction was dug (it is estimated that the war preparedness was prepared in order to block the Soviet tanks), and there were small ditches along the way with various rivers to facilitate the flow of living water.

Every spring, the spring rains and the ocean, until the Yellow Plum Day, the water in the ditch, the water in the rice field and the river water are almost mixed together.

Naturally, fish and shrimp also flow everywhere with the water potential.

A rich and beautiful place, where the water and soil do not raise fish and shrimp.

After the water receded, every summer, the water in the ditch, although much shallower, was still very deep.

Unlike the dredging in the river, the white trees and various aquatic weeds in the ditch are naturally crazy, except for the farmers who go to fetch some aquatic weeds to feed the pigs until winter, which is the golden age of life in the ditch.

Naturally, the bran shrimp is more in the ditch, because the water and grass are abundant and concentrated, and the water flow is stable, which is simply a natural creation.

Every summer and autumn, I like to follow my grandfather in the evening and carry a net to the ditch to get chaff shrimp.

Poke the net into the water weeds, push and pull hard a few times, and then pull out, when pulled out, the water flows out of the mesh, but the net has a mess of things, water weeds, bricks, mud, small fish, bran shrimp...

Where there is water, there is almost all of it in the net.

Pulled to the edge of the ditch, fell to the ground, turned over the aquatic weeds, small fish and bran shrimp jumping around in the aquatic weeds, especially the bran shrimp, the amount is large and the jump is more joyful.

Pick up the small fish and bran shrimp one by one and put them in a small basket.

Then take a few steps and come to the second net.

One net, two nets, three nets...

You don't have to worry about the empty net, the net will be rewarded.

In addition to the trenches of war preparedness, sometimes we will also go to the river, but the use of nets to the river is more of a silk snail, and the bran shrimp is a by-product.

To go to the river to swim the bran shrimp, the tool should be replaced by something shaped like a dustpan made of bamboo grate, the name of which I have forgotten, standing in the water, into the water grass or the white tree by the river, and then rushing to the water, carrying a heavy pocket of water, pouring it on the shore, and then picking the unfortunate small fish and bran shrimp.

When the production team is carrying the mud of the river, there are often fish and shrimp that are stuck in the mud pond, and the bran shrimp are stained with mud and struggle in the muddy water, but because it is too small, we are not willing to pick these, unless it is purely for fun.

Unlike Wang Zengqi, who bought bran shrimp to feed fish in Kunming during the War of Resistance, we got bran shrimp at that time, and we were absolutely reluctant to feed fish.

Carry the bran shrimp home, go to the port to wash it back and forth in the water a few times, go home, get some oil, heat it up and put the bran shrimp into the pot and explode, or a separate bowl of bran shrimp as a dish, or stir-fry with the water pickle pickled snow, or with the sweet noodle sauce made by huang meitian, no matter what kind of firing, it is delicious at that time.

Single fried bran shrimp, at that time it was relatively small, after all, the bran shrimp meat is less, the water town is never short of fat river fresh, the meat of the green shrimp is much softer and fuller.

Therefore, the bran shrimp is more cooked with pickles and sauces, and can be stored for a long time. Eat it with white porridge, it's superb.

Sometimes there are too many bran shrimp, grandpa will take it to the street to sell, of course, bran shrimp is very cheap, can not sell the price, but for farmers, every penny of cash is a treasure.

What can't be eaten is not sold, and what can't be sold is washed and placed in a sieve in the sun to dry dried shrimp, and can also be used to stir-fry pickles as pickles.

My grandfather was older, and after resuming drinking, morning snacks and afternoon snacks, always poured half a cup of shochu, and served wine with pickle bran shrimp or pickle bran shrimp.

The bran shrimp thing should also be very expensive and sensitive to the environment.

In my memory, in the water system of my hometown, the first thing that disappeared was the green shrimp and the like.

Because, the water is dirty.