Essay on Impression of Three Treasures in Chaohu Lake

Chaohu Lake is one of the five largest freshwater lakes in China. The 800-mile lake in Fiona Fang is full of smoke and waves. Chaohu Lake, with its picturesque scenery, is a famous land of fish and rice in China. Every year, from the time when the first spring breeze awakens the willows by the lake to sprout goose yellow catkins, to the winter when the wind is cold and the snow is fluttering, various aquatic products are gradually caught ashore according to the season and are continuously transported from Chaohu Lake to all directions. The main aquatic products are whitebait, white rice shrimp, whitebait, grass carp, silver carp, fat head, grass carp and so on. The most famous ones are whitebait, white rice shrimp and white fish. The industrious and intelligent Chaohu people put these three kinds of fish together naturally long ago and called them "Three Treasures of Chaohu Lake". Because I spent an unforgettable childhood and adolescence by the beautiful lake, I was very impressed by the three treasures of Chaohu Lake.

First, whitebait

The whitebait in Chaohu Lake is generally more than one inch long, with the thickest part at the waist like a grain of rice, and the whole body is as white as a crystal-clear Hosta. The head is tapering, and two small black eyes are like two small bullets. The small tail is a miniature version of the general fish tail, which looks a little transparent and delicate and lovely.

I don't know if things are rare, or the value of whitebait is high, or because it is difficult to preserve them for a long time after fishing ashore, or maybe both. The price of whitebait in Chaohu Lake has always been relatively expensive. The most frequent season of whitebait activity is mid-spring. In other seasons, it is difficult to see the beautiful and attractive figure of whitebait anywhere along the Chaohu Lake. So the time to catch whitebait is a short month in the middle of spring, and in some years it is only a short week or so. Therefore, during the Spring Festival, fishermen around the lake began to seize the time to prepare fishing nets for whitebait. Because time is fleeting, if you wait until the fishery administration allows you to catch whitebait, it will be like looking for an umbrella in a hurry when it rains. Hardworking fishermen almost all know the truth of taking precautions. The reason why the net for fishing whitebait is prepared in advance is because this kind of net is exquisite and has small mesh; Whether it is weaving a net or sewing, it needs patience and meticulousness. Because the whitebait is small, if the whitebait in the net bag cannot escape, the mesh of the fishing net will naturally be smaller than the whitebait.

Probably whitebait is small and rare. If every family can catch more than ten kilograms every time they leave the lake, it will be a bumper harvest. It is rare to catch more than 20 kilograms at a time. There are also unlucky people who have worked hard all night and only got three or five pounds.

Once in the evening, watching the fishing boats on the shore bathing in the magnificent sunset and the machines roaring towards the middle of the lake, I looked puzzled for many years, and some asked emotionally, "How hard it is to go fishing in the lake at night!" Mother smiled kindly and said, "You have been away from home for many years, and you don't know how to fish for a long time. Go to the lake in the morning and come back at night. It's dark. Who is the catch sold to? How to do the fish that can't be sold? " My face is slightly red, and I deeply feel the hard work of fishermen fishing.

Whitebait is precious because the nutritional value of whitebait in Chaohu Lake is quite high. Every hundred grams of fresh whitebait in Chaohu Lake contains 8.2 grams of protein. Dried whitebait is called dried swallow, and each hundred grams of dried swallow contains protein 72. 1 g, fat13g, heat 1709400 joules, calcium 76 1 mg, and phosphorus 1000 mg. The cooking of fresh whitebait is mainly a mixture of fried whitebait with eggs, tender yellow eggs and white whitebait, and some fried burnt yellow, elegant and mellow aroma is added, which makes people salivate. Pick up a piece and put it in your mouth. It's smooth and refreshing, and suddenly it leaves a fragrance on your teeth and cheeks. It lasts for three days and has an endless aftertaste. Another way is to make soup, mainly laver and egg soup, black laver, pale yellow eggs and whitebait jade, which is simply a beautiful artistic masterpiece. You don't need to eat it. It's refreshing at a glance. Another dish is steamed egg soup with whitebait. Pale yellow egg soup with some whitebait like jade strips is really beautiful and delicious. Dried whitebait is usually used for cooking. Add the right amount, and the taste of the dish suddenly becomes delicious.

One morning in the early 1990s, I went home to visit my mother. My mother bought half a catty of whitebait from a fishing boat returning from fishing, fried some at noon and made some soup until my taste buds were active and my appetite was wide open. After dinner, my elder sister borrowed a small fish net four or five meters long to catch whitebait, and happily took me to the lake to find the shallow shore of Shaping. My elder sister and I pulled one end of the fishing net and shuttled back and forth in thigh-deep water for more than an hour. When we closed the net, we got more than one kilogram. When I got home, I refused to leave some, so my mother and sister insisted that I take them all home. At dinner, while eating, my wife and daughter praised the delicious food. Until now, speaking of the past, my daughter still remembers the scene and surprise of eating whitebait for the first time.

Whitebait is small, as long as it falls into the net, it is difficult to escape, and whitebait itself has no resistance. But there are also some lucky whitebait. They wander outside the fishing nets that come and go year after year, and grow in fear in the narrow gaps between the fishing nets, and slowly grow to four or five inches long, even about a foot, and their bodies are as strong as human fingers. Perhaps out of admiration for the boundless sea, fishermen respectfully call the extra-large whitebait "Haitang". Every spring, there are fewer opportunities to catch seaweed, so the price is too high for the average working class; With my monthly salary at that time, I could only buy two or three Jin.

Second, white rice shrimp

Chinese has a long history, extensive knowledge and rich connotations. Many words are very interesting and sometimes difficult to understand. Take the word "shrimp" for example. People on the shore of Chaohu Lake said that as long as someone carries the word "shrimp", they often make fun of someone's figure, and even ridicule someone for being hesitant and not simply doing things, and they also like to be greedy and cheap. In fact, all shrimps are plump and round; The shrimp produced in Chaohu Lake is crowned with white rice shrimp, which is the top grade of shrimp. The white rice shrimp in Chaohu Lake, like shrimps in other places, wears a commander's helmet with two or three slender tentacles, and its whole body is crystal clear, just like moist jade. Even if he is caught and thrown into a wooden basin, he always shakes his eyes and actively looks for opportunities to escape, revealing his inner melancholy; Waving two slender scissors to express the anger of losing freedom. If you see shrimps in the water, they are almost free and chic; If danger is found, a slight jump will disappear immediately.

Probably because there are many, white rice shrimp has always been cheap and good. There is a proverb along the Chaohu Lake: Shrimp rises and fish falls. This means that it is very easy to catch shrimp and the yield is very high in the days when Chaohu Lake is flooded. Every year in June and July, during the rainy season between the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River, the lake swells and villagers paddle cauldrons into the lake. Everyone can catch at most 100 kilograms a day, and the income of one day can reach the salary of one month's hard work in the wind and rain, which is really enviable. The worst person can catch 30 to 50 kilograms a day.

Although there are many white rice shrimps in Chaohu Lake, it is sometimes hard to buy. It was during the big group period that my uncle and aunt came to my house as guests, and there was nothing to put on the table at home. My mother asked me to buy some from the shrimpers in the village. But the shrimp catcher said with a smile, there are few shrimps recently, and today several families are scrambling to get them. As a last resort, I had to step into the big basin and go down to the lake with the shrimpers. "Easy first, then difficult", I collected the shrimp he caught in time, and finally I was full. At lunch, eating delicious fried shrimp with green peppers, my uncle and aunt even smiled and praised me for being smart and capable. In fact, neither of them knows that although I grew up by the lake, I don't like playing with water by nature. At noon that day, I was a little hungry, staying in a large basin that kept turning and undulating in the waves. Especially dizzy, sick many times, spit a lot of water; When I landed, I was top-heavy and almost fell down. However, I ate a lot of fried white rice shrimp with green peppers for lunch, and the attractive fragrance was unforgettable.

Once, my brother and I brought half a bamboo basket to cook white rice shrimp to grandma's house. Walking on the road, my brother and I sometimes carry baskets by ourselves, and sometimes I carry them by myself. Looking at the red body of the cooked white rice shrimp, the attractive fragrance lingers. My brother and I couldn't help swallowing, but we both tried our best to restrain ourselves, for fear of revealing the flaw and letting grandma and uncle know that we were stealing. When I couldn't help it, I looked around like a thief. If there is no one, I quickly take out two cooked shrimps, one for each person, and immediately put them in my mouth to swallow before chewing. When I arrived in Taoyuan, outside my grandma's village, I saw that there seemed to be as many shrimps in the bamboo basket as before, and I suddenly became courageous. I found three or four prawns in it, shelled them and chewed them slowly with my brother for a long time before I felt mellow. In my memory, I like to eat white rice shrimp best this time.

When white rice shrimp is eaten, Dachuan green pepper is fried together; This is a common dish along the Chaohu Lake and an indispensable dish in many restaurants. After the white rice shrimp is dried, put it in a thin cloth bag, pat it gently for a few times, and then pour it into a dustpan for a few times to winnow off the shrimp shell and put away the rest of the shrimp. Put a pinch when cooking and put it in the dried whitebait. Shrimp is also a good material for making sauce. The sauce with shrimp is called shrimp hot sauce, and there is a mellow smell of shrimp at the entrance, which is very attractive. Shrimp and dried shrimp can be used to make sauce. The shrimp paste produced in Chaohu Lake is spicy and delicious, and it tastes very refreshing.

With the growth of age, while eating shrimp, I saw the white rice shrimp in the pot as jade, and it turned red in an instant. I can't help thinking that the day of great success is the end of life. Can not help but give birth to infinite feelings and sadness, sigh for a long time.

Third, Bai Mei.

Plum white is white fish, because the mouth is slightly upturned, so the coast of Chaohu Lake is also called upturned white; Chaohu Lake is also called Bai Mei because it is in rainy season most of the time. Plum white is large and small, usually about a catty. Bai Mei's image is comely and elegant, with a chic streamlined shape, a head of suitable size, and small, thin and even silvery white fish scales. Although it is not as magical as the legendary mermaid, if it is called a mermaid, probably no one will object. It seems to have been conceived in the inner room, and no one knows her. During the year, Bai Mei seldom goes out to swim and seldom plays in the wind and waves.

The end of June and the beginning of July in the Gregorian calendar is the rainy season between Jianghuai. Because my village is on the east bank of Chaohu Lake, when the southwest wind blows violently and the stormy waves in the lake rush to the beach one after another, all the men in the village, including many children, can't wait to take out the fishing nets that have been prepared long ago, pair by pair, one pulling one end, laughing and rushing into the waves with passion. In the storm not far from the shore, there will be many fishermen soon. He who braves the wind and waves will gain something. Once they found fish in the net, they immediately tightened the gateway, and the white fish in the net could not escape no matter how hard they struggled.

I remember one year, when everyone rushed down the lake in high spirits to catch Bai Mei, his uncle stayed in the field for a while and hurried home. Seeing that everyone has been fishing happily in the storm, I can't find anyone else to help at the moment. A strong sense of squid stimulated me to follow my uncle. My uncle thinks I'm thin and weak, but he won't take me fishing in the lake. His uncle quickly found a push net and rushed into the wind and waves with almost no hope. Busy until dusk, when everyone went ashore one after another, his uncle's net was still empty. Just as his uncle walked to the shore with a wry smile, a dizzy big plum white pot rushed to the shore, plunged into his uncle's push net impartially, immediately jumped on him with joy, wrapped the big fish tightly with the net and quickly landed. When we ate fish the next day, my brothers and sisters and I were exposed to the light.

Plums are white and beautiful, and fish is tender, smooth and delicious. There are two main kinds of plum cooking: braised and steamed. Braised plum is white and full of fragrance; Steamed plum is white, mellow and light. Either way, it's tempting. However, there are many fishbones in Bai Mei, and they are very thin. When eating Bai Mei, you must eat slowly, and you can't wolf it down. If you get stuck in your throat by a fishbone, it hurts a little.

Now, the three treasures of Chaohu Lake are still famous, but the number has become increasingly rare. In mid-spring, the sails of fishing boats catching whitebait can no longer be seen on the foggy lake. Every year from late spring to Mid-Autumn Festival, many fishermen in the lake are still busy fishing for white rice and shrimp. But the output is far less than that in the 1980s and 1990s. Some families give up fishing because of the high cost and low income of fishing fish and shrimp. Shrimp caught on the shore, although people still say that Chaohu white rice shrimp has long been misnamed. At the beginning of this century, the shell of white rice shrimp has turned pale blue, and now the blue color is gradually deepening. There used to be more than a dozen prawns with thick index fingers in a catty of white rice shrimp, but now there are no prawns in the past. Bai Mei seems to have one or two, only occasionally appearing on the tables of some big hotels. Every rainy season, when the southwest wind blows, I only see layers of turbid waves rolling on the empty lake in the howling southwest wind.

It is gratifying that comprehensive environmental management has been fully carried out. In the near future, the shore of Chaohu Lake will still be beautiful, and the reputation of the three treasures of Chaohu Lake will be even louder.