Practice of seafood in Taizhou seafood
Not from the seaside, I don't know the difference between Wang Chao and salmon, octopus, cuttlefish and squid. I thought they were all the same. I want to say a few more words about tide watching: tide watching is similar to octopus and cuttlefish, with two rows of suction cups. However, tide watching and octopus are both eight wrists, which is what people usually call eight claws. Octopus is commonly known as octopus. Salmon, cuttlefish and squid are all ten wrists. Although I am from Taizhou, it took me quite a long time to understand their subtle differences. Looking at the tides, people usually live in mud holes on the beach. At the high tide, it climbed out of the hole and looked at it, waving its wrists as if expecting the arrival of the tide, hence the name "Looking at the Tide". Because the tides are observed, the tides in the Mid-Autumn Festival are the largest in August, so the tides caught in the middle of August in the lunar calendar are also the largest.
Looking at the tide, there are some ways to eat, such as frying, stewing and boiling. I think the more delicious seafood is, the more suitable it is to use simple cooking methods, such as steaming, boiling, and medium-cooked is enough. Take its original flavor and dip it in vinegar, which is delicious. If you turn it red with thick oil sauce, you will only get the taste of seasoning, but lose the real taste of seafood. When people in Taizhou cook shrimp, they all scoop it up with water and eat it in other seafood restaurants. I always feel that what I eat is not shrimp, but a mouthful of seasoning.
The clear soup in Yuhuan is really delicious. However, I saw several watchdog floating in the clear soup, and green chopped green onion was scattered in the soup. The watchdog seems to be swimming in it, with clear water at the end. I picked one up and put it in my mouth. When I bite it in my mouth, I feel that the sucker is still shrinking, which is delicious. It's too rare, I can't taste it, and it slipped into my stomach. Some people who eat Wang Chao for the first time will pick up a big one and swallow it when they see Wang overtime. As a result, Wang Chao got stuck in his throat. They couldn't get up or down, and they hung something dry, which looked quite embarrassing.
The tide-watching in Sanmen Lipu is also very famous, as evidenced by three characteristic folk songs:
"Jumping fish with blue crabs in Qimen, snail clams in Pingyan, oysters in Tietian with moss in Dongguo, bean noodles opposite the taro beside the pavilion, fresh and thin shrimps in Zhan Yan, fat yellow croaker with a cat's head, laughing tide in Lipu and delicious seafood in Donggang". The tidal observation in Lipu matches the tidal observation in Yuhuan. There are many kinds of seafood that can be cooked into soup, but I don't think any soup is as fresh, fragrant and thick as garlic soup. If you must compare it, only puffer fish soup can compare with it. The softness and flavor of puffer fish soup are similar to those of sand garlic soup, but not as strong as that of sand garlic soup. Yuhuan fish ball soup is delicious, but the freshness is not strong enough. In short, the soup cooked with garlic has a high concentration and is worth using the word "its freshness is incomparable".
Garlic is a coelenterate whose scientific name is anemone. Anemones are a big family with more than 500 species. This kind of garlic, which we often eat, is called starworm anemone. Anemones like to live on the beach. This guy can't live without the sea. Once out of water, it will collapse like a pile of mud in a few minutes. As soon as it was put into the water, it twisted its barrel-shaped body. When it is in the water, it is as big as a duck egg. After being made into fresh crispy garlic soup, it is the essence of concentration, and its volume is reduced to half of that of spring rolls. Crispy garlic soup looks a little cloudy, but it doesn't seem refreshing. It's actually delicious. Umami ran into the soup and caught my heart. It is wrapped between the lips and teeth, which makes the taste buds feel happy. For people who eat this soup for the first time, it is definitely a shock, because this soup is so rare and delicious! The taste of garlic is also special. Take a bite, crisp and tough. The sand garlic made in several hotels in Wenling is very tasty, and there is braised sand garlic in Sanmen, but I think it is better to make soup with sand garlic because it tastes authentic.
Taizhou people only say that sand garlic is a tonic, saying that it has the effect of nourishing yin and strengthening yang, so it is called Cordyceps in the sea, among which yellow wine stewed sand garlic is the best. Foreigners come to Taizhou to eat seafood, and Taizhou people sometimes order a crispy garlic soup. If outsiders get to the bottom of it, Taizhou people often look at each other during the dinner and refuse to say more. Of course, there is also a chance to lead to pornographic jokes. In this way, garlic has become the most ambiguous of all seafood. People in Taizhou pay attention to seasons when eating seafood. What seafood to eat in what season is very important. The seaside people say, "Plum blossoms in the snow in the first month, peach blossoms in February, garlic cooked in March, and no scales in April". Indeed, people in rural areas don't know that the "three giant salamanders and four giant salamanders" in March of the lunar calendar are the most delicious.
Pomfret in March of the lunar calendar is the favorite of Taizhou people. Fresh pomfret is flat and wide, and its snow-white belly is like a silk Chinese-style chest covering, smooth and shiny. Dogs don't like fish, and there are too many thorns, except pomfret, because the meat is tender and plump, and there are fewer thorns. Fresh pomfret, braised and steamed are delicious. One year, my friend gave me a big bag of fresh seafood, such as fish, shrimps and crabs, so fresh that it tasted like the sea. One of the big pomegranates, as big as a cattail leaf fan, worries me-how can a family of three be so big?
Seafood such as pomfret must be eaten while it is hot. When it is cold, the umami flavor will "run away" and the fishy smell will come out. Li Yu said in Casual Love: "The best taste of fish is fresh, and the best taste of fresh fish is the moment when it is just cooked." You are absolutely right.
Taizhou people like to cook pomfret with rice cakes. The cooked pomfret meat is tender, smooth and refreshing, and the seafood permeates into the original plain rice cake, which has a unique flavor. The garlic sprout pomfret and pomfret rice cakes made by Sanmen Lin Si Restaurant are worthy of praise. It's the kind of home-cooked cooking, nothing is put, but it's better than the big restaurant. Food is really among the people. A few years ago, plum fish had not been served. Mei tong fish has a big head, so it is also called Mei tong fish with big head. Because of its yellow color, it looks like a young large yellow croaker, and those who don't know the goods call it a small yellow croaker. In the past, when there were plenty of fish, Taizhou people and little seafood people looked down upon such things as plum fish, jellyfish, squid and shrimp, but only Portunus, yellow croaker, giant fish and pomfret fish were valued by Taizhou people. Now that seafood is scarce, the value of these little seafood has doubled, and they are treated like big fish and big meat.
In the early years, the plum fish in the vegetable market only sold for two or three yuan a catty. Mei tong fish is not expensive, but it tastes extremely delicious. Especially the newly caught Mei Tong fish, with bright eyes and fresh bones, is used for steaming. In addition, Shaoxing rice wine and shredded ginger were sprinkled with some salt, which was delicious, tender and delicious. I went to the food stall to eat seafood, which was just salvaged. It's only an hour or two away from the water, and it's hard to eat. The newly salvaged Mei Tong fish is fresh, tender, fat and beautiful. Add some My Sweetie when eating fish. It can be described as the highest realm of seafood-sweetness.
Some people say that instead of going to a high-end restaurant to eat frozen yellow croaker, it is better to go to a seaside stall to eat fresh plum fish. You can't judge the grade by the price when eating seafood. Delicious is the last word. Mud-wrapped fish is called Hu Dan here. The body is as big as a finger, the mouth is big and the teeth are fast, and two eyes pop out. Bouncing is good at jumping, spreading its fins, opening its mouth fiercely, digging holes for a living, and jumping on the screen for food at low tide. Bullet painting is also the kind of little seafood who lives by the sea. Spring has come in Xia Zhishi, maybe it's too sultry. At this time, the mudskipper is the easiest to be caught. Someone once told me vividly how to catch bullets at the dinner table: before the high tide, insert a bamboo tube in the beach one by one, make a fake cave, confuse it and jump in. Taizhou folk proverb says, "Don't be steady, you have to drill a bamboo pole if you want to hit it", that is, the bullet got confused and fell into a trap. Another capture method is more interesting. Fishermen use a fish tank shaped like a dustpan to walk and fish on the beach, forcing mudskippers into the fish tank like ducks. In Shitang, I have seen fishermen standing on mud horses, fishing with fishing rods and playing hoops. Every fish is accurate when casting the line.
The bullet painting was originally unremarkable, but now its value has doubled. A dish of dried plums is expensive to burn.
The bullet painting is a good gentleman in seafood, just like the joker in mahjong. It is delicious with dried plums. With pickles, delicious; Braised, delicious; Soup, delicious; The smoke was smoked into bullets and dried, and it was delicious. In a word, bullet-coated meat is tender and fragrant, and no matter how you do it, it will not change its delicious taste. It is a good product. I remember there used to be a small restaurant near Wenling Cultural Center, which burned badly. Taizhou people have their own collocation in cooking seafood, such as spring clothes with mushrooms, braised pomfret with garlic seedlings, small yellow croaker with cabbage, boiled hairtail with radish, fried yellow croaker soup with white gourd and fried eel with celery. Don't underestimate this collocation, which can best reflect the essence of food.
Hairtail has two sharp points after depilation and a sword in its mouth. The hairtail just caught is silver and suitable for steaming. Serve with cooking wine and shredded ginger, sprinkle with salt and a little sugar, and steam on the stove for ten minutes. Fresh is fat, fat is sweet, sweet is fresh, and the three flavors are mixed together, which is delicious. Hairtail must be eaten locally, and around the winter solstice is the best season. Hairtail produced in tropical waters is big, but too big to use, and the meat is thick, which makes no sense to eat. So is African crucian carp. The coarse lesbian meat is not as tender as the wild crucian carp.
Taizhou people like to cook hairtail with shredded radish, which seems rare in other places. I think Taizhou people are smart and creative in cooking. Hairtail stir-fry silk can also be regarded as the expression of Taizhou humanistic spirit "aura" and "creativity". The delicacy of hairtail is absorbed by radish, while shredded radish removes the fishy smell of hairtail. It is true that you have me and I have you. Not only that, the shredded radish is tender and slag is dropped, and the soup has a strong smell of hairtail. Whether you eat fish or radish, it tastes good. Therefore, Taizhou folk song "Fish Moon Festival" says that "cooking with fish will not stop in December", so why not stop eating and taste delicious food? The evaluation of Taizhou seafood by diners from all walks of life can be summarized in one sentence: the shape is unknown, the eating method is unheard of, and the taste is consistent, which is "fresh"!