<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="1" > Mandarin Fish Scatter</h1>
Text/Amphibious
【Inscription】 There are many lakes and ditches in Jianli, and there are many various fish that live in them. At the village table, crucian carp, silver carp, bighead carp, carp, diaozi and so on are common. As for mandarin fish, it is uncommon, and with its value, many people are reluctant to eat it, and when they catch it, they sell it to fishmongers. But if someone had eaten mandarin fish, the feeling of smooth and tender flesh would never have been forgotten. At the same time, mandarin fish has a kind of elegance, which is very different from the common fish. A mandarin fish is made into a delicacy, which is only one of the tastes of the world for others. For me, it was always the throbbing of the first sight.
01
Reading Mei Yaochen's "Wanling Collection", there is a poem about the double mandarin fish:
In the past, in March in Silo, the first two mandarin fish were born on the bridge.
The moss dots the scales are fine, and the red plate is spread with algae tails.
The old supervisor of Lintai cooked away, and the lotus curtain Jiabin sang and chu.
Today, Yangzhou envoys gave gifts, and rethought for more than twenty-nine years.
The title is very long: "The two mandarin fish left behind by Xu Zhizhi, because huai is in Saikyo, got the two tails of this fish in the Ishise of the Noonbridge." At that time, he stayed in Taiwan to thank the secret superintendent, so he composed poems and paid peace with Ouyang Yongshu, the remaining official. Now the sense is written, and it is recorded in the past. It can be seen as a small preface.
This is a very special poem. But the sense of picture is very strong is the sentence "The ink moss dots the scales of the clothes are fine, and the red plate is spread with algae tails." The spots on the mandarin fish are dotted, "such as weaving also.". This skin can well hide itself underwater. It is also known as the stone laurel fish, capybarra, mandarin dolphin and so on. Why is it called mandarin fish? The Ming Dynasty Li Shizhen clan said: "Mandarin, 蹶也." Its body cannot be bent, such as stiffness also. And he said, "Its striations." Daming Yue: Its taste is like a dolphin, so the name of the capybara, also known as mandarin dolphin. Ma Zhiyue: In the past, there were immortals Liu Ping who often ate stone cinnamon fish, and the gui mandarin was homophonous, which was immediately the case. ”
Mandarin fish have hard spines that are inconvenient to bend, like zombie fish. Such an explanation is somewhat far-fetched, a bit like Guo Kaizhen's "Oracle Bone Interpretation", which is taken for granted. Back at the scene of the poem, it was Mei Yaochen's old friend "Xu Zhizhi" who gave him two mandarin fish, so he remembered the old incident of catching two mandarin fish in the stone crevice under the bridge. He gave two mandarin fish to Xie Bijian, who gave them to the chef to cook, and while he was happy, he sang and wrote poems with Ouyang Xiu on the theme of mandarin fish. At that time, they were in their early twenties, full of energy, and their lives were full of sunshine. But in the blink of an eye, more than twenty years have passed. His feelings and affection are expressed through mandarin fish. The mandarin fish on the plate, as a cultural symbol of indifferent fame and fortune, provides a psychological comfort for the literati and inkers, moisturizing their thin faces.
The two met and have been in close contact ever since, singing and constantly. After Mei Yaochen's death, Ouyang Xiu also personally wrote an epitaph for him, compiled a collection of poems, and composed a preface and a posthumous poem. The friendship between the literati is hidden in those square words.
02
In the Suzhou-Hangzhou region, mandarin fish is called "seasonal flower fish". Shandong people are just the opposite, pronounced "flower crucian carp". Because the pronunciation of local dialects varies, the names written are different. However, according to scholars' research, "quarter" is "罽". Book of Liang. Zhuyi: "Zhongtian ZhuGuo... Native customs are rhinoceros, elephants, minks, ferrets, tortoiseshells, fire qi, gold, silver, iron, and gold wisps woven into gold skins, fine mo white krypton, good fur, and heonden. "罽" is a variegated woolen fabric. Mandarin fish have a lot of brown (black) spots, similar to those of ancient catfish. It should be written as "Flower Fish" or "Flower Fish", which is correct.
If the name of the menu posted on the wall of any restaurant is changed to "fried fish with green peppers", it is estimated that every diner will have to ask what kind of fish it is when they see this word. Even if it is changed to the word "mandarin fish", I am afraid that some people will pronounce it wrong, pronouncing it as "no fish" or "lack of fish". Once, I went to a restaurant opened by Anhui people to eat, just inside there was a foot-picking man in the order, when he read "mandarin fish", he said: "Get a loss of fish, get a loss of fish..." To go to the vegetable market, some fish stalls have various brands in front of them, and there is a small piece of wood in front of the pot containing mandarin fish, which reads "cinnamon fish". I asked the stall owner why he wrote it this way. He said: "The mandarin fish has a clump of meat in its stomach, yellow and yellow, like an osmanthus flower, so write it like this." "In fact, from the perspective of life, no matter how you write or say it, you can do it, as long as the mandarin fish does not become a "ghost fish".
03
Mandarin fish, in terms of price, is more expensive than bream, grass carp, crucian carp and so on. Ordinary people are reluctant to buy it and eat it. In the market of the town, there are generally only mandarin fish for sale around May Day, Eleventh and Spring Festival. People who have eaten it will not forget its taste.
Zhang Ailing once said: "There are three major regrets in life: anchovies are thorny, begonias are fragranceless, and "The Red Chamber" is not finished! "She felt that the anchovies were stingy. But anchovies are not eaten every day. People who can eat feel that every thorn of the anchovy is worth sucking with the heart. Comparable to mandarin fish, probably only anchovies and groupers live in stone crevices along the southeast coast. A plate of steamed emerald grouper, tender and smooth to eat.
Slippery soup, steaming, dry roast, sweet and sour, braised, yellow stewed, plum blossoms, hydrangea balls, tofu stew, squirrel fish (after the pot is put in a bowl, scoop up the tomato sauce and pour it on top of the mandarin fish, it will make a "squeaky" sound, as if a squirrel is calling, so it is named squirrel mandarin fish. Squirrel mandarin fish is sweet and sour, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, very tasty), all good. Add tofu stew mandarin fish, the soup is thick milky white, thick but not greasy, fragrant and delicious and nutritious, more than what pork rib soup, beef bone soup. I have eaten "dry roasted mandarin fish" many times in Shanghai. The mandarin fish is removed from the intestines and washed, the skin is cut into a tic-tac-toe grid with a knife, sprinkled with a little salt, smeared with a little cooking wine, and marinated on a plate. Finely chop shiitake garlic and ginger, watercress sauce to taste. Prepare soy sauce, aged vinegar and sugar in a small bowl and mix well with chicken broth, and if there is no chicken broth, replace it with pure water. Heat the pot, pour in a little vegetable oil, put the mandarin fish into the pan and fry on both sides until golden brown. Add shiitake mushrooms, etc., to form a soup, simmer with mandarin fish, and open the lid of the pot for more than ten minutes to collect the juice. This is the dry roasted mandarin fish, pay attention to the proper use of soup, natural juice, red color to see the oil but not the juice, mellow and fresh. Such a delicacy to eat, it is a thumbs up. I still think of it from time to time, but I can only chew its taste in my memory.
I have a friend who guards a dozen fish ponds somewhere, and not long ago, he told me: "Mandarin fish do not eat any fish feed, it eats all kinds of small miscellaneous fish, such as snapping fish, small crucian carp, bran flakes, Magu Zi and so on." I said, "Small fish are not cheap, how much does it cost to buy them every day?" "Now there's a new feed that feeds mandarin fish and makes it in the shape of that little fish." The mandarin fish bites down as soon as it takes a bite. "Bran flakes are also known as salmon. Yao Kecheng's "Food Materia Medica": "The salmon is small in the shape of crucian carp, flattened and shrunken, quite like a bamboo castor, and there are lakes everywhere." The cooking in winter is delicious, and the summer and autumn are slightly rustic, and the taste is slightly inferior. "Makotoko's scientific name is stick flower fish." But I've never heard anyone call it that. A writer in my hometown, Zhang Pengning, once wrote about Magu Shuzi in the novel "Dead Vines and Old Trees", and he is still talked about today. Magu zi is basically about ten centimeters, and there are many lakes in our countryside. Fried and eaten fragrant and crispy, braised is also delicious, add some pepper to make a small fish paste, that is called a delicacy.
04
Some cultural people sometimes have to personally go to the kitchen to take charge of the spoon, with the experience of the collision of pots and spoons and the experience of blending the five flavors, a little satisfaction is born. The satisfaction after eating prompts them to record the delicacy and let the spicy taste jump between the lines.
I am not a cultural person, and I have less time to enter the kitchen, but I like to eat famous dishes from all over the world. The "pickled fresh cinnamon fish" in Hengdian, Zhejiang, is also known as the stinky mandarin fish. Its origin, there is an "allusion". In the late Daoguang period, Shanghai and other places have become treaty ports, and every year after the Chongyang Festival, fishmongers will pick the famous mandarin fish from the Yangtze River to Hengdian, Zhejiang, from Hengdian to Shanghai, the road is very long, so Hangzhou has become a distribution center. It takes seven or eight days to take from Hengdian to Hangzhou, in order to prevent the fresh mandarin fish from deteriorating during transportation, it takes the method of placing a layer of fish and sprinkling a layer of light brine water, and flipping up and down every day, so that when you arrive in Hangzhou, the gills are still red and the scales have not dried up. This is because when marinated with salt below the critical point of preservation, the protein will decompose and ferment due to insufficient sterilization, and the mandarin fish will have a faint odor after slight decay. However, after washing the fish, it is fried in hot oil and seasoned, not only does it have no peculiar smell, but it becomes a popular delicacy. Since then, "Hengdian stinky mandarin fish" has become famous all over the world.
After the stinky mandarin fish comes out of the pot, it is served on the table, and it looks fat and trembling, and the oil is shiny. Garlic cloves are fish flesh, with tightly packed flaps, better than white jade. Its body is elastic, with few spines and a firm flesh. In the mouth, a unique "smell" pervades, the salty fragrance is inviting, and the diners shout happiness. Although the fish in the mouth has been swallowed, the tip of the tongue still has a "sour and rotten taste". Fragrant and smelly, tender and tough, slippery and elastic, all the opposing elements, have been unified in the small dish.
It always interprets the simple taste of city life and creates a small piece of nostalgia for people.
The author is a member of the Chinese Essay Association, the China Reportage Literature Society, and the Liu Ji Branch of the Ming History Society of China.