Xiao Chunlei
The Cantonese water cockroach (dragon lice) and the Min sea earthworm (earthen shoots) are two of the most famous "dark seafood" today, which are the eyes of the whole country. It took me a while to accept the jelly, but the dragon lice still didn't have the courage to enter. Recently, combing through the history of dragon lice consumption, I did not expect that it was all Fujian information. Qu Dajun's "Guangdong Xinyu" actually lost the dragon lice, and books such as "Shunde Native Cuisine" of the present generation have only some modern reviews. I suddenly realized that in the Ming and Qing dynasties, dragon lice has always been a Fujian specialty, and it has only become Cantonese cuisine in the past hundred years.
Dragon lice is a general term for aquatic beetles of the Coleoptera family, commonly known as water turtles, water cockroaches, water turtles, shooting turtles, etc., everywhere, looking like cockroaches or cockroaches (shit shell lang), disgusting. Who was the first to put these ugly bugs in their mouths and praise them? The 4 records of ming dynasty edible dragon lice that I found all occurred in Mindi.
Written in 1596, the "Minzhonghai Fault" first recorded dragon lice. The author, Tu Benyi, is a native of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, and served as a tongzhi of the Fujian Salt Transport Department during the Wanli Dynasty. The book says: "Dragon lice: like a dung and small, black, two wings, six legs." Autumn moon storms rise, flying from the sea and falling into paddy fields or ponds. Seaside people fish, oil and salt are made and stored, and cherished. The author also added a note: "Dragon lice are water bugs, but dragon lice come from overseas, and water bugs come from water, so they think it is different." The Min people say that it is a lice on the body of a dragon, or an ear. People in the provinces are afraid of food. In Tu Ben's view, dragon lice are fujian's characteristic seafood.
During the Ming Dynasty, Chen Maoren, a native of Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, also served in Quanzhou Prefecture, and his "Quannan Magazine" (1604) recorded: "Dragon lice, like insects on cow dung, seem to be black and thin, and they are eaten with split shells and have a small flavor." Later, in the property section of the Wanli Fuzhou Fuzhi (1613), an entry for "dragon lice" was added, which was obviously copied from the "Mistakes of the Sea in Minzhong". In 1616, Xie Zhaochun, a scholar whose ancestral home was Changle, Fujian Province, published an engraving of "Five Miscellaneous Tricks," which mentioned: "There are dragon lice in Fujian, who fly in the water fields, and are no different from stove worms; there are also mud shoots, all kinds of earthworms; expand and fill them, and there is nothing inedible in the world." It can be seen that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, dragon lice and clay shoots (earthen shoots) were the two most appalling and strange products in Fujian.
In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, two scholars recorded dragon lice. Zhou Lianggong's "Min Xiaoji" Yun: "Dragon lice, according to legend, out of Zhangzhou Haikou, every August 13 to 15, three days flying, the rest of the day is nothing." Food... Women are beautiful and can charm men. Fang Yizhi's "Little Knowledge of Physics" said that he had seen dragon lice in Mindong when he was a teenager, and later ate dragon lice at the Nanhai County Bureau in Guangdong, which is said to come from Haojing (Macao), "smoked and oiled, removed from the nail wings, like the change of taste of fire fish." As far as I know, this is the earliest record of eating dragon lice in the Pearl River Delta region. A hundred years later, Zhao Xuemin's "Compendium of Materia Medica" quoted the record of the two, and the dragon lice were widely known for their medicinal use.
Xu Xu's "Minzhong Jiluo" in the early Qing Dynasty also talks about dragon lice, saying that this thing is smelly, but the Min people can eat the fragrance and regard it as a treasure: "According to the Min people's cloud: after chewing and swallowing, the mouth makes golden ink incense." Every solemn table offers one or twenty small plates, and this product will be on top. "In the Qing Dynasty, Fujian's "Chronicle of Zhangpu County" and "Chronicle of Jinjiang County" all recorded dragon lice. Minnan immigrated to Taiwan and also brought a hobby of eating dragon lice. "Fengshan County Chronicle": "Commonly known as dragon lice, pickled food, good." "Rebuilding the Chronicle of Taiwan": "The water turtle, a dragon lice, is very well pickled." The two sides of the Taiwan Strait are the consumption centers of ancient dragon lice in China.
Throughout the Qing Dynasty, dragon lice was an undisputed Fujian dish. The late Ming and early Qing dynasty novel "The Tale of the Awakening Marriage" is set in Jinan Province, Shandong Province, and the fiftieth time describes Sun Lanji seducing Di Xichen and preparing a table of hearty wine and dishes at home, "bringing out Gaoyou duck eggs, Jinhua ham, Huguang fish, Ningbo mussels, Tianjin crabs, Fujian dragon lice, Hangzhou drunken shrimp, Shaanxi trivial grapes, Qingzhou candied tang balls, Tianmu mountain bamboo shoots, Dengzhou light shrimp rice..." It shows that Fujian dragon lice have spread to the north. Zhou Kai, a native of Fuyang, Zhejiang, lived in Xiamen for several years and wrote the poem "Dragon Lice" from the preface: "Dragon lice, shaped like dung beetles and small, the sea breeze flies." The Min people think that the fruit is eaten by the wings and feet, and the taste is like shrimp. Every autumn, people in Fuzhou fry "water family wax" (water cockroaches) sold on the street. Fuzhou scholar Guo Baicang's "Hundred and One Records of Sea Mistakes" said, "Dragon lice are pickled and dried and have a taste, go to their barefoot, eaters love it, and those who do not eat wow." As an extreme ingredient, dragon lice create serious dietary antagonisms.
Some diners from outside the province, when they come to the southeast coast, also accept dragon lice. After serving in Taiwan for several years, Sun Yuanheng, a native of Anhui Province, admired the fragrance of dragon lice and praised it in a poem: "The white tender oyster room is the smoothest, and the green fat dragon lice are delicate and fragrant." At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, Guangdong people gradually became famous for eating dragon lice. The "Qing Barnyard Banknotes" records that "the Min people eat dragon lice and take their females to eat them." The male is inedible and has no flesh. Smell it, salty and smelly... Cantonese people also love it. ”
After the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the practice of eating dragon lice in Fujian came to an abrupt end. Zheng Lisheng, an expert in fuzhou literature and history, recalled: "When Yu Shao was at home, common dragon lice were trafficked from Quanzhou, smeared with sesame oil, glossy as lacquer, and the image of evil was always afraid to try. The anti-war army is booming, traffic is obstructed, this low-value thing, the ladder navigation can not arrive. Today, Rongcheng has been extinct for forty or fifty years. "The Minnan people who first discovered the beauty of dragon lice and pushed it to the whole country have retired after their achievements and have already washed their hands in the golden basin." Guangdong life is fierce, let them carry forward the dragon lice culture.
Source: Xiamen Evening News
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