Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Weather inquiry - More and more carp every year.

More and more carp every year.

Chinese New Year's dishes are all about meaning, and everyone wants to spend another year. Fish is one of the indispensable dishes on the New Year table in China. Therefore, in Guangdong, steamed fish with shredded onion and soy sauce is the protagonist of the New Year's Eve dinner.

There are many kinds of fish used for annual meals in Guangdong, but carp is rarely used. Carp is not very popular in Guangdong, probably because there is a saying in Guangdong that carp is a hair product, and the weather in Guangdong is mostly hot and humid. Some people with wounds and sores are not easy to recover after eating carp, so Cantonese seldom eat carp. However, it is still very good to make a carp stew with ginger and onion, and some people are willing to give it a try.

As a dish, carp has been an indispensable raw material for folk festivals and banquets since ancient times. As early as 3,000 years ago, in the Book of Songs, there was a saying that "those who eat fish are carp that go downstream", and there was also a saying that "Luo Li is as expensive as cattle and sheep".

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Yellow River carp was regarded as a valuable gift. According to Historical Records Confucius Family, Confucius got a son, and Lu gave carp as a gift. Therefore, Confucius named his son Kong Li, and there was a taboo against eating carp in the history of Shandong Confucius' House.

Carp is widely distributed in China, and the Yellow River carp in Henan is the most precious, which is one of the famous products in Henan. Yellow River carp, Songjiang perch, Xingkai Lake fish and Songhua River salmon are called the four famous fish in China.

Yellow River carp has golden scales, long fusiform shape, bright red tips, thick ridges, few internal organs and small bones, and is especially famous for its bright color, tender meat and fragrant taste. To distinguish the Yellow River carp from the non-Yellow River carp, we only need to see whether the inner membrane of the carp is white or black after being cut open. The white one is real yellow croaker, and the black one is fake.

Carp needs to eat about three Jin, which is the most expensive. In The Water Margin, Wu Xiucai said that three Ruan hit the chips, Wu Yong said that he "taught in the rich man's house, and now he has to deal with more than a dozen golden carp, weighing 14 or 15 Jin". Wang Zengqi said: "Carp is as big as 14 or 15 Jin, which is not delicious. Shi Naian, who writes about the Water Margin, is a layman who eats carp. "

Several ways to eat carp are also written in The Water Margin: In the section of Chapter 38 "If it rains in time, you will walk like a Pacific Insurance": "Zhang Shun chose a big four-tailed one and tied wicker, and first taught Li Kui jy to arrange it on the pavilion in the future. Then I asked the bartender to order two bottles of Yuhu Chuncai wine, and some seafood, wine and fruit. The four of them were drinking, and Zhang Shun handed a fish to the bartender, made a spicy soup, steamed one with wine, and taught the bartender to cut silver carp. "

The practice in Water Margin is spicy soup, steamed wine and sliced silver carp. Silver carp is the same as today's fish. Du's note: "Silver carp is today's fish and meat." More refers to raw fish. There was a strong wind of cutting in the Song Dynasty. In Dream of China in Tokyo, it was said: "Many fishermen must buy brands in Chi Yuan before they can fish. Tourists get fish and buy it at twice the price. You get the moon first by the advantage. I recommend perfume bottles, which taste good. "

At present, the traditional famous dishes made by carp in Kaifeng, Henan Province still have two recipes: "Longxu Noodles Slippery Carp" and "Sweet and Sour Slippery Carp".

"Longxu Noodles Willow Carp" was originally a dish cooked by the imperial palace in Song Dynasty for holding a large-scale festive banquet or entertaining foreign envoys. This dish consists of Longxu Noodles and fish. Even the fish is poured on the noodles with juice. The finished product is golden in color, fluffy in vermicelli, crisp and sour, slightly salty, and the noodles are eaten with fish, which is suitable for people of all ages in Xian Yi.

There is a story in Sweet and Sour Carp: Emperor Guangxu and Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty fled from Eight-Nation Alliance and returned to Beijing via Kaifeng. Kaifeng officials sent someone to cook this dish. The dishes are bright red, sweet and sour, slightly salty and very delicious. After Emperor Guangxu and Cixi ate it, Emperor Guangxu praised it as "ancient Bianzhou delicacy", but Cixi said "I forgot to return it after dinner". Before sailing, he wrote the plaque "Where did the fish sneak out, the ancient Bianzhou in the Central Plains" and gave it to Kaifeng House. Since then, it has been widely circulated.

I don't like carp because its meat is thick and fishy. Although there are ways to remove the fishy smell from the back of fish, my interest is still dim.

But the Yellow River carp is willing to give it a try. Only in recent years, due to the pollution of the main river and other reasons, the output has been greatly reduced, and pure wild yellow river carp is very rare. Someone who works on the Yellow River said, "Fishing boats fishing in our dangerous section can't catch two carp weighing more than 1 kg in a month, and they are usually several heavy miscellaneous fish."

That's a real pity.