Chapter 41 Yanbantou

It was around 2004 when I entered Shennongjia and tasted Yanbantou.The word "de" in Yanbantou is almost pronounced in the northwestern part of Hubei as the sound of the word "be beaten".The appearance of the rock head is exactly the same as that of a catfish, but it is not big. The largest rock head can only grow to 25 cm long, which is what I have seen. People in Shennongjia like to call it that way. The yellow catfish is also called Huanggutou here, and it is still a few sizes smaller. It feels that in the clear rivers in the mountains, all fish are difficult to grow. Only the big giant salamander grows to dozens. It weighs a few kilograms.That gigantic monster may be scary to look at, but it is an amphibian, not a fish.It is said that most of the current Yanbantou is artificially bred, because it must live in the clear water in the mountain stream, so the difference between this kind of artificial breeding and natural growth is not too big. You can buy the big ones for 18 yuan a catty and the small ones for 15 yuan per catty. They are all live.

I still remember eating Yanbantou hot pot at Xiongfeng Restaurant. I thought it was a small catfish. I said there are so many small catfish?Chief Tan, who sent me to Yichang, said that this fish is called Yanbantou, and it lives among the rocks in mountain streams, and it is not very big.It reminds me of when I was young, when I was fishing in the stream below Yuanmen Reservoir in Dongfang Mountain, I had caught many "small catfish". Too cunning to catch, only the little ones are naive and easy to catch.Yanbantou is of course not a catfish, it is a species of Siluriformes, the family Osmanthus, and the genus Osmanthus, so it is also called Osmanthus.Of course, there are many kinds of chrysalis, but it is most likely a big-finned chokefish, so it is not wrong to call it a chokefish.

Xiongfeng Hotel is located on the half way from Shennongjia to Yichang. It happens that you have to have lunch here by car. This location is also in the valley of the mountain. Apart from the restaurant, there is no one else.It seems that the distance has been calculated, and people are hungry by this time, so a few restaurants have been opened here.I guess Xiongfeng Restaurant was opened by people from Shennongjia, so no matter in Muyu Town or Songbai Town, people are used to talking about Xiongfeng Restaurant, and they all say that Xiongfeng Restaurant's Yanbantou is the best.Is it the best?In my memory, the Yanbantou tasted at the Xiongfeng Restaurant was the best.

The back of Yanbantou is black, gradually getting to the abdomen, the color becomes lighter, and the bottom of the abdomen is completely white.When it swims in the water, it does move slowly, leisurely and calmly.The bottom of the hot pot at the Xiongfeng Restaurant is very popular.The Shennongjia area is generally addicted to spicy food. This place calls chili peppers as Guangjiao, and some people call them peppers. In short, they are dry red peppers.The bottom of the pot in Shennongjia is usually done like this. First heat the pot, pour oil, and fry the pepper, chili and bean paste after the oil is hot, so the overflowing red is the old red of bean paste.Then, add ginger and garlic, add water, bring the water to a boil, and add some bacon slices, potato slices and green beans.This is the most common pot bottom.

Generally speaking, Yanbantou hot pot does not put so many vegetables, some will put some potato chips, and some will add pure Yanbantou soup at the bottom of the pot.Eating Yanbantou at Xiongfeng Restaurant, I remember that there are many wooden ginger seeds in the hot pot.Mu Jiangzi is a seasoning that is widely used in Wulingyuan and Qinba Mountains. This is the first time I have eaten it in Songbai Town in Shennongjia.Songbai Town is the seat of the government of Shennongjia Forest District. It is a relatively low-altitude basin. Conventionally, it is the political, economic and cultural center of Shennongjia. However, after the development of tourism, the economic center has obviously moved to Muyu Town.Songbai Town and Muyu Town are very important in Shennongjia District, but the people in Muyu Town feel less love for Mu Jiangzi than Songbai Town.In the hot pot in Songbai Town, Mu Jiangzi is always jumping in the boiling red soup.In the Xiongfeng Restaurant, it is as if the wooden ginger is floating in the red soup to lift the rock head.

It was already two o'clock in the afternoon when I went to Xiongfeng Restaurant, I was very hungry, and the feeling of wanting to eat was pulling me, or this was just one aspect.Speaking of that morning, the sun was shining brightly. Director Tan drove an old Crown from Songbai Town. The speed of the car was extremely slow. Walk slowly to see the scenery.That kind of feeling is really good, the car is circling bend after turn on the winding mountain road, the green mountains are everywhere, and the vegetation is so green that it seems to squeeze out the canyons of the mountains.In some places, there are occasional mountain flowers, dense and colorful clusters, blooming in the green bushes.The small river in the mountain flows with clear spring water, the sun shines brightly on the top of the mountain, and occasionally you can hear the singing of birds in the valley.The air is filled with the fresh breath of green plants, and the plant world in the mountains is spotless.

Before passing Yanziya, there is a winding mountain road. The road here is not wide, but it is flat and clean, and there is not a small stone in some places.Moreover, for a long time, I didn’t meet a car or see a person. I could only see some houses on some sunny slopes, with white walls and black tiles, and smoke curling up from the kitchen. dish antenna.In short, the roads in the Shennongjia Great Forest belong to the roads where birds are singing and flowers are fragrant and sunshine is shining. Suddenly, a pair of golden pheasants appeared in front of them. They walked slowly along the grass beside the road. The sun shone on them, their brocade-like feathers glistened, and the roosters dragged their long beautiful tails.When the car arrived, they walked slowly into the woods.At that moment, I felt that I had reached the edge of fairyland.I was so dazed that I forgot the camera that was hanging around my neck all the time.

Going forward, Director Tan was very steady in driving, telling the story of Shennongjia in history. He especially wanted to breed forest frogs and salamanders, because he saw that someone successfully raised salamanders in Enshi, and the farmed salamanders were allowed to be eaten.Director Tan believes that raising forest frogs is the most cost-effective. In a place with streams and slopes, use nets to raise forest frogs without feeding. Installing two energy-saving lamps can attract insects, which is equivalent to automatic feeding. , but also reduce forest pests.Forest frogs have a good taste and strong reproductive ability. They are called "Bang Bang" in the Shennongjia area because they always cry "Bang Bang" by the stream in the forest, which is completely different from the frogs in the outside world.

The car moved slowly, and the cool breeze was blowing. The world in the mountains was so unbearable to leave.I felt that the speed of the car was about 25 kilometers per hour, and I silently thought in my heart that I could see a deer or antelope appearing on the edge of the forest, but I never saw it. It is said that it is possible to see it only when there is heavy snow in winter.It's winter, and the forests on the high mountains have shed all their leaves. The higher the altitude, the colder it will be, and the beasts will come down the mountains one after another to find the weeds that are not covered by snow.We are approaching Yanziya, and the mountain is becoming more and more majestic, blocking most of the sunlight, and the wind in the canyon is cool.Turning a corner, the sky suddenly opened up and the sun was shining. A swiftlet caught up with the car and flew about one meter away from me outside the window, maintaining the same cruising speed as the car.

The short-billed swiftlets in Shennongjia belong to the petrels. They fly from the southern Indian Ocean along the Himalayan corridor every year and live in the deep swallow caves in Shennongjia.There are golden silk-like feathers on the back of the short-billed swiftlet. When you look up, the golden silk on the back of the swiftlet is shining under the sunlight.After flying forward together for more than a minute, the swiftlet turned a corner and flew into the forest. Looking at the scenery along the way, the mood is particularly refreshing, and there is a feeling of wanting to pass ten thousand mountains with a light car.It just so happened that the feeling of hunger came up vaguely. Sitting on the threshold of the Xiongfeng Hotel, listening to the mountain people yelling in dialect, the sound of cicadas chirping outside the door, and the rural atmosphere of the mountains and fields permeated everywhere. Have a drink or two.

When the hot pot is served, the strips of slab heads lie in the red soup. After drinking a big gulp of cold beer, I pick up the slab heads and inhale hard, and all the soft and tender fresh meat is in my mouth.A little bit, the spicy taste of dry fragrance, and the slightly "stinky" green hemp flavor of wood ginger seeds are here, and when you taste it carefully, there is also the sweetness of Yanbantou tender meat.Cool, at that moment, I just felt that the heroic poetry of Dashan was rolling in the hot pot.People in Shennongjia use hot pot all year round.Director Tan was not allowed to drink alcohol because of driving, so he accompanied me to watch me drink alone. Several people from Shennongjia came to toast one after another. It was the first time I discovered that Yanbantou was so wonderful.Unfortunately, why give it such a hard name? I went to Shennongjia again and lived in the virgin forest. I couldn’t eat Yanbantou there, only bacon and so on. The fresh meat was also the Shennongjia local pork bought from people in the mountains. This place is called running wild boar. It tastes like wild boar, so I eat it all the time. This kind of hot pot does not have Yanbantou and Huanggutou.Because I wrote about the golden monkey, my heart was always on the monkey. During the May 1st Golden Week, I went back to Shennongjia from the Chongqing National Book Fair to film a TV show and sign for the "Golden Monkey Tribe", and I suddenly thought of Yanbantou.So, I ate Yanbantou again.The first two times I drank, because the time was not yet summer, the wood ginger seeds did not grow. I told the store to put more wood ginger seeds. They said no, and I felt a sense of regret. The stewed Yanbantou hot pot without Mu Jiangzi will not taste as good as Xiongfeng Restaurant.I was somewhat reconciled, so I went to the farmer's market to look for it by myself, and I found it. There was a vendor selling wood ginger seeds, which hadn't matured yet, only 6 taels, and sold for 15 yuan a catty, and I bought them all.Therefore, in the past two days, there are wooden ginger seeds in the hot pot Yanbantou.In addition, I also found the sky onions, flat leeks and duck feet that they usually talk about but are extremely rare.Sky onion is a wild onion on the high cliff in the primeval forest. The fried eggs are delicious, but you can't eat too much, it is said that eating too much will hurt your eyes.Flat chives are wild leeks, and duck feet are slightly celery-flavored wild vegetables. This time I have had enough of Yanbantou, I even want to buy a bucket of Yanbantou and take it to the Dalongtan in the primeval forest for release, so that I can go fishing there next time.Leaving Shennongjia with the memory of Yanbantou, the mountains, the water, and the forest, there is no Yanbantou here in Beijing, only rainbow trout.Forget it, wait for the time to go back to Shennongjia, there is a small earthen hut of mine in that forest.