Chapter 21 Fresh and tender Qinghai sturgeon

The ancients said that it is better to travel thousands of miles than to read thousands of books.The author is usually active and not quiet, so I am very impressed with this sentence.China has a vast territory, with mountains, south and seas, and there are not too few places to go. It's just that the Qinghai area has been longing for a long time, but there has never been a chance to travel here.Before the Anti-Japanese War, I happened to have the opportunity to go to Lanzhou, the provincial capital of Gansu, and Xining, the provincial capital of Qinghai. At that time, the winter was ninety-nine, and the ground was freezing and cold. Everyone would like to spend a comfortable year with family reunion at home. I take the opportunity that I can meet but can't ask for. Naturally, I happily pack up and go westward in spite of the cold.

According to the records of "Geography", there are more than 20 inland seas in Qinghai, and the sea water is so weak that goose feathers will sink to the bottom.There is a lake called "Xianshui" in ancient times, the Han people called it "Xihai", and the Mongolian and Tibetans called it "Kukunuoer". It is the first saltwater lake in China.Legend has it that in the Northern Wei Dynasty, the territory covered more than a thousand miles, and the surrounding area was more than 6,400 square kilometers. It is more than one-sixth of Taiwan's current area. It is so vast that it can be seen.This Kukunuoer Lake is never exhausted in winter and never in summer. It is majestic and vast, with green clouds like the sea, and more than 20 tributaries.Among them, the biggest mainstream is called "Buka River". In the river, there are towering and majestic mountains, surrounded by overlapping peaks, and there are two fairy mountains on the sea with towering peaks, steep walls and thousands of steep walls.The one on the east side is called Haixin Mountain. It is said that after the Tang Dynasty sealed off the river every year, famous horses, male and female, were herded on this island. Next year, there will be more horses and different horses. The world is known as the dragon species, so the island was renamed Longju Island. .On the west side is called Haixin Xishan, where there are a number of ascetic, latent, enlightened, and talented monks.Usually, because of the fertile mountain soil, rare fruits and trees, rare birds and animals, and endless resources, the vaults, rocks, and quxie do not invade each other, and the concrete guards by itself.Brother Li Shoumin, the master of Huanzhu, a famous martial arts novelist, wrote a detailed description of the immortals and chivalrous characters on Haixin Mountain. Most of the descriptions are based on his personal experience told by a Tibetan Qi refiner Gagong Nayantu. Although the story is bizarre , but not all fiction.

There is a kind of sturgeon in the Buka River. Some people say that the sturgeon is a kind of carp.The Songhua River in the Northeast, where Tongjiang County meets Heilongjiang, also produces beluga fish, and the nasal bones and spine of the Songhua River beluga fish are soft and crisp, which is very delicious, but when you taste it carefully, it is so fresh and tender that you can’t taste it. Compared with the sturgeon of the Buka River.For fish and shrimp, the texture of aquatic products like fish and shrimp, the lower the water temperature, the softer and fatter the texture. In winter, the lake is covered with snow and the ice is full of feet, which is the time when the sturgeon is the most fat and tender.

The Mongolian and Tibetan compatriots are not fond of fish and never catch fish, so the local Han people who fish for a living.They waited for more than a foot of ice to freeze on the lake, and used a sharp-pointed four-sided iron hook with a hook to connect the gun. The locals called it "ice piercing", and cut several large or small ice holes in the lake. Hang a few red lanterns, and you can go home and sleep with peace of mind.Stung in the bottom of the lake for a long time, the sturgeon fish felt uncomfortable under the frozen ice. Seeing the flickering lights and the red candle shadows, they naturally marched forward, leaping out of the ice abyss with waves and drums.The Mongolian and Tibetan people usually eat beef and mutton as their staple food. Therefore, except for a few Han people, almost no one catches fish and shrimps in the river on weekdays. Of course it's heavier.The local natives who cut ice to catch fish said that if you are lucky, the weather is clear and the northwest wind blows, there will be ten long sturgeons jumping up with the fish, and soon the ice cave will be full of big and small herrings. Frozen into a small fish mountain.

The characteristic of the sturgeon is that the lips are protruding, the bones are soft and the flesh is thin, and the head of the slightly larger sturgeon is full of fish fat and brain marrow. Compared with the braised silver carp heads we eat every day, it is more plump and sweet.These lakes and rivers are all called the sea by the locals. The world is deep and wide, and the grass is lush.It is said that there are several places where the seawater is particularly salty, and the water is dark blue, which is as eerie and terrifying as taking a sea boat from Tianjin to Shanghai and passing through the Heishuiyang sea.There are so many boats in the sea, the local salt merchants divert water to the shore, and use the water to sun-dry the salt; elsewhere, the sun-dried salt is mostly yellow and white, but the salt sun-dried in different parts of Qinghai Salt Lake is divided into four colors: green, red, black, white, and salt. Although the saltiness and freshness of the salt are roughly the same, But aquatic products are quite different.It is said that in areas where red and black salt can be produced, both fish and shrimp are particularly fresh, tender and plump. Because the author stayed here for a short time, I had no choice but to let it go.