Chapter 40 Yuyue Yueyang Tower

The culture of fish dishes has a long history. The ancients called eating fish as a skill of slaying dragons. In the Three Kingdoms, whole fish has been broiled.It has become a custom for the riverside residents in the lake area to treat guests with fish. Come". Dongting Lake is the second largest freshwater lake in my country, spanning Hunan and Hubei provinces.Dongting is known as the Land of Fish and Rice, as the old saying goes: Huguang is cooked, and the world is full.The fish in Dongting Lake include fish, whitebait, mandarin fish, bream, grass carp, herring, crucian carp, water fish, goldfish, eel, loach, river fresh fish, etc., which are rich in variety and abundant in output, meeting the living needs of people in the lake area.

Dongting Lake has a lake outside the lake and mountains in the lake. The famous one is Junshan, which is a small island in Dongting Lake 800 miles away. It is far away from Yueyang Tower.The island has beautiful scenery, mild climate, wide water surface, and is rich in three wonders: bamboo that can shed tears (Mixed Bamboo), tea that can dance (Junshan Silver Needle), and special golden turtles.These special products all have the characteristics and cultural heritage of Dongting Lake. According to legend, the mottled bamboo is the trace left by the second concubine of Emperor Shun when he cried; Junshan has been a tea island since ancient times. The tip of the silver needle tea is as white as jade and the body of the bud is yellow as gold. Folklore of the golden tortoise can bring good luck, Junshan folklore: Touch the back of the golden tortoise, and you will live a long life, touch the head of the golden tortoise, and you will not have to worry about it for a lifetime.There are many scenic spots and historic sites in Junshan, including five wells, four terraces, thirty-six pavilions and forty-eight temples. Each historic site has a historical legend, and each legendary story is poignant and moving, attracting many tourists.

An ancient proverb in Yueyang says: Dongting crucian carp, mandarin carp and bream are as beautiful as cattle and sheep.With such an abundance of fish, the people of Yueyang who rely on the mountains and the water to drink water have gradually formed their own habit of eating fish, and also summed up their experience in tasting fish dishes: bighead carp head and carp tail, silver carp belly grass carp mouth, herring middle section The meat is the most beautiful.Dongting fish feast has become a dish for Yueyang people to entertain guests. In addition to whole fish, fish heads, fish tails, fish bodies, fish viscera, fish mouths, and swim bladders are also cooked separately. Whether it is braised fish heads, fish heads with sauce and pepper, or chopped Pepper fish head, boiled fish head, casserole fish head, iron plate fish head, each flavor is extremely fresh.Thousands of years of fish-eating culture have formed the local characteristics of Yueyang. The fish head with chopped pepper is called the head of fortune, and the fish tail with braised sauce is called smooth sailing. Come to pray for the safety and happiness of life in the lake area.

In Hunan cuisine, fish dishes from Dongting Lake play an important role.Yueyang dishes are divided into rice noodle dishes, rice steamed dishes, pot pickles, lake game, fish dishes and other series. ) and fish dishes, there are hundreds of fish-flavored dishes with fish as raw materials, including steamed water fish, sweet and sour pine nut fish, steamed fish in bamboo tube, catfish tofu stew, fish balls, dry roasted side fish, whitebait shredded meat, slippery fish Sashimi, stir-fried eel slices, dry-cooked squid, braised turtle meat, steamed fish with tempeh and chili, steamed crucian carp, whitebait and red dates soup, hot and sour shrimp soup, fish head tofu soup, fire-baked fish, hot and sour anchovies soup , Shrimp with flour residue, fish nuggets with distiller's grains, etc. are all famous dishes in Yueyang.Li Shangyin, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, said in a poem: "Dongting fish can be picked up, but if it is not fake, it will hang down even more. It is like ants before the rain, more than flies after autumn." ", the famous one is "Baling Whole Fish Feast".According to legend, when Emperor Qianlong traveled to the south of the Yangtze River, he passed by Baling. After tasting the whole fish feast, he was full of praise and named it "Baling whole fish feast".

The whole fish mat in Baling consists of twelve to twenty trays of Dongting Lake fish, whitebait, mandarin fish, bream, grass carp, herring, crucian carp, water fish, goldfish, eel, loach, and fresh river fish. Served with high-quality characteristic vegetables and precious tea leaves from Dongting Lake, such as Artemisia quinoa, lotus root, lotus leaves, mushrooms, reeds, silver needles from Junshan, etc. The processing methods vary, such as slices, cubes, shreds, strips, blocks, velvet, balls, etc. Thirteen kinds of cooking methods include frying, frying, popping, extinguishing, frying, braising, crisping, steaming, simmering, stewing, roasting, smoking, kang, freezing, pulling, shredded, honey sauce, etc., served with green onions , Ginger, garlic, dried pepper, pepper, soy sauce, etc. There are more than 20 kinds of tastes, such as sour, sweet, fishy, ​​bad, numb, strange, etc. In terms of color, pay attention to red, green, blue, white, blue Harmonious and unified, with more than 2,000 dishes.Each table of whole fish feast is generally composed of 30 dishes, including one flower fight, eight round dishes, four hot-fried dishes, eight major dishes, one soup, four snacks, and four side dishes. Pay attention to taste and pay attention to nutrition, so that people eat fish but do not see fish, know its taste but not its shape, one fish has one shape, and one shape has one taste.The most famous ones are bamboo tube fish, squirrel mandarin fish, steamed pomfret in sauce, stewed turtle in red, shredded lotus root whitebait, frozen isinglass, steamed whole water fish, butterfly crossing the sea, eel with pine nuts, etc., which are fresh and delicious, with unique flavor.Among them, the fish in bamboo tube is the main freshness, the steamed fish in sauce is the main flavor, the squirrel mandarin fish is the main shape, and the steamed whole water fish is the essence of the shape.

In 1988, 16 dishes of Baling Fish Feast were selected into the "Chinese Famous Recipes"; in 1989, Baling Fish Feast was named "Gold Medal Dishes" of Hunan Province; in 1991, it was included in Hunan's "Famous Dishes and Spots"; The whole fish feast is included in the "World Travel Menu". People in Junshan eat a variety of fish. The same fish uses different knife methods and different cooking methods, and instantly turns into fish dishes of different colors and flavors.A grass carp removes the head, tail and bones, divides it into two pieces, cuts the meat slices into many rhombus shapes, frys them in an oil pan, rolls them into wheat ears, and pours tomato sauce on them, that is, a fragrant and sweet wheat ear fish; After removing the scales of the carp, cut some small openings on the skin, insert fish balls, fry them, remove them, stuff them with ham, sausages, mushrooms, and diced meat, and steam them in a steamer to become a pearl fish with eight treasures; Silver carp is cooked separately from head, meat, bone, and offal. One group is steamed and fried, and the other is steamed and fried. The four kinds of dishes with different colors, aromas and tastes are called Junshan Four Uniques, which are really wonderful.There is a poem that says: If you have not tasted the whole fish feast in Baling, you are not really going to Yueyang; if you climb Junshan and don't eat fish, you will be less satisfied in life.