[ Mylopharyngodon piceus ]

herring

Foreigners say that girls named after food,

They are not serious people,

For example, pears, apples, cherries and so on.

I don't think fish named after food are any serious fish.

For example, snail green.

"January cabbage sea perch, February knife fish, March mandarin fish, April shad, May white fish, June bream, July eel, August barb fish, September crucian carp, October grass carp, November silver carp, December herring..." Among freshwater fish, I have the least relationship with herring.

Understand the herring carefully. If it is a person, it will be a wily kind.

I usually live in the middle and lower layers of the water, touch snails and lions, bully clams, clams, etc. that don't usually move much, and I also refuse small fish, shrimp and insect larvae. Anyway, I live on the old, weak, sick, sick and young in the water. When asking me, the male fish began to pretend to be rich, with white granular beads growing on his head and on his pectoral fins, hoping to wear them all over with diamonds.

The herring doesn't even have to hide its strength and cook it directly. It's not very delicious and has a taste of moss. People are protective colors, but I think it is protective. Last year, Uncle Wu (Wu Guoping), the founder of my grandma's family, took me to Anji Reservoir to eat fish. The herring was at its fattest in December of the lunar calendar. The fishermen told me: "Wild herring, the fish fished out in the reservoir are different every day. The fish in the upstream and downstream are different in size. The fish in the upstream are smaller and the fish in the downstream are larger. The larger one is more than 30 kilograms, but the largest one is 180 kilograms. There are very few pickled snails in winter, because the pickled fish are not eaten by locals, but are eaten by Shaoxing people."

I started eating herring, starting from Shaoxing wine grain herring. The body of the fish looked stiff. Because of the favor of carvings and sugar, the sauce was fully penetrated into the gaps between the fish and made it moist. In winter, herring is the fattest and tender, and the cold climate is suitable for making grains. I heard from the elderly at home that people who have herring and old stew have opened restaurants. It is common practice to pickle with salt, not wash with raw water. Make a few holes in the thick meat area on the back with bamboo sticks, so that the salt will taste as well as the thin belly area. Traditional formulas require adding nitrate to increase the aroma, but now it is gradually reduced due to health reasons. The delicate fish slices turn into delicious dandelions as soon as you chew them in your mouth. With a light bite, the custard will become crispy and feel like a girl.

Ah, I didn't know enough before.

Herring fish is just delicious and a little low-key and requires master training. The old recipes of the Ming and Qing Dynasties have long been proven. One proof of the aroma is smoked fish! "Diao Ding Ji" writes: "Cut large pieces of live herring, soak them in oil, add sauce, vinegar, and oil to steam them. Once they are cooked, start the pot quickly. This is the most famous thing in the Wuliu Residence on the West Lake in Hangzhou." Nowadays, although more and more high-end restaurants are beginning to use the middle section of the pomfret to make smoked fish because the pomfret meat is more plump, it is more refined and juicy. However, it is actually very suitable to make smoked fish with herring, because the meat quality is relatively thick, so it is possible to achieve this because it is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The thickness of the original smoked fish and the complex aftertaste of the herring combined with soy sauce and sugar cannot be replaced.

Smoked fish was first popular from Suzhou people. Peter Zhou, general manager of Park Hyatt Hangzhou, has been a leader in the high-end hotel industry for many years. He made up his mind to enter the catering industry because he often helped his mother cook Suzhou food at home: "I remember when I was sixteen years old, I cooked a dinner party for 40 to 50 people, which was made by reading books. One dish among them is smoked fish from Suzhou people. Smoked fish is to fry the herring and soak it in soy sauce for a long time (add ginger and onions in the soy sauce juice), soak it for another two hours, then fry it in oil at high temperature, then use soy sauce and sugar to make juice, and then put the fried fish back. Put it back, soak it, and soak it into the fish."

"Smoked fish is a very characteristic Jiangnan dish. Suzhou people are good at making this dish. It is sweet and adds a little vinegar. The taste is sweet and sauce-like. Maybe in the Jiangnan area of the Yangtze River Delta, there are few fish species. Except for white-striped fish, crucian carp, and Wang-sickle fish, there are more carp in the lake. In the Yangtze River, there are swordfish, puffer fish, or other fish. They are all freshwater fish. We rarely eat marine fish. Even 40 years ago, we rarely eat seafood, and most of them are freshwater fish."

When Peter Zhou (Zhou Hongbin) was young, he trained his chest muscles just like Bruce Lee, and he also "nursed" many talents under his command. Master Zhang Shaohua, the current executive chef of Park Hyatt Ningbo, is one of the lucky ones who call him a "noble person". Zhang Shaohua, who is currently a master cooking master, has won many awards along the way at Hubin 28 and the current Qianhu Fishing Port. His skill is the heat. Herring paddling is actually an old dish. To put it simply, it is braised herring tails. However, ordinary chefs dare not use old dishes to make home dishes. Cooking is like falling in love. It is easy to fool one girl, but difficult to fool a bunch of girls, let alone anyone from the age of 8 to 80!

The classic method of smoking fish in Suzhou is to thicken it. The sauce is thick but not thick, and the fish is delicious but not stale. The key is also the balance of salty and sweet, just like a lady from a family who can't even wear light makeup. More cinnabar will make it light, and less powder will be rude. It is appropriate to have to be just right.

In close contact with the diners 'mouths, in addition to the heat, the selection of fish is also crucial. There are paddles in Shanghai and Hangzhou, but the fish used are different. Nowadays, braised paddling may be used with grass carp and silver carp. Strangely enough, the charm of braised and thickening must be balanced by the wild spirit of the herring. I remember going to the more unforgettable ones. In addition to the herring skiing at Shangzhijiao Restaurant in Shanghai, there are also those at Dongqian Lake in Ningbo.

A new official takes office with three priorities, but a new chef takes office with more than one, otherwise the herring that everyone loves will not be cooked. Master Zhang Shaohua went to work by Dongqian Lake at that time. He heard that herring skiing was one of the four treasures of Dongqian Lake. I also have this dish in my restaurant. The burden of idols is important, and you must perform at a different level. At that time, many chefs under him lived by Dongqian Lake. He showed his ability to pick up girls, treating people to dinner, and solving their emotional problems, begging them to take him fishing. As a result, they lived up to expectations. The young men by Dongqian Lake were all masters in catching fish. They probably did a lot of "bad things" when they were young. Their level was so high that they were just short of taking small steps, which was similar to the children by the mountains who judged their positions and caught rabbits.

I said, is that all earthy smell? "Of course, the fish I catch will have an earthy smell. You need to starve for a few days before you can paddle. Because there is a mud bottom under Dongqian Lake. When you try the taste, you feel that the meat is so thick, so you need to adjust the cooking methods."

"The green fish here are thick and have more ingredients, so the cooking time is longer. Boil over high heat and turn to low heat to simmer until it is fully flavored. Finally, collect the juice over medium heat. For seasoning, add rice vinegar to enhance the freshness. This is different from the scallion oil recipe in Hangzhou. I am now making the red stew juice into a formula to ensure that the taste is consistent every time I serve."

Like Master Zhang, my favorite herring dishes are smoked fish, dried herring, and herring paddling. When I was a child, I often couldn't eat smoked fish because sweet ones were best for empty eating. To eliminate rice in the morning, you can either ask for dry fried fish or dried herring fish. Dried herring was often eaten by Jiangsu and Zhejiang people when they were young. This fish is very cheap and every family will use it to pickle dried fish. When marinating, fish viscera and blood are not thrown away. Instead, a lot of salt is mixed together, and then wiped on the fish for air-drying and marinating. The pickled fish meat is steamed and has a slightly ambiguous red color. It is delicious and is a good dish for serving wine and rice.

Put the cooled herring dry in rice, and the temperature rises is like the second spring.

Recently, my sister Yu Xiaoqin is doing "The Ocean World in the Forbidden City". This time, let the Forbidden City and Yu Garden accompany you to play in the air. "Haicuo Tu" is a pillow book written by Qianlong. The author is Nie Huang, a painter of the Qing Dynasty. He visited rivers, seas and lakes and looked for marine life. He spent decades visiting local fishermen and describing marine life in the fish market. Finally, he practiced and supplemented his brain and completed the "Haicuo Tu".

Xiaoqin is the mother of China's NASA exhibition, so she also played this exhibition into outer space! Through digital forms, she uses videos, animations, games, and interactive interactions to mobilize hearing, vision, and touch to experience the world of marine life in the eyes of ancient literati in "Haicuo Map" in three-dimensional space.

In fact, before I decided to write "Haicuotu Love Notes", apart from mermaids, I had a few strange thoughts. I originally thought that the love of marine creatures had nothing to do with me. However, like the giant cat on earth, after eating and drinking in the fresh and wet sea breeze every year according to the season, it is discovered that the migration, mating and laying of marine life are closely related to delicious food.

The descriptions of ancient marine life contain too many Nie Huang's imagination filled with obscene saliva. Of course, I am not a biologist, and I am lucky to be a biological taster. We can only sort out meaningful fragments from what we have eaten, heard, and the interesting people we have seen, and unforgettable dinners.

Looking at the entire history of fresh food and my marriage with them, perhaps salty food is not a problem. In order to bring the delicious food closer, I am willing to add some freshwater fish familiar to inland people. Fish, like humans, may evolve into another species if they change their environment, such as sea carp and carp. There are also many migratory fish like salmon that have to go through both light and salty waters to find true love. Oceans and rivers and lakes are not that far away.

I couldn't help but blush, holding my stomach full of food, and writing this book with great interest, I also hoped that the exhaustion of fish would not happen. I still remember Hisaishi's excited face when he recorded "gurgling" in the Arctic glacier. He said it was the purest music in the world. The songs that Hisaishi presented to Hayao Miyazaki have also been used as background music for the Ghibli Museum.

WAVE-LP album cover

Good environment, good seasons, good ingredients, and good chefs, every bite of "good" that we bring to us should be patient to cherish, just as we respect love.

Moderate love lasts forever. In the spring of 2020,"Hai Cuotu Love Notes" will be published in Shanghai Sanlian. I hope you will not miss it.

The goddess asked

What fish do you like to eat?

"I want to take you to wander,

Come with me anywhere, okay?

--"The Sea and Shoes"

Food Bless You!

Consultant for China International Food Expo

Producer of "God's Table"