Teacher Wang Zhiyuan
Waves of peach blossoms,
Snails are abundant.
Ignorant and ignorant,
Transform the rain into a dragon.
"Ci Hai" [mud snail] article: Bullacta exarata is also called "spit iron". Gastropods, Adisspiaceae, the shell is oval, thin and brittle, the shell mouth is large, and the surface is smooth. Body fat, slightly yellow, can not all be indented into the shell, the skin is slightly transparent. The edges of each side of the gastropod are folded back to cover part of the shell. It lives on shallow mudflats and is produced all over the coast of our country. For consumption, more salted or wine stained.
The "Ciyuan" contains mud snails: "That is, spitting iron, Ningbo out of the mud snail, shaped like broad beans, can be filled with sea mistakes." In the "spit iron" strip, it contains: "Mollusk, a mud snail, commonly known as a yellow mud snail, shaped like a snail and thin shell, spitting silt, sand black like iron, to the peach blossom is beautiful, pickled, a spit iron." ”
Quan Zuwang (1705-1755), a famous scholar in Ningbo in the Qing Dynasty, has an account of "after the rain every year, ten thousand urns entered Guxu". Another unknown ancient poet has a poem Called Mud Snail: "The second spring is bad soil and ice storage, and the boat moves ten thousand urns into Guxu." An Period wrote the Immortals, and the wine and ink became tadpole books. "Guxu, another alias of the mud snail also."
More than 60 kilometers of coastline in laoxi, home to The Qiantang River and Cao'e River and other rivers and the Yangtze River estuary sediment input tidal impact, the seaflat area is large and the soil is fertile; the terracotta soil around Longshan (now part of Cixi) in the north of the town is even more plump. It is very rich in seafood resources, and the mud snails produced by them are large, thick, creamy, yellow and slightly transparent, and the meat is soft and delicious, which is overwhelming the same kind, and is the highest quality of the mud snails. The mud snail of Longshan is called "yellow mud snail" because of its yellow color. For the famous brand, the mud snails everywhere have also called themselves yellow mud snails, and "yellow mud snails" have become the common name of mud snails.
The yellow mud snail in Cixi Longshan, because its individual is larger than the mud snails of other regions of the same kind, it calls itself the "Three North Mud Snails" to show its difference from other mud snails. According to legend, Yu Qiaqing, one of the two qings in his hometown (that is, Qin Runqing, a financial giant in Shanghai, and Yu Qiaqing, a giant in Shenjiang Shipping), whose original name was Hede, lived at the foot of Fulong Mountain, and the mountain was creeping alone on the seashore, looking like a large mud snail that only crawled on the beach. The Yu family was poor, and when he was young, he collected mud snails to make a living, and when Yu became prominent, the hometown people gave him a nickname of "big mud snail" and sang in the native language: "Longshan Adege, nicknamed big mud snail, the telephone is through Ningbo, and the train is through Cao'e." "There is a sense of pride in the ridicule. Therefore, whether people in their hometown go out to study or seek employment, they will never be angry when they encounter the ridicule of people from other places, especially in Shanghai, but just smile atmospherically. However, the real Longshan big mud snail, because in recent years, the Longshan area, the vicissitudes of the sea mulberry field has become an industrial area, has almost disappeared, as yinxian people Sang Wen magnetic poems: "Longshan specialty big mud snail, colored and fragrant and umami, in the past farmers often under the rice, and now the value is better than chicken and goose." ”
Although the hometown mud snail is called "big mud snail", it is one of the smallest seafood in small seafood. Some people describe the mud snail: "Fat as zee, fresh as crumbs." "The few are few, and the small ones are also." Describe the mud snail as small as crumbs also. Therefore, the hometown of Cicheng has a slang phrase of "how big, what a snail". "Rhymes": "Well, Xiao Ye." Busy peel. Therefore, the hometown people often use "how big, what a snail (or lice ghost, ghost white reading)" to describe small things or people. In this way, the Longshan mud snail has the alias of "dragon lice".
In a variety of ways, we can enrich the "mud snail" article of "Cihai" and "Ciyuan" as follows: "Bullacta exarata), that is, spit iron, also known as Guxu, yellow mud snail, large mud snail, lice snail, dragon lice..." The hometown is really a brilliant spirit.
Cantonese and Hong Kong people pride themselves on being the most knowledgeable at eating: "In addition to the tables and chairs and benches with four legs, the two-legged ones eat everything that can be eaten." "The imagination of Guangdong and Hong Kong people is really good, but they dare not eat Ningbo mud snails, especially fresh mud snails." This is because the mud snail body mucus and internal organs contain an allergic toxin, some people who are prone to allergies, eating unpicked or fresh mud snails may produce facial puffiness, toe stiff symptoms, hometown people called "mud snail fat". As early as the Song Dynasty, there were records of feeding on mud snails, and antibodies were naturally produced in the body of people in their hometowns, and generally the allergic phenomenon of "mud snail fat" would not occur again. It doesn't matter if someone is allergic, the symptoms will disappear on their own after a few days. Therefore, compared with the people of Guangdong and Hong Kong, it is still the hometown people who know how to eat!
Hometown people eat mud snails and pay attention to the seasons. Historical records: The three northern yellow mud snails are the best in the third month of the lunar calendar "peach blossom mud snails". Because the mud snail has just grown hair when the peach blossoms are in full bloom, there is no mud and sterility in the body, and the taste is beautiful at this time. In the Mid-Autumn Festival, because the osmanthus blossoms are in full bloom, the mud snails produced at this time are called "osmanthus mud snails". Although the quality is not as good as that of "peach blossom mud snail", the grains are generally fat and fat, and the taste is quite delicious. The Ming Dynasty scholar Zhang Rulan sang in the "Tu Iron Song": "Soil is not soil, iron is not iron, fat is like Zeze, and fresh as crumbs." At first glance, Ningbo City, it looks like Jiayu Cave. On the plate was an agate; one by one danqiu blood in front of the table. See the taster, the drinker pinch, raise a glass to eat two more suitable, fishy than the wide long tongue. "Fat as zee, fresh as crumbs, shaped like a piece of agate amber "peach blossom mud snail" and "osmanthus mud snail", how not to let the old man's wide and long tongue move? How can a fishy mud snail rival the wide tongue of the old gourmets?
The traditional way of eating mud snails in my hometown is mostly drunken mud snails. That is, the newly caught mud snail, washed with seawater, put into the container, add salt and stir quickly, let stand for a few times, after the mud snail dies, pour off the water, add salt, add yellow wine raw pickling, so that you can condense the spirit of the river and sea to the mud snail between the square inches, so as to restore the original form of the mud snail and the crisp and fragrant taste, let people enjoy the mouth. Another feature of drunken mud snails is that as long as they are not opened, they are not spoiled for a long time, so that they can eat delicious mud snails all year round. The townspeople who go out eat drunken mud snails, and they can also comfort homesickness.
Hometown people are especially fond of using Feng Hengda or private distillation lees to pickle mud snails, or use lees to burn fresh mud snails, the lees are full of incense, the mud snails are fresh and fishy, fused together, should be called a good even perfect match. Where the taste is, it is known as fangfu, crunchy, delicious, all of which are in the lees mud snail, and I don't know what other delicacies in the world can make the "broad and long tongue" of the old food fall down?
In addition to the drunken and bad way of eating, the mud snail can also be eaten fresh. When fresh mud snails are caught, blanched with boiling water, mixed with green onions, soy sauce, and poured with a spoonful of boiling oil, it becomes a "green onion mud snail" with a strong local flavor. The shell is as thin as a cicada wing, and the snail flesh is transparent and crystalline throughout. The color is like amber onyx, and it is eaten hot, and it is the true taste of the world.
Fresh mud snails are grilled with local eggplant, which is a traditional method of roasting that restores the most authentic hometown taste. Another extreme delicacy of "vegetables" with fresh mud snail meat is the use of freshly dried vegetables from the year, which is elegantly called evergreen, and burned mud snails. That taste is really a praise, but the heat is not easy to grasp, burned over, then the taste is the same as chewing wax, so it must be burned fiercely.
Bran peanuts, bran soybeans, bran salted herbs (Note: bran peanuts are fresh bran cut into slices, dice or silk, baked together with peanut rice after drying products, bran soybeans and bran salty herbs such as bran peanuts). Or the plum vegetable roast mud snail is a delicious dish where "mountain treasures" and "seafood" blend together, and together with the delicious dish that makes you unable to put down chopsticks and make your belly bulge.
Hometown people are really foodies worthy of the name. The mud snail is pickled, drunk, bad, not fried enough, and a stewed tofu. Yuan Mei of the Qing Dynasty said: "Tofu has a taste far better than bird's nest." "You can see the deliciousness and value of tofu. Tofu is the great benevolent of the delicacies, and the only delicacy that the ancient people could share with the relatives of the emperor and the country was tofu. To this day, tofu still retains its high wind and bright festival, willing to adapt with the mud snail of the sea coat, making a white color, like Ling Xue, and a white jade tofu mud snail, will it lead to your hungry worms?
Hometown people always eat soup, with fresh mud snail soup, there are dried vegetable mud snail soup, tofu mud snail soup, tomato mud snail soup, etc., its umami taste is no less than oyster soup. "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" has the saying of "Southern Oysters and Northern Bao", sometimes simply use pickled, drunk or rotten mud snails and oysters to make a salty and fresh suitable pickle, the soup color is white, delicious, endless aftertaste, a bowl of fresh soup through the throat, intuitive mouth fragrant, comfortable, that taste is really amazing.
The degree of family love for mud snails is simply love, and they can't extricate themselves wholeheartedly. Even if you burn a dish of "Phoenix Top Hundred Birds (Hundred Birds and Phoenix)", you must add the marinade of drunken mud snails or bad mud snails. The so-called phoenix is the use of a child chicken (or red-haired chicken) that is less than one year old. Note: 骟音細,"Orthographic Tong": "骟, cut off the castration also." Style battle cut. "The so-called mule chicken, that is, the castrated rooster).) Blanch the chicken in boiling water, remove the blood water, fish out and wash it, take a large casserole pot, add about 20 grams of chicken, shaojiu and about 500 grams of water, add a little cold water when boiling, and move to a low heat to simmer. When the chicken is cooked, remove the shallot knots and ginger pieces, skim off the foam, retain the butterfly-shaped walnut meat, and add a number of drunken mud snails or rotten mud snails wrapped in clean gauze. Place the dumplings, wontons and egg dumplings symbolizing the birds around the chicken, and then boil it slightly and drizzle with chicken fat.
This dish is beautiful in shape, with soft and soft, to clear into the clear, symbolizing the phoenix chicken, symbolizing the birds of water dumplings, wontons, egg dumplings, symbolizing the butterfly half-sized walnut, with green onion knots, ginger blocks, yellow mud snails, rice wine boiled together, the original soup milky white mellow, pulp glutinous, exceptional. The moving legend of "a hundred birds and a phoenix" has added a brilliant brilliance to this dish, making the eaters smell and dance their minds. Once on the table aroma is pervasive, the aroma of meat, faintly revealing the refreshing snail incense, so that the appetite of the eater is excited, not in time to throw, first praise, eat, the entrance is melted, the teeth and tongue are fragrant, and even the mind and gastrointestinal are comfortable.
Hometown people use the simplest food material mud snail, the simplest way to pickle, drunk, bad, stir-fry, stew, put soup, etc., to cook a kaleidoscopic, endless delicious dishes, which is the highest state of cooking.
Hometown has the slang phrase "Feng Jia Wu, Yu Jia Gu, Qian Jia Eat". Among them, "Yu Jia Gu" refers to the ancestor of the Yu family, Yu Huai (Zi Tianchi), who made a living by selling yellow mud snails because of his family's poverty. Legend has it that one day, he was selling mud snails in Cicheng, because of the hot weather, the yellow mud snails were somewhat discolored, so he went to the head of the river to wash the mud snails, and when he was not careful, the mud snails tipped over the river, he went down to the river to touch, who knew that he actually touched a piece of gold under the stone steps, and he used gold to buy thousands of acres of good land. Since then, every year during the rice harvest season, rice will be continuously transported from the four townships to the barn of the Yu family, so it is called "Yu Family Valley". Yu Huaiyuan made his fortune because of the mud snail, and his descendants and hometown people respected him as the "Grand Duke of the Mud Snail".
In fact, the townspeople understand in their hearts that the river channels along the streets of Cicheng are less than 1 meter narrow, the widest one will not exceed 3 or 5 meters, the depth is not more than 1 meter, the river water is clear to the bottom, and usually there are raking sand people, rake fishing out bowls and spoons in the river, selling some rice, how can it be possible to hide a piece of gold? The so-called "Feng Family House, Yu Family Valley, And Qian Family Eating" are all the results of generations of good business and hard work. The Yu family used a small and inconspicuous mud snail to cast the glory of the "Yu Family Valley", inspiring the hometown people to go south and north, and break out of their own legendary life.
Text: Wang Zhiyuan