[ Phascolosoma esculenta ]

sand bamboo

Generally speaking, if you look at something that you can eat,

Both have an irresistible charm.

99% of people have never eaten authentic bamboo shoots jelly. This is not what I said. Gourmet Teacher Zhu Jialin said that now bamboo shoot jelly is no longer available from materials to processing to condiments. It is like heaven and earth. "The wild materials are small and very small, and they are all farmed. The nutrient supply is sufficient, so it grows quickly. The wild grows very slowly. The tenderness is different and the freshness is different." I listened to the accusation as if I were listening to Wang Xiaobo waving his long hair and muttering: Although everything will pass through, there are always things that happen and cannot be erased.

I said okay, Teacher Zhu recommended one. "There are more than 100 workshops, and hotels will have them, but they all taste wrong and I can't taste the original taste." The answer was that I shook my hair again, and the ends of my hair still cut my thirst for knowledge. They were aching faintly.

I widened my eyes and said, Oh...

After all, things that you haven't eaten are more worth talking about, just as teenagers talk about sex and depression.

In fact, I risked my intense phobia and persecution paranoia to attack, and I specially went to the bamboo shoots. The black and thin things like soil bamboo shoots that carry the desire to expand and retract at any time are too uncomfortable. But people asked if they wanted to come again? I closed my eyes, but I still wanted to. I always wanted to try "real", or to say that human desires always come so real.

At the turn of spring and summer, when I was injured by the alternating rain and scorching sun in Xiamen, the worm in my heart crawled out. In fact, in the past, anyone who had a little pursuit of bamboo shoots would go to Ximen to freeze the bamboo shoots on Douxi Road. The geographical location was close to the West Gate of Zhongshan Park, so old Xiamen people called it "Ximen Bamboo Shoot Frozen". Like a small wine cup, one bite at a time, soy sauce, vinegar, yellow mustard, garlic, and pepper. At first glance, it looks like a powder cake on a woman's face. It has a rainbow color. The big powder puff is like a tongue. With a lick, it will blend the five flavors into a beautiful place.

Xiamen people dry clean and boil it, and then put it into a small cup together with the gelatinous soup. The amber in the food world, the "soil bamboo shoots" are refrigerated and lying among the fat round pieces, seems to become eternal. The beautiful protein gel condensed into ice! I just wanted to say yes and serve a plate of bright and heart-warming bamboo shoots jelly. Those who love to eat, when they see the holiness poured on them one after another like colorful stones, their tongues unconsciously sweat and become sticky. After eating, they simply learned that Nuwa created humans.

I later learned about the water depth. It turned out that there were two types of bamboo shoots jelly on the market. Most of the so-called "bamboo shoots jelly" merchants are even reluctant to use "delicious dried snakeworm" and directly replace it with "white, rich and beautiful" sandworms. As a result, many tourists think that sandworms are the god's choice for "bamboo shoots frozen".

Sandworms are common. They are called Sipunculus nudus. When you hear the surname "Sipunculus", it is not a good thing and can grow to the length of a palm. However, sand worms are praised as "beach sausages". They live in sand, are sensitive to ecology, and die once polluted. Therefore, they are known as "environmental marker organisms" and turn slightly red.

There is also a landmark food on the coast of southern Fujian,"local bamboo shoots". In fact, they are not bamboo shoots. They are delicious siptera, relatives of sand worms. They are also called soil bamboo shoots, sea ding, sea grasshoppers, and mud ding. Compared with sand worms, soil bamboo shoots are shorter and thinner, with slender snouts, unconfident gray-black or khaki mottled colors on the body, and no reticulate patterns. They grow in mudflats and silt where rivers enter the sea and where salty and fresh water meet. The thicker one is not as big as the little finger, and the thinner one is as thick as a straw and the length of a thumb. It also carries a freely retractable "mouth" as thick as a firewood stick. There are dense dark milky bumps at the end of the body, which cannot be carefully observed. People who know what they are called "Cordyceps sinensis in the sea".

"There are cordyceps in the mountains and sipworms in the sea." After artificial molting, it is more delicious and better than sand worms, and is rich in collagen. It is called "animal ginseng". When I heard the names, there was actually an animal whose surname was "delicious". No wonder it was basically extinct. It was obvious that it was so delicious that it didn't want to live.

At present, soil bamboo shoots can only adapt to the wild environment, and farmers must try their best to deceive soil bamboo shoots."Brother, this is your home!" So the cost is high. A small number of soil bamboo shoots are hermaphrodite, and most of them are heterogenous. It cannot be seen with the naked eye, but you must know that you must examine the egg and sperm in the body cavity to determine it. Their gonads are unique, growing at the base of the mouth... The mouth can be retracted into the body. During mating, the germ cells fall into the body cavity and are collected by the renal tube, which doubles as the genital tube. That is, the urethra, fallopian tubes and vas deferens are used. It's really economical. The bamboo shoots are fertilized in vitro, sperm and eggs are discharged from the renal aperture into the seawater, and the zygote develops into free-swimming trochore larvae.

However, when eating cold sand worms, the straightforward and crisp taste is just like torture from a greedy soul. The fake princess is also beautiful, so of course she will be under her command. Sand worms are found in Beihai, Zhanjiang and other Beibu Gulf areas. Before eating them, the sausage in their stomach must be cut off, just like eating clams, you must wash them first. A small wooden stick will pierce the abdomen of the sand worm, clean the sand and internal organs in the abdomen, and then repeatedly wash the slippery pulp on the surface with clear water, add onions and ginger, and stir-fry quickly over high heat. The color is like snow, and the taste is crisp and sweet. The average amino acid content of sand worms is as high as 60%, with the highest content of glutamic acid, accounting for about 15% to 20% of the dry mass of sand worms. During cooking, free glutamic acid molecules react with sodium chloride to form sodium glutamate, which is blatantly synthesized in the pot!

"Many people must have eaten white-boiled sand worms when they come to Xiamen. Put a few strips on the ice, 10-20 strips, and that dish costs seventy to eighty yuan. The most luxurious thing I ate when I went to Zhanjiang was fried sand worms. They were also hung with paste on the outside. I didn't like them very much. The umami flavor decomposed when fried, and the amino acids inside were destroyed. It's not fresh or delicious. It's like French fries. Otherwise, I'll be in a high mood when I get a big bowl." Teacher Zhu said.

However, I personally feel that it is too embarrassing for sand worms to be made into "bamboo shoots". After the bamboo shoots are peeled off, except that they are a little shorter, they do look like sand worms, but sand worms are not "frozen". Merchants add various fish glue, seaweed glue... Don't be afraid that there is no cold, but the cold is not hard enough. Authentic "bamboo shoot jelly" is elastic and has a different taste. I even think that if a bolt of lightning cuts through the sky in Fujian at this time, it must be defending the sandworm's injustice. Does "You Leng" have a name?!

"Almost everyone who comes to Xiamen thinks that this is the so-called famous bamboo shoot jelly, and even Taiwanese gourmets scoff at it when they come to Xiamen." Teacher Zhu Jialin said sadly that the current processing method is not good. In the past, it was wild and everything except internal organs had to be pressed out. The skin of soil bamboo shoots has a rough "fabric feeling" outer skin. Now there are only poor wild bamboo shoots resources, and merchants are reluctant to remove the skin, or use other scipworms directly. They do not have the original gel of the scipworms. They use the boiled agar to condense it, so it will not taste good.

It's true that I went recently and didn't find anything satisfactory. Later, some food eaters said earnestly that the bamboo shoot jelly in Anhai Town, Jinjiang, Quanzhou is only authentic in southern Fujian. The bamboo shoot is fresh and the sauce added is simple. The secret vinegar is added with soy sauce, and some garlic grains are soaked. Unlike some bamboo shoot jelly in Xiamen. It is made from dried sips.

Teacher Zhu Jialin once went to Beihai and also went specifically to eat and find bamboo shoots to eat. Beibu Gulf is called Niding porridge. Niding porridge is sold from Fangchenggang to Beihai. The so-called Niding porridge is soil bamboo shoots. "It's very expensive, about a hundred yuan. You have to be able to afford it."

I narrowed my eyes and said, Oh...

Delicious spinster (wikiwand)

This delicacy also comes from legends. According to legend, Zheng Chenggong was the earliest inventor of bamboo shoots jelly, and later there was "Qi Jiguang Said". Almost all versions read: Bamboo shoots were originally food for officers and soldiers to satisfy their hunger, but they discovered that they had a strange taste overnight, which led to the now well-known "bamboo shoots jelly". I hope famous heroes will not fight in the sky over the patent of foodie. Tu Benjun's "Min Zhonghai Cuo Shu" in the Ming Dynasty and Zhou Lianggong's "Min Xiaoji" in the early Qing Dynasty both have records on frozen bamboo shoots. The former talks truth: "It is shaped like a bamboo shoot but small, grows in the river, has an ugly shape and sweet taste. It is called a local bamboo shoot." The latter told a story: "I often eat bamboo shoots frozen in Fujian, which tastes very delicious, but I heard that it was born on the beach and looked like earthworms." In short, the ancients had a long history of eating.

"Most people are deceived by business and don't understand. Nowadays, Xiamen people have never eaten authentic food." Teacher Zhu Jialin is now helping a friend encourage them to make authentic ones and restore traditions. The price will be very high. "I asked him to buy wild ones because they were rare and expensive. The raw materials cost 70 yuan. He also said he could try them. Wild bamboo shoots grow slowly, the meat is very Q, the freshness is very high, and the meat is still elastic after being stewed for a long time. Now, the outer skin of Xiamen's bamboo shoots has not faded, so I can't bear to part with it. The food I ate before was white, but the outer skin has faded, but there are still some now, but only dried products. The next is to boil it. It is big, 5mm wide, and the big one is 10cm long. It is Sipunchus."

"The original bamboo shoot jelly has many seasonings, and there are 10 kinds in total, mainly to reflect the delicious flavor and texture of the jelly, such as old soy sauce and mustard peanut butter. It is mustard made from our local mustard greens. The mustard seeds are very fragrant, yellow-green, and have fine particles. They are not only choking. They are different from the horseradish like Japanese toothpaste, and they taste different. There is also Xiamen spicy sauce, which is sweet, sour, spicy and salty, and has a rich taste, such as coriander, sour salt radish, and cucumber." Teacher Zhu Jialin recalled that in the past, a piece of bamboo shoot jelly the size of a copper coin cost 2 cents. In the 1950s, this 2 cents was already a large amount. 3 cents could eat a bowl of noodle tea, and stir-fried noodles filled with water to make it look like sesame paste. "A piece of frozen bamboo shoots like that costs 2 cents, and the copper coin is about 4 centimeters in diameter, which is not big. It is about 1 and a half centimeters high, so a small piece."

It turns out that when making bamboo shoots jelly, you use small cups to boil the sipworms and make the soup. Remove the sipworms and put them in small bowls. Put 5 and 8 strips in each bowl, and then pour the juice on it. Soil bamboo shoots have strong collagen to begin with. If left overnight when it is not too hot, it can be condensed by its own collagen. "The first material, the second workmanship, and the third seasoning, this kind of bamboo shoot jelly is authentic. Ten years ago, my hometown in Yanzhong would occasionally come to sell it at a high price. Not all of them were gone, but very few. Because the beach was reclaimed, there might be some if we dug in the mangrove woods."

In fact, soil bamboo shoots are actually likely to survive outside Fujian. They are mainly distributed in coastal areas of Guangdong and Guangxi such as Dongxing to Shankou in Guangxi and Zhanjiang in Guangdong. Mining can be carried out all year round. People from the seaside go down to the beach in groups to dig and make delicious ingredients. Relying on the small insect holes left on the beach surface and using special triangular insect hoes, open the soil on the surface to find the pearly green soil. In the insect path, you can dig the "soil nails" gently and lightly.

On the day of my book signing ceremony at Xiamen Station last year, the seafood uncle and soy sauce brother came early and brought frozen sashimi with bamboo shoots, joking that they had to eat mustard soy sauce pesticides beforehand. I finished it trembling. I was sure that I had eaten fake bamboo shoots jelly before. This bowl was so fresh that the glands in my body were shaking. It was indeed better than MSG!

mustard soy sauce

Only now can I understand a little of the Southern Fujian song that Fukien people are familiar with: "Bamboo shoots frozen, bamboo shoots frozen, the most delicious is real Hong Kong (authentic), under the foot (bottom), cages (all) are really rare, only our hometown produces this... Sour vinegar, mustard, coriander, and fragrant vegetables. I don't rare chicken, duck, fish, and Ruan (I) especially love the bamboo shoot jelly in our hometown. Wow, wow, I want to make bamboo shoot jelly." I also began to understand that Teacher Zhu Jialin was so anxious that he was jumping his feet. "I just think that the current bamboo shoot jelly is simply tarnishing the reputation of Xiamen's bamboo shoot jelly. This is Xiamen's famous bamboo shoot jelly. It's really not delicious. I have eaten almost all the bamboo shoots in Xiamen, but only Ade's is better, because he is willing to plant more bamboo shoots. He also didn't remove the skin. Uncle Seafood found Ade, but he was actually breeding it."

"But the skin cannot be removed. The previous one was crystal clear, but what you see is not completely white, and the skin has not been completely removed. The wild ones will not be so thick, but the thin ones will hang on the head or tail of the sandworm. The insect is small, 30mm in diameter, but it is very tender and tastes very fresh when bitten."

In Teacher Zhu Jialin's memory, soil bamboo shoots are snacks for rich people. They are so big that you won't be full even if you eat a bowl. "Almost no one will eat a bowl. The richest will buy 5 yuan and 10 cents. Generally speaking, one person will buy 1-2 yuan. It's not that you can't afford the money. Many things are like this according to the taste. You just need to taste one piece carefully."

Traditional authentic local bamboo shoots are actually a 1+1 skill to make local bamboo shoots jelly. Live local bamboo shoots are first stocked for a day to clear debris, and then boiled in the pot. The collagen in this guy is easier to surrender than pig skin. After boiling with water, the bamboo shoots float up, and the soup becomes sticky, so you can start the pot. Add a little salt, scoop the soup one by one into a small wine cup, cool naturally, and naturally solidify into bamboo shoots. In southern Fujian, people also like to stir-fry local bamboo shoots with scallion or chive flowers. After serving them, add water over high heat and boil them. Add rice noodles to make a delicious meal.

"There are soy sauce paste, mustard, and pepper on top of the bamboo shoot jelly. Generally, when you fork these three points with a fork, the delicacy is mixed with the sweetness of soy sauce plants, the spicy aroma of mustard, and the sweet, spicy and sour taste of Xiamen hot sauce." At that time, people were reluctant to eat it, so they swallowed it slowly, added cucumber and coriander, chewed it together, and tasted it slowly. Xiamen eats local coriander, which has a strong flavor. The roots and leaf stems are red. It is chopped into pieces and the rich flavor comes from the middle.

Fresh soil bamboo shoots are difficult to preserve. "The price of dried bamboo shoots is too high, and the bamboo shoots are tender and difficult to handle." Instead, families in Guangzhou will use dried sand worms to make soup ingredients. It is said that the sand worms produced in Beihai City, Guangxi are among the top. The Guangcun beach in Danzhou is rich in resources and is rich in sand worms. According to local fishermen, on the night of the moon, the best catch is when sandworms float to the shallow water surface to mate, which has the effect of tonifying the kidney and strengthening the yang.

The goddess asked

What do you eat at night?

"You have to live as you want,

Otherwise, you can only think according to life."

--Wang Xiaobo

Food Bless You!

Consultant for China International Food Expo

Producer of "God's Table"