The legendary story of dahao Jinghe fish balls

Dahao Port, which opened much earlier than Shantou City, was in an unprecedented stage in the middle of Qing Dynasty. There are many merchant ships on the Haojiang River, and its economic network reaches as far as Jiangsu and Zhejiang. At that time, the most prosperous commodity distribution center in Dahao, "Zhongantou", often held folk activities such as welcoming the gods. Fish balls are not only the daily food for scholars, businessmen and the general public, but also the necessary offerings for the fairy "game table". At this time, the golden signboard of "Dahao Fish Pill" came into being. A shrewd Dahao man tried and studied the traditional production technology of fish balls and created a set of production technology of high-quality fish balls. This unique production process has completed the qualitative leap of "Dahao Fish Pill". He is Liang Jinghe, the founder of Jinghe Fish Pill, a century-old store of Dahao Fish Pill.

Liang Jinghe is a resident of Dahao. For generations, they were great chefs who were good at cooking seafood. Liang Jinghe was born in Xianfeng period of Qing Dynasty (1836). I followed my father to open a snack bar in Dahao Commercial Port since childhood. He has a very harmonious relationship with fishermen, is familiar with the fishing season in the sea area, and knows the characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of fresh fish products in various ports and different fishing grounds like the palm of his hand. The fish balls he shoots are also good. But he is not satisfied with the status quo. He is determined to build a famous brand of fish balls.

In the long-term practice, Liang Jinghe found that the process of "throwing" fish balls is very particular: the beating is not enough, the fish glue does not spit, the fish balls made are loose and inelastic, the fish paste becomes old, and the fish balls made are not crisp or tender. Moreover, the strength of different fish should be different, even the same kind of fish is different because of the different sea areas where it grows. In addition, mastering the cooking temperature of boiled fish balls and adding seasonings also has a lot of knowledge. After a long period of exploration, he finally introduced an unprecedented new variety of fish balls during the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty. This fish ball is round, smooth, elastic, tender, crisp, fragrant and fresh, and retains the original flavor of fish to the maximum extent. It's delicious. It was a sensation in Dahao Port, and diners in Hong Kong and other places were full of praise after tasting it. At that time, Zhang Guodong, a Chaoshan celebrity from Dahao, went to Liang Jinghe's snack bar to taste the newly baked big fish balls almost every day, and left a pair of couplets for the store owner, saying, "Taste once, clap your hands three times, and turn around when you smell it". The reputation of "Jinghe Fish Pill" spread like wildfire and spread all over Chaoshan. "Jinghe Fish Pill" has become an indispensable delicacy at banquets and the first choice sacrifice for the Games to greet the gods. At that time, there was a poem that described it like this: "The old street in ancient times was so wide that it was full of ports at every festival, carrying baskets and picking up roads, and the bridge stones were too concave to ask fish balls."