Chapter 27 Yanghua rolls and eats new cockles

When I was drinking old wine in Gaochangxing, Shanghai, I liked to ask a customer to drink clams. His clams were not only washed clean, but also the ginger was finely rubbed, the pepper was spicy and even, and the soy sauce was top-grade autumn soy sauce. It can be said that it tastes the beauty of the southeast. When I came to Taiwan, I would drink a few cups with my friends from Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the city hall. When I mentioned the cockles that go with the wine, I often thought of sea bass in water shield soup.Because everyone has heard that some clams in Taiwan are semi-artificially farmed. If you encounter schistosomiasis by chance, it will have a great impact on your health, so no one dares to try it lightly.

Clam is a kind of shellfish that grows in the shallow sea near the coast. Its appearance is characterized by neat and radial grooves, so it is also called "corrugated" (the shell can be used as medicine).Clams are produced from Hangzhou Bay to Dachen Island, and it is said that Ningbo clams are the most tender and plump.The cockles sold in the Shanghai Shaoning Pavilion are all said to come from Ningbo. The old gourmets can tell whether they are Ningbo cockles at a glance. It is said that the corrugated shells of all the cockles produced in Ningbo are no more, no less, exactly ten. Eight, if it is a counterfeit product, the number of corrugated strips may be more or less.

Clams can be roughly divided into three types, namely kuai clams, hairy clams and mud clams.Among them, the kuai clam is the largest, with the largest being four inches, almost bigger than the big green clam. It is said that it is a special product in eastern Zhejiang, and it is also cultivated semi-artificially.Later, Sun Shiyi from Putian, Fujian learned a set of farming methods, and opened up a cockle field in the East China Sea of ​​Putian, covering more than a hundred hectares. His cockles were later sold to the Nanyang area, where they were very popular, and he became rich from then on.Eating cockles at food stalls is still a must-try item for tourists in Singapore!

The clam is moderate in size, with a dark brown shell, not very obvious corrugation, with downy hairs, which are difficult to remove. Although it is not beautiful, it is very fresh and tender.A long-haired clam is produced in Zhennanpu Haikou near Pyongyang, North Korea. According to Kong Bohua, a Chinese medicine doctor, "this long-haired clam is a treasure among cockles. Women with blood deficiency and blood collapse take this long-haired clam stewed with angelica. After taking it, it can stop collapse and benefit blood. It has a rapid effect. It's a pity that this kind of long-haired clam is extremely rare, and those who have this kind of disease are mostly in a hurry.Back then, only Mrs. Chen Zengshou, a poet, suddenly suffered from a blood collapse. Coincidentally, a Korean friend gave her a basket of long-haired cockles from Nanpu Town.This case is included in Kong Bohua's "Unknown Records of Unknown Huts", and it will definitely not be faked.Later, Beiping Tianyitang bought a pond in Yuyuantan to raise long-haired cockles. For those suffering from collapse, the doctor introduced Tianyitang to get medicine because he had long-haired cockles in his family.

Mud cockles are the smallest in size, with a shell length of only four to five centimeters. Because it likes to drill in the mud and sand on the seabed to absorb microorganisms and decaying plants in the mud for nutrition, so the shell contains a lot of sand, so it must be kept in clean water for two days, etc. It spits out the silt before cooking.At that time, Wang Xiaolai, a famous Shanghainese, liked to eat cockles the most. He said that porridge is suitable for eating.He has many sons and daughters, and he often jokes with people that this is the result of his eating more clams.Although it is a joke, the nutritional content of cockles is indeed very high!

Cockles are produced along the coast of South China, and a kind of silver cockle is produced in Chiwan, Chaozhou, Guangdong. It has a white appearance and more tender meat. You can eat silver cockles in larger restaurants in Hong Kong.There is a kind of blood cockle produced in Silescha, Thailand. Its volume is between that of the cockle and the hairy cockle. The meat is full of fat and blood.Anyone who goes to Pattaya for a seaside vacation, passes by the small restaurant of Xiqinchai, stops at Zhiwei, and asks a customer to drink two glasses of Thai brandy before moving on.The blood cockles of his family are supplied by fishermen every day. They are all spit out sand. The method is very simple. Wash the cockles, put them in a bamboo dustpan, put them on the basin, pour boiling water on them, and the cockle shells will open slightly. Yujia ginger, pepper, and squeeze a few drops of lemon juice, the blood is still bright red, peel and eat immediately, it is really delicious.This is the same as the drunken cockles that people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang love to eat. They are marinated in old wine and eaten with a little fermented soybeans. It can be said to have a different flavor and is unique.

Clams are abundant in the Chaoshan area of ​​Guangdong, so Chaozhou restaurants have a variety of cooking methods for clams.They simmer vermicelli and crab meat soup in a clay pot, then spread blood cockles, and when the pot is hot, not only are the vermicelli fragrant and plump, but the blood cockles are white and red, and Qiongyao is delicious. They are addicted to seafood and have eaten Chaozhou Live People who love clams, when they mention this dish, they probably think of clams soup with sea bass! There is a food and nutrition testing team at Bangkok Christian Hospital in Thailand. According to them: "Clam meat contains 16% crab white matter, a small amount of fat, sugar, and vitamin AB. It is sweet, salty and warm in nature. , relieving annoyance and sobering up, breaking knots, reducing phlegm and other effects.” This coincides with the saying of traditional Chinese medicine.Only people with severe heat and humidity should not eat more.There are a lot of oysters in Taiwan, but there are few clams and they are not fat enough. My old friend Xu Zhujun lives in Haining and has been used to drinking clams since he was a snack. He dare not eat Taiwan clams. He will go to Hong Kong once a month, half for business and half for food. Clams satisfy hunger, so friends gave him the nickname King Clam King, and he accepted it without hesitation.

Now the flowers are rolling, and it's time to eat fat cockles in the mainland.Recalling the scenes of betting on old wine and eating drunk cockles in several hotels in Shanghai, it is vivid now, but it is already half a century ago.