Text/Liu Chengyin (Taixing)
The ancient Taixing still belongs to the era of people's communes. It was the era of planned economy . Pork was 74 cents per pound, pork liver was 5 cents, and the people had few dimes (bills) in their pockets. (meaning), no matter how cheap it was, I didn’t have the money to buy it, so I had to boil some coarse Wang Mao Gao (steamed bran cake) into the rice dumpling rice porridge and get some radish side dishes to go with it.
At that time, what I looked forward to the most was steaming steamed buns during the Chinese New Year. The author once had high expectations for steamed steamed buns: Taixing people celebrated the New Year, and every family steamed steamed buns, living a fermented life. Year after year, the fermented life has not been fully steamed, and we only hope that the production team will "pick up the fish" (which means pulling fish), and each household will share some silver carp to satisfy their craving.
In the fishing season
At that time, almost every production team raised fish, almost all of which were green silver carps. The fish pond of the production team was not large, only a dozen acres of water surface at most. However, the water at that time was very clear, crystal clear to the bottom. There is no food for the fish and they are left to feed on plankton in the water. Just imagine, at that time, all the bran was made into coarse crumbs and the bean cakes were processed into tofu or side dishes. How could there be any feed to feed the fish?
From the twelfth lunar month of the twelfth lunar month, the fish are raised. One silver carp only weighs one pound or two or three taels. The fish is so thin that you can see the fish bones on its belly protruding. Just like the author when he was young, he was so thin. Every rib can be seen clearly. However, the fish at that time was very delicious and had no earthy smell. If you add some ginger and green onions and cook it with some vegetable soup, it would be delicious in the world.
In the winter of the 1970s and 1980s, my hometown was very cold. It is not an exaggeration to use the word "cold and freezing" to describe the weather at that time. carrots that grow in the ground are frozen into "ice cream". Dig one out, scrape off the frozen soil on it, and put it in your mouth as crispy and sweet as chewing rock candy. At this time, the fish pond was also frozen, pedestrians could walk on the ice, and children played shuttlecocks and rolled hoops on it. Every time this season comes, it’s almost time to “raise the fish for the new year”.
Every year on the twenty-fifth or sixth day of the twelfth lunar month, the fish catcher would pull the big net over. The fish catcher would put on his water clothes, discharge the fishing net into the fish pond, and pull it from one end of the pond to the other. At this time, the river bank was full of commune members, craning their necks to look at the Western view, and children were chasing and beating each other in groups. Fish were jumping on the water, and the club members were guessing how many fish they could get this year. When they saw the fish jumping for joy on the water, their faces showed a smile like sunshine.
The fish were pulled ashore and piled in the open space on the river bank, and they began to divide the fish. The fish is divided according to the head. In a good year, one person can get more than one catty, that is, one person can get a catty of silver carp. At that time, my family was a big family in the production team. A family of seven could normally get about ten kilograms, that is, seven or eight fish, which was naturally enviable.
It is the fish season
When the fish is brought home, it has been frozen into a solid stick. It is mother's business to wash the fish. What I caught in my hands was not fish, it was simply ice. After killing a few fish, my hands were already red with cold. Wash the fish, put it in a luozi (dialect, Zhulanzi) to drain the water, tie it with cloth straps, and hang it under the eaves. It will freeze in a while, with small frozen nails hanging on the tail of the fish. At that time, every household did not have a refrigerator, and the natural environment was a hot refrigerator.
After lunch on New Year's Eve, the men were busy posting couplets, while the women were busy cooking fish and meat. The fish was taken out from under the eaves and thawed in the warm well water, and the soybeans were fried in the big iron pot. There isn't much fish, and it takes a long time to eat. Add some soybeans to cook together to fill the bowl. After the fish is cooked, it is divided into several bowls and frozen into fish overnight. When eating, you don't return to the pot, just take out a bowl and put it on the table . My folks have the custom of eating frozen fish. I often hear old people say that if you eat frozen fish with porridge, you should eat it from a poor family.
The adults are reluctant to eat fish, leaving it to the children to satisfy their craving. The children ate fish and meat, while the adults drank wine with soybeans. My father is not a big drinker, just one drink. Fish head is my father’s snack. My folks say "silver carp head, meat buns". It was only when I grew up that I realized the deliciousness of silver carp head. My father sucked the meat from the fish bones cleanly, then bit the fish skull dry, sucking out the brain and marrow inside the fish head. His elegance in eating fish heads was no less elegant than that of Shanghainese. Eat crabs.
Braised silver carp
In the blink of an eye, thirty or forty years have passed. The old fish ponds are still there, but they no longer raise fish. The surface of the water is covered with water peanuts and other aquatic creatures. The water quality is no longer clear, and even some It turned black, and you could vaguely smell the sour smell in the air. People in my hometown no longer eat silver carp and fish. The fish in the market are brought back from other places. In normal times, people in my hometown eat the most popular bream, crucian carp and kunzi. During the Chinese New Year, they buy herring or Ji Pozi (mandarin fish).
However, I can no longer taste that tender and plump taste...
