[ Pisodonophis cancrivoru ]

Earth Dragon

Humans are indeed quite abnormal sometimes,

Want to make the magical species "immortal",

Make specimens (including mummies);

Want to inherit the magical functions of this species,

Soak it into medicinal wine.

I have seen all kinds of medicinal wine cans that I can't bear to look at. It is said that the best way to soak in the wine is for the fierce living creatures. The medicine is the best. They fly in the sky, run on the ground, and swim in the water... What are you afraid of? If you change the formalin for white wine, you will be soaked!

Not only China, but also 16th-century Canadians believed that the testicles of small furry animals were the key to contraception. So some women soak beaver testicles in wine and drink it as a safety measure. I believe there is no market for this medicinal liquor in China. Because in China, if we want to say that the miraculous medicinal liquor has no aphrodisiac effect, it will be difficult to establish a foothold. Three leopards have just escaped from the Hangzhou Wildlife Park, but they have not been recovered all of them in a week. I was extremely worried when I heard this news.

"People in southern Fujian will also use Tulong to soak in medicinal wine and add some medicinal materials such as wolfberry. Or go stew soup with an old hen and a pig tail." My friend Wu Rong, the "Light of Southern Fujian Cuisine", once chatted with me. His "Yu Bund" is the first Michelin restaurant of Fujian cuisine in China, and his apprentice Chen Zhiping also won the first Michelin Young Chef Award in Shanghai history. I heard that he also likes to eat earth dragons, and I thought I heard the ding sound of the medicinal wine jar shaking.

The earth dragon looks like an eel and a snake, but it is actually a snake eel. Eels in this family are indeed fierce. John Pogonoski, an ichthologist at the National Fish Collection Center of Australia, once wrote that when snake eels are eaten by fish, they pierce the digestive system with their hard head or tail, and then enter the body cavity, muscle tissue or bladder of the fish. They are trapped there, mummified or turn into a cyst, and are basically impossible to escape. Wild animals that eat snake eels also risk their lives. Herons will be pierced through their throats, and seals 'nasal passages will be violently penetrated and wrapped around the mouth and throat of large birds... I'm afraid only humans can bring down everything.

Snake eels usually like to hide in the gravel on the seabed or in the mud on the land during the day, and operate at night like a divine guard. When the mother earth dragon gave birth, she buried half of herself in the loose seabed. Shaoqing, the surrounding little earth dragons crawled out like fireworks. Although they sound like sacred relics to nourish the kidney, they are late-maturing creatures. They live in fresh water until they are about six years old before they begin to descend into the river into the sea to carry out "adult" spawning and fertilization activities. However, after the end, the parents of snake and eel usually die slowly. But the earth dragon is not viviparous, it is oviparous. In some groups of animals between reptiles and mammals, oviparous occurs (reptiles are oviparous, mammals are viviparous). The fetus absorbs nutrients through egg yolk and hardly participates in the maternal cycle. Such children are basically tough characters, snakes and the like.

As a very precious eel that can live on land, Tulong takes on a triangular shape when its head is raised, its nose has a sarcoma, and it has a great power to arch the soil and open the mud road. The clam farmer is almost crazy because of this special function. The main enemy of the clam seedlings was the earth dragons. A group of earth dragons slipped into the clam yard and silently ate the clam seedlings. By the time they discovered them, this guy had already escaped. They sneak into the courtyards where they are raised to eat clams before and after summer, and retreat to the sea to winter in autumn. The vitality of the earth dragon is very tenacious. Even if it does not feed it for a long period of time, it will still live well.

The clam farmers did not hesitate to sprinkle pesticides in the breeding pond to kill these "bandit fish", but their ordinary doses of pesticides were like walking on the ground, but the clam seedlings or fry in the pond suffered. Ordinary fish are fished ashore and discarded on the shore, they will rot and stink the next day. However, as long as the earth dragon has no debris in its stomach and is left hungry and abandoned on the shore for many days, it will not rot! The earth dragon is free to enter and exit salty and fresh water, and its skin can assist in breathing. In theory, the mucus on the snake eel is not dry, so there is no problem when it leaves the water.

I have never heard of anyone eating Tulong in Hangzhou, but the earliest records of "aphrodisiac" come from Hangzhou. There is a record in "Baranguan Yeshi" that Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty dug a canal and once enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Xintang in Hangzhou. A parent official and alchemist boarded a boat to see Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty and told him that at the mouth of the sea, where fresh water and seawater meet, there appeared "a reptile shaped like a snake. It moves quickly and is unpredictable, and is not easy to catch. However, according to the alchemist, this thing is a sacred product for men. It supplements its shape. After several times eating, it has an indescribable effect between beds." Emperor Yang was overjoyed. After eating the real night royal palace, he still felt that he was not in danger. He listened to calumny and built a royal carriage to kill virgins. For a moment, people around the world complained. Emperor Yang named it "Tulong", and he also asked the imperial physician to collect the world's most exotic medicines to soak them in wine, and concoct the Tulong to develop powder as a nourishing saint product of the dynasty.

It's not a dragon, it's not a snake, it's not an eel! The scientific name of Tulong is "Crab-eating Pean-toothed Eel". This thing can even eat crabs, which shows its fierceness. It is also called Bolu Pean-toothed Snake Eel. There are said to be four subspecies of the earthen dragon species recognized by the people as authentic. Due to their scarcity, there is no systematic research and classification. Just like the time of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, they all liked to inhabit the estuary where fresh water and sea water met. They were usually buried in the mud in shallow waters. They were very greedy and fond of shellfish and crustaceans.

The real earth dragon has a curved body with spots, a white or yellow abdomen, and a conical tail (generally flat eels) and vermilion, which is what the folk call the rouge tail. It moves in the mud of shallow waters along the coast. They mainly live in the Indo-Pacific tropical waters, including southern, northern, and northeastern Taiwan, as well as the waters of Orchid Island, Green Island, and Penghu. They are relatively rare in the eastern waters. Currently, there are only spots distributed in the Lanyang River Estuary. Tulong West is distributed from Somalia, India, and Ceylon, to Polynesia in the east, from Japan in the north, and to Australia and New Guinea in the south.

According to Xiamen people, the effect of this earth dragon is like opening up the internal force and true qi of the Ren and Du meridians. It helps you open up congestion in your body, promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis, and connect both qi and blood! Because of the magic of the earth dragon, its special medicinal value is even more overwhelming.

Soaking white wine is one of the specialty recipes for eating Tulong in southern Fujian. Tulong is soaked in the jar by adding ginseng, Tianqi, angelica, ligusticum wallichii, radix morindae, cinnamon, and hippocampus. After a few years, the wine juice is as thick as paste. After drinking it, I sweat. The common practice in Tulonggeng in southern Fujian is still soup, and it is also a wonderful collection.

After all, legends are legends. If you drink soup to reward yourself, the ingredients in the soup must at least be real ammunition. Wu Rong is the kind of person who eats a bullwhip soil dragon soup and fish braised rice for free, then basks in "too happy" in his circle of friends, and then goes to the gym with his eyes full of Versailles. I gave him a suspicious look, and his face looked calm. It has become daily for people in southern Fujian to worship Tulong, and they have a pilgrimage mentality of following fate. The word "Min" originally represented Changlong in ancient Chinese. The local way to eat in southern Fujian is to add angelica and wolfberry and simmer them in an earthenware pot. The upgraded version of "Dragon and Phoenix" is paired with old hens.

When I met Tulong Tonga on the Bund, I bought the traditional traditional Guzhou-strengthening medicinal liquor specially for export in Xiamen. I remember a few years ago, the gourmets soy sauce group went to Xiamen soju to have supper. Brother Jie, the owner of Shangqing Hong Kong Seafood, and Zhang Yong, the owner of Haigan Small Squid, were there. I found that the ginger duck was very fragrant!

Brother Soy Sauce introduced that it contains medicinal liquor for strengthening the foundation. Traditionally, it contains ingredients such as achyranthes bidentata, polygonum multiflorum and wolfberry fruit. Such medicinal liquor is a microcosm of Xiamen people's eating culture. Through alcohol, the essence of food is extracted and absorbed by the human body. In the old days, Wang Xietang and Yan Yan flew into the homes of ordinary people. It was important to eat well to strengthen their health.

That time, I was in Xiamen and visited Xiamen's legendary Tsukiji Market "Eight Cities"(Xiamen's Eighth Vegetable Market). That day, the marine naturalist seafood uncle was recording a CCTV program. It was the first time I saw a live earth dragon with my own eyes. It was a bit dark. In the hazy dusk, he was sitting alone in the water tank, with obvious scars and oxygen equipment. The price tag was around 2000. The seafood uncle said with a smile that in order to increase "functions", some local dragon sellers now really dare to prescribe drugs. I suddenly remembered Wu Rong's calmness and realized that no matter what ingredients are slow, otherwise it will be a real medicine.

After looking at the tide, weather, and wind direction, the Tulong master looked for the Tulong Cave on the beach at low tide. After seeing that there was no one around, he used a unique technique to dig the Tulong out of the mud cave. Therefore, harpoon scars must be left on the earth dragon, like the personal seal of a "famous killer". This is also the reason why the earth dragon must be in complete condition when sold. Professional fishermen who capture earth dragons all have a magic weapon harpoon that has been passed down from generation to generation and is not revealed to others. They are rebuilt when they are used. The building process must be kept confidential. The fishermen can only go far away and find a sophisticated but unfamiliar blacksmith to copy it, and bring it back immediately after completion, never stay for a moment longer, mainly because they are afraid of stealing his skills. Fishermen take advantage of the night like catching earth dragons, which reminds me of Lu Xun's novel where he used a steel fork to fork out the leap soil in the watermelon field. There are few wild earth dragons to begin with, and fewer people can catch them!

Wu Rong told me: "I remember when I was a child, Tulong was already a relatively precious ingredient in Fujian, so it was not something that ordinary families could eat often. To make a good pot of Tulong soup, the home is not equipped to make it, and the operation is troublesome. Because you need to have a lot of chicken, duck meat and hooves to stew together, the production cost is relatively high."

That's the truth! The earth dragon is covered with fine thorns and is stewed for a long time to separate the bones and flesh. The soup is mellow and has a slight aroma of wine. The base is made of old chicken, dragon bones, and pig tails. It is fried with soil and fried in an earthen pot and simmered for three hours. The soup is thick and like milk wine. Anyway, anyone who has eaten Tulong Soup in Haicang, Xiamen knows that even a small and dilapidated restaurant has to book at least half a day in advance. The treatment of soil dragons is like killing snakes. After chopping them into pieces, take a few small pieces of angelica and soak them in water and wash them before using them.

He remembers the first time he came into contact with Tulong."It definitely wasn't eaten at home. I drank this soup for the first time at a family dinner at a certain restaurant. I didn't like it when I first started drinking it." Children dislike the taste of Tulong soup as medicinal materials. "I actually don't like it very much myself, but I think adults think it's good, and then it feels like everyone needs to drink a few more bowls. After drinking the dragon meat and chicken inside, I was reluctant to let the waiter take it away. He also told me to help take it back to the kitchen, ask the kitchen to add more water, stir it up, and then boil it again. I can take out this soup and continue drinking it."

It's interesting to say that when people originally wanted black-eared eel, Tu Long was a prickly "stunt double." Nowadays, the double turns over, which is like the treatment of shad among eels. If you catch a dragon in southern Fujian, you will know to directly use it to stew the soup, stew it with the bones and meat, and only drink the nutrients in the soup. This luxurious eating method is slowly beginning to become popular.

"The legendary effect is that it can activate the circulation and relax the muscles and tendons, and can nourish yin and strengthen yang. Women take it to nourish yin, and men take it to aphrodisiac. If male friends have obstacles in that regard and drink this Tulong soup, wow, I think they can have sex seven times a night immediately."

People in southern Fujian regard "medicinal diet" or "Tulong medicinal liquor" as a small step for the family. They are mainly sacred objects to improve men's endurance and are also good medicines to treat traumatic injuries and help postpartum recovery. Rich families will always soak a jar of such medicinal wine for their daughter-in-law or daughter, just for the vitality of Tu Long who can walk while being decapitated. It is not a problem to breastfeed and drink. It is also a good thing for future successors and husbands to secretly drink it. This shows the appeal of this "idol"! Southern Fujian is also called "Dragon", and Chaoshan people are called "Du Long". In short, all sizes are like dragons.

Later, Wu Rong became his own chef and began to learn from the master to cook this soup. "I feel that this soup, I don't know if it has the legendary effect, but it does make my body very warm when drinking it. Especially in winter, when the weather is very cold, after you finish this soup, you will feel hot all over your body. I feel that the medicinal materials inside should play a certain role with the medicinal liquor inside. This earth dragon must be very nourishing, because from its fierceness, you can see that it is a very nourishing thing."

When he was a kitchen apprentice, Wu Rong would prepare several copies in advance every day because customers often ordered soil dragons. "Anyway, I will secretly type a little bit of each copy. For a while, I was specially responsible for cooking Tulong soup, because this was my younger brother's job and would cook it on the pot table, but the master at the pot table was too lazy to cook it. I secretly drink this while cooking it. Anyway, I cook a few servings every day. I can drink a bowl with a few spoons in each serving. I often drank it secretly during that time, and it happened that I was growing up at this time. It probably worked, I think." He said with a smile.

The earth dragon is exquisite and precious, and Chaoshan people, Hainan people and Taiwanese people also worship it. Chaoshan likes the crispness and sweetness of Tangchao. However, Du Long needs a chef with excellent cutting skills to put on a sharp knife, use a "fine cutting" technique, and use a crisscrossing knife method to chop the bones and meat, but the skin is not damaged. After treatment, Du Long can be eaten directly without worrying about stabbing people. After the processed Dulong meat is cut into pieces, put in boiling soup or water to boil, blanch for about 10 seconds, remove and sprinkle with scallion oil. When eating, just dip it in Puning bean paste or soy sauce. The meat is tight and delicate, and the skin is crisp and crisp, completely different from drinking soup!

Over the years, it is difficult to find a truly wild earth dragon at a high price, and breeding one catty in eight cities starts at 100 yuan. Every year when it comes to winter, middle-aged and elderly people in Xiamen need to eat a piece of soil dragon to relieve wind and strengthen their bones and bones. Food stalls in Fujian will have a dish with wine called fried soil dragon. People who go to eat it will know that it is fake and made from bone eels. The difference between soil dragons and bone eels is more than six times. The earth dragons are generally dark in color, round and plump, smooth in body, and without any protrusions; the bone eels are lighter in color compared to the earth dragons, and some are even light yellow. The fish are short, thin and hard, and have a sharp tip on the tail. This is the most obvious difference between the earth dragons and the bone eels. Some people use snake eels with necks to deceive them and don't understand, but when they look at the pattern, they look like they have a black scarf around their necks. The difference is too obvious! If you want to fake it, you might as well choose a hard-bone eel, commonly known as chuan. Judging from its appearance, it is a good choice. Moreover, the fish of the snake eel family actually taste the same. The difference is that some prefer to live in mud, while some prefer to move in clear sea water. Although this earth dragon is fake, it is not cheap, and it costs nearly a hundred yuan per pound to live.

Wu Rong told me that nowadays, Xiamen people treat guests to dinner and like a pot of Tulong soup in winter, which means that the owner is very heroic today. "Because earthen dragons are very expensive, if they are really wild earthen dragons now, they are quite expensive. A pound should cost about 300 yuan. An earthen dragon may weigh about two kilograms, which is five to six hundred yuan, and then add some 788, old chicken, pig tails and so on to stew. Then, in restaurants, restaurants still have to make money, so this soil dragon may only cost 1000 yuan to 2000 yuan. More than 1000 yuan to more than 2000 yuan is normal, so sometimes people treat people to dinner. If they have this Tulong soup, they say that the boss is generous and treats his friends well, and he will make Tulong soup when they treat people. Of course, the boss will also introduce to his friends how good the soup is, and most of them entertain friends from other places." Tulong itself is warm and tonic. According to the old saying in southern Fujian, Tulong soup should be drunk in winter, but it will easily get angry when drinking it in summer. "The reason is that there are medicinal materials and medicinal liquor in it, so I always feel that it is easy to get angry." Wu Rong said.

I squinted my eyes and murmured: That's not to get angry, why should I eat...

5. If the brewing fails, it will have a fishy and sour smell and cannot be drunk. For example, after soaking for a week, it will have a strong flavor of Tulong, similar to seafood flavor and dried squid flavor. If it is not sour or pungent, the brewing is successful.

The goddess asked

What do you like to eat?

"All things are descended from dragons."

--"Sea Mistake Map"

Food Bless You!

Consultant for China International Food Expo

Producer of "God's Table"