Chapter 45 Ecstasy Xi Shi Tongue

He called clam meat a "divine product" and speculated whether it was the Xi Shi tongue mentioned in "Min Xiao Ji".He also cited a story as circumstantial evidence, saying that there was a naval official whose mother was seriously ill and was quite homesick.Even though he was thousands of miles away, he still wanted to get a piece of clam meat to quench his thirst just before he died. Minister Chun Xiao flew the clam meat to the capital by plane. Facing delicious food, foodie Yu Dafu was naturally unreserved and gorged himself.He himself wrote: "This time I caught up with Fuzhou, just when the mussels were on the market, so I cooked them in soy sauce and boiled them. I ate hundreds of mussels. It was finally a feat in this life. I wrote this down and chatted with each other."

In fact, the clam meat that Yu Dafu ate was not Xi Shi tongue.It is no wonder that Yu Dafu, many people often confuse mussels such as Meretrix meretrix with Xishi tongue.The biggest feature of the Xishi tongue is that "the length of the shell is about twice the width of the shell". The delicacy of Xishi Tongue has been recorded as early as the Song Dynasty.Hu Zai from the Song Dynasty said in "Tiaoxi Yuyin Conghua": "There is a genus of clams at the mouth of Fuzhou, named Xishiru, which is extremely sweet and crisp." The Xishi tongue should be listed as a divine product." Li Yu also said in "Xian Qing Ou Ji": "The sea fault is the most beautiful, and the one that people admire but cannot eat is the Xi Shi tongue of Fujian."

The common practice of Xishi tongue is to make soup. In Fujian cuisine, there are dishes such as stir-fried Xishi tongue, deep-fried Xi Shi tongue, boiled soup Xi Shi tongue and so on. The sea mussel mentioned by Yu Dafu is still a representative dish of Fujian cuisine, and it is now called chicken soup with sea mussel.The method is to slaughter the hen, cut it into pieces, cut the lean pork into slices, add water, take it out from the steamer for two hours, pick out the meat slices, filter the chicken soup with clean gauze for later use, wash the sea mussels, and cook with cooking wine for a while. Marinate, heat up the chicken broth, add sea clam meat, add white soy sauce, season and serve.

From the point of view of the whole operation method, this dish is particularly brilliant. The sea mussels are boiled in very hot chicken soup, which keeps the freshness of the sea mussels to the maximum extent. With the mellowness of the chicken soup, the entrance must be very convincing. There are many ways to make sea mussels. In my collection of "Chinese Famous Recipes Fujian" published in 1982, in addition to boiled sea mussels in chicken soup, there are also stewed sea mussels with corn.This reminds me of the stewed sea cucumber with millet, which is a high-end dish in the hotel. The origin is actually very early, and it is not a current invention.The recipe also records a very Fujian-style boiled sea mussel.It can be seen that the richness of sea mussels is indeed very prominent in Fujian cuisine.