Spring tour Jianghuai invite you to come to | Suzhou XiaoXian Fish Bites Sheep was selected as the signature dish of Anhui Cuisine · Hundred Cities and Thousand Flavors
Fish bite sheep
Suzhou, the northern gate of Anhui, has been known as "Kyushu Tongqu, Gateway to the Central Plains" since ancient times, under the jurisdiction of Wanqiao District, Yanshan County, Xiao County, Lingbi County, Si County, is a bright pearl on the Huanghuai Plain. The Chu and Han cultures are deeply flowing, and the Sui and Tang Grand Canals are full of smoke and waves, giving this land many legendary stories of the popular population and rich tastes of delicious food.
XiaoXian is one of the first batch of "Chinese Calligraphy and Painting Art Town" named by the Ministry of Culture, with rich cultural tourism resources. Located in the four provinces of Anhui, Sulu and Yu, surrounded by mountains on all sides, there are Dragon Mountain Arch in the east, Tiger Mountain in the west, Phoenix Mountain, QuanShan mountain and Shelf Mountain in the north of the city, and the county seat lies horizontally in the middle. Xiaoxian has a temperate monsoon climate, with both northern and southern climatic characteristics, no severe heat in summer, no severe cold in winter, surrounded by mountains, and heavy humidity in autumn.
The people here are simple and hospitable, and since ancient times, there has been a custom of eating meat and drinking wine in large bowls. The free-range white goats in the mountains provide plenty of ingredients for inspiration in the kitchen.
Its diet is influenced by the northern and southern cuisines, the main cuisines are along the Huai cuisine, Lu cuisine, Xuzhou cuisine, in Xiao County there is a characteristic traditional dish, is the lamb into the belly of the fish and then sealed cooked, the name - fish bite sheep, also known as fresh stew.
In the evening, overlooking the county town from the mountains, you can see a little light, Xiaoxian people who have worked hard all day treat themselves with food, the fish and sheep cooked by the fire are finale, a variety of special dishes are gathered on the dinner table, and the human fireworks belonging to Xiao County are also gathered.
The two umami flavors blend with each other
The 100-year-old table is delicious
According to legend, during the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius traveled around the world, when he went to Xiao County, encountered walls everywhere, and struggled, his students asked for a small piece of mutton and a few small fish, because hunger was unbearable, they had to cook mutton and small fish urgently. Unexpectedly, the lamb braised fish soup is very delicious. Legend has it that the saints created the word "fresh", which is coordinated by the words "fish" and "sheep", and the "fish bites the sheep" cooked by fish and sheep, also known as "fresh stew", has also been passed down to this day.
There is also a saying that there was a farmer in huizhou in the Qing Dynasty who took four sheep across the Lianjiang River by boat, and because the cabin was crowded, he accidentally squeezed an adult ram into the river. Sheep can't swim and struggle in the water for a while before sinking into the deep water. Because of the sinking of the sheep, many fish are attracted, and when the sheep sink to the bottom of the water, the fish flock to the water, and you compete for the lamb. Because they eat too much, one by one is dizzy. Coincidentally, a fisherman nearby passed by in a fishing boat and saw so many fish scurrying on the surface of the water, and he was so surprised that he couldn't help but cast a net. To his surprise, the fish did not jump around as usual, but stayed in the net one by one. When the fisherman put the net ashore and brought it home, he felt that today's fish was particularly heavy, so he cut the belly of a fish with a knife and saw that it was full of mutton. The fishermen were very curious, so they washed the fish, sealed the knife edge, and cooked it together with the shredded lamb in the belly. As a result, the fish that was burned out was crispy and rotten, not fishy, not fishy, and the soup was delicious and had a special flavor. After the news came out, some local gourmets also tried to cook such a dish, and the flavor was extraordinary. Since then, locals have named the dish "Fish Bites Sheep". Over time, the fame of fish biting sheep spread.
"Fish bites sheep" cooked by fish and sheep is also known as "fresh stew". In 2017, Xiaoxian Fish Bite Sheep won the honor of "Anhui Tourism Must Eat Special Anhui Cuisine"; this year, it was named "Provincial Signature Dish" by the Department of Culture and Tourism of Anhui Province.
Burned the world's freshest
"Fish bites sheep"
The blue fire wraps the deliciousness of the fish meat, the delicacy of the lamb, the fishy smell of the fish collides with the smell of the lamb, the two are fused, biochemical refining, and finally the fishy is completely eliminated, and the deliciousness is incomparable.
In Xiao County, the most authentic "fish bites sheep" restaurant is the Guxiao Wang Family Mutton Restaurant. Founded in 1928, the museum is now a provincial intangible cultural heritage Xiaoxian Fuyang Banquet Inheritance Unit, in front of the door a couplet "the old name zhen Xuhuai 300 miles, sheep's head soup flavor pressed on the twelfth floor of Jiangnan", which shows the confidence and confidence of this time-honored mutton hall. After years of inheritance, "Xiaoxian Fuyang Food and Culture Festival" has become a well-known characteristic brand, Xiaoxian mutton is famous, diners from all over the world flock to the city, and the Fuyang Feast has been included in the fifth batch of provincial intangible cultural heritage representative projects released by the Anhui Provincial Government.
According to Wang Haiyang, the master of the Guxiao Wang Family Lamb Restaurant, the ingredients for "fish biting sheep" are about 0.8 kilograms of new mandarin fish and about 8 months old Xiaoxian white goat. From the mouth of the mandarin fish with a pair of chopsticks at the same time from both sides of the fish mouth into the belly of the fish, gills and internal organs should be twisted together, along the back of the whole fish bone, can not destroy the integrity of the fish, and then the fat and thin brisket meat cut into strips and stir-fried ingredients, filled into the mandarin fish belly, mandarin fish on both sides of the frying butter, added to the mutton soup and boiled. This procedure is simple to say, and without years of kung fu, it is impossible to do it skillfully in one go. The sheep into the belly of the fish complement each other, the fish is tender and smooth, the lamb is crisp, and the fish plus the sheep is a "fresh" word.
Fish and sheep are cooked together, steamed and stewed. Fresh fish and lamb are fused together, and a plate of tender fish and lamb, a bowl of steaming soup, is the most anticipated delicacy of the season.
As the saying goes, "fish bites sheep, the sky is fresh". Everyone says that fish and sheep can be cooked together to make people happy and forgetful, and in fact, it is true. Since ancient times, the north is the freshest sheep, the south is the freshest fish, so fish with sheep is a combination of the freshest ingredients in the north and south, and the delicious taste created will naturally be fresh to the extreme.
The taste of the world is home
This is a memory of exclusive love
All the people of Xiao County have some unbreakable complex for mutton. The same is true of Wang Haiyang's daughter Wang Qing.
Wang Qing recalled that when she was a child, in the winter, she often went with her father to the old mutton restaurant opened by her grandfather to eat fish and bite sheep and drink sheep soup. At that time, the storefront was very small, but it was full of people, and many diners lined up outside the restaurant. Although the waiting time was longer, after taking a seat, the delicious fish bite sheep was quickly brought to the table, and a piece of fish and lamb meat was picked up with chopsticks, and the breath was gently blown, and the aroma was overflowing.
People in Xiaoxian often say that it is best to eat lamb with a bowl of hot lamb soup, so that it has a taste.
Therefore, Wang Qing had to serve a bowl of mutton soup every time. When she was a child, she was afraid of spicy, but she coveted the aroma of chili mutton oil, so she put a small spoonful, but it was already so spicy that she closed her eyes and spit out her tongue.
A fish bites a sheep, a bowl of lamb soup under the belly, the tip of the nose is covered with a fine layer of sweat beads, the whole body is warm and baked, and the pores under the body are permeated with a comfortable energy. Wang Qing said: "Later, my father also inherited my grandfather's craftsmanship, and every time I came home, my father would burn one of his specialty dishes - fish bites sheep. ”
Nowadays, whenever he returns to his hometown on vacation, his father has to boil a large pot of lamb soup and burn a plate of fish to bite the sheep in advance. Wang Qing stepped into the door of the house, smelled the familiar fragrance, and the warm feeling of childhood overflowed into his heart again.
Ancient culture, devout faith, simple folk customs, cumbersome etiquette systems, are passed down from generation to generation through taste buds...
Text | Figure reporter Liu Xiaoqiong