In mid-April, when you walk around the fishing villages along the coast of Qingdao, you can often see such a picture: offshore, fishing boat motors roaring, dragging nets back and forth; on the shore, shelves are densely packed with small fish for drying. A few days ago, when we went to the Laoshan Huayan Scenic Area, we saw such a scene in the Diaolongzui Village along the way.
When I inquired about it, I learned that these small fish that were being dried were originally called "noodle fish", which is a major local specialty, and every year in March and April, it is the concentrated period for catching noodle fish. Unlike those deep-sea fish, noodle fish mainly live in the offshore area, and fishing boats can generally operate at the doorstep of their homes. Standing on the shore, you can have an intuitive feeling of the fishing and processing of the opposite fish.
According to the records of aquatic data, noodle fish, also known as silver needle fish, scientific name is jade tendon fish, which belongs to the cold and warm small fish. Noodle fish are small, and adult fish generally do not exceed 10 cm in length. It is distributed in the North Pacific Ocean and the Yellow Bohai Sea region of China, living in the middle and upper layers of seawater. The area around Laoshan Bay in Qingdao is a famous production area for noodle fish, and the Qingdao Municipal Chronicle mentions noodle fish when listing the characteristic aquatic resources of Laoshan District.
Because of their small size, noodle fish are generally eaten by frying, stir-frying and dried fish. The scene of drying noodle fish seen in the picture is to make them into dried fish, and fishermen are generally accustomed to this processing method. In restaurants, dried fried noodle fish is more common. The spines of this fish are not large, and after dry frying, they are even crisper and taste good.
As for the way to eat fried, ancient books have concluded: fried noodle fish with spring onions is suitable for March. It seems that the deliciousness of noodle fish in spring has long been discovered by people.
Noodle fish is originally a small fish, the price has not been too expensive, and during this time a large number of listings, it is more affordable. Friends who like to eat this kind of fish are obviously blessed.
It is said that this kind of offshore small fish is also a favorite delicacy of seagulls, and the sea area rich in this fish is also significantly more seagulls, which can be called a scenery.