Chapter 16 big shrimp

Colorful lobsters have been a trendy theme in eating and drinking in recent years, but being trendy doesn't mean they're usually too fresh to have a history.If you want to remember the old days of lobster, you have to flash back to the black and white era of lobster chips. Lobster Chips is not a movie about lobster, a nutritious oral tablet made of lobster, and it is not a sliced ​​​​lobster meat-in fact, the lobster chip has nothing to do with lobster at all.It is a product obtained by adding starch, monosodium glutamate and spices to the grouped fish or shrimp meat, steaming, cooling, slicing, and drying.According to today's law, it is believed that there are sufficient reasons to believe that it has constituted fraud at least in name.

In the era when there was no lobster or potato chips, lobster chips were a favorite snack for adults and children.Every time I see the sea-blue paper box and the two or three bright red lobsters on the paper box, I feel happy.The lobster slices poured out of the carton, the size of rice cake slices, looked like pieces of moldy dough due to long-term storage, or cracked nails on the fingertips of giant zombies.Just thrown into the frying pan, these "nails" immediately swelled like popcorn, turned white, and were stained with a layer of yellow-orange oil. Umami.Thinking about it now, this "fresh" taste is actually mostly the effect of MSG.

Lobster chips are not expensive per se, but their availability is limited, due to the distressing amount of oil necessary to fry lobster chips in a time of limited oil supply.Therefore, I always feel that the lobster chips fried at home are not as good as those in the store.During Chinese New Year and festivals, the food stores on the street will also set up frying pans at the door and sell them immediately. They line up for more than ten minutes in the cold wind, holding a paper bag of lobster slices in their hands, smelling them, Taking another look at the oozing oil on the paper, and feeling the heat gradually passing from the paper bag to the palm of my hand, I feel indescribably satisfied.

It will be many years later that the true life lobster will come out of the water and travel thousands of miles to China.However, I think the reason why lobster can become a representative of luxury food in the minds of some consumers is that the imagination inspired by lobster slices in childhood eating life should be indispensable. In other words, in a sense, it is fake lobster slices Opened up today's real lobster market. Lobster chips, or more simply "shrimp chips", are still available, but usually only as a side dish garnish for the main course, and no one touches them except for children under the age of seven. of.There is also a bagged shrimp chip in the supermarket, which looks very similar to a lobster chip, but it is a puffed shrimp chip. Compared with the deep-fried one, the calories and deliciousness are simultaneously reduced sharply, which is unspeakably disappointing.

If lobster slices are a romantic longing for lobsters, then the "crayfish" that is extremely popular in food stalls around the world is the deconstruction of lobsters.No matter in the era when there were lobsters or no lobsters, there was always a civilian substitute that was commensurate with lobsters. "Crayfish" is actually not the smallest lobster, nor does it belong to the parent-child relationship between Bush and "Bush Jr." "Crayfish", a crustacean river prawn, is a crayfish (Clark's shrimp) native to North America, also known as a stinging mantis. It was introduced to my country by the Japanese invaders during World War II. It looks like a lobster but is small and has not yet been put into the pot. , the casing has turned red. Of course, the "cray lobster" also has meat on its body, but the earthy smell is too heavy, and it cannot be suppressed without heavy color and ink splashing with spicy red oil.

The crux of the problem is that when Australian and Boston lobsters are listed at two to three hundred yuan a catty in restaurants, "cray lobsters" are only sold at twenty yuan a catty on that "ghost street" in Dongzhimen, Beijing. Or the exquisite white lobster slices are even more memorable.A lobster weighing more than three catties can be prepared in several different dishes in restaurants, such as raw food in the middle, stewed head and tail in soup or porridge. In fact, I often can't help but want to ask the minister who came to verify his identity with a lobster in his hand: Can you fry a small plate of lobster slices for me besides the "sashimi" in the middle section?

The delicacy of lobster lies in the fact that it has thicker and more meat than "shrimp" in the general sense. "Sheep are big and beautiful", and the pursuit of "shrimp" is not difficult to understand at all. Lobster is undoubtedly the largest type of shrimp. A fisherman once caught a "big mac" off the coast of Hainan Island. It weighed 15 kilograms, its tentacles were several feet long, and it was about the size of an adult dog.However, big is not absolute. On the contrary, it is precisely because of the "smallness" of "shrimp" in the general sense that it sets off the bigness of lobsters.But the question is, is the prawn necessarily better than the small one?

In my opinion, the meat quality of lobster is thicker, and in terms of fineness, it is far inferior to hemp shrimp and most seawater shrimps, even the cheaper giant river prawn.However, don’t forget that the reputation of lobster was originally obtained from the mouths of Westerners. Westerners’ food philosophy is the same as the aesthetics of the Tang Dynasty in my country. Everything regards “big” as beautiful, and small fish and shrimps have always been dismissive. Gu's. Therefore, lobster has become the shrimp that most conforms to Western aesthetic standards as a matter of course.

Under the strong influence of the West, Chinese people continue to abandon the tradition of loving "small fresh food". At least, few people paint shrimp like Qi Baishi now. Despite the succulence, the lobster has a unique pomp in the shrimp banquet, that is, the appearance is both good-looking and lively, which makes the hosts look good.For example, "lobster boat", the most popular way of eating, not only shows a brigantine on the table, the smoke created by the dry ice, but also the tentacles, legs and claws of the lobster are all stretched out arrogantly (Actually, it is because of dead stalks. However, because the lobsters that have been plucked cannot achieve this effect, they are usually sold at a discount), which looks very ostentatious.In my opinion, half of the added value of eating lobsters is reflected in this extended part of the lobster's limbs.

In addition, the majestic and ferocious appearance of the lobster also makes the person who eats it indirectly obtain a kind of exciting experience.I don’t know whether it’s for the fun of diners or because of cutting corners in writing. In most seafood restaurants, lobsters are no longer written as “lobsters” in their entirety, but are collectively referred to as “dragons”. Australian lobsters are “Australian dragons”. New Zealand's volcanic lobsters are "fire dragons", which somewhat alludes to "dragon meat".In fact, the word "lobster" should be interpreted as "the favorite shrimp of the heirs of the dragon" today, based on the consumption of lobster in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, which is the highest in the world.

If you are a believer in "eating meat in chunks", lobster is undoubtedly a delicacy that is worth the money.In addition to the pleasure of "eating meat", eating lobster is also a process full of fun. There are many ways to cook lobster that are popular in restaurants.Common ones include "baked lobster in soup", "steamed with minced garlic", and "baked French cheese", etc.Of course, the most popular way to eat Japanese "Sashimi".Its general approach is: Materials: One live lobster, one seafood boat, a pile of crushed ice, some dry ice, soy sauce, coriander, French incense, and Japanese wasabi. Production: remove the head of the lobster, remove the skin, wash and cut into thin slices; put dry ice on the bottom of the boat; crush the ice cubes and put them on the boat, spread the lobster meat slices on the ice, put them back into the tail, and surround them with coriander and French incense. When serving, pour boiling water over dry ice and serve. Although this way of eating can taste the freshness of the lobster to the maximum, the disadvantage is that the lobster must be large, and there is generally not much meat out of the lobster under three catties.However, the paradox is that, except for large lobsters, the meat of those over three catties must be thick. In addition, Hong Kong chefs have also developed "Steamed Lobster with Ginger Soy Milk", "Szechuan Spicy Baked Lobster", and "Crispy Milk Hosta Lobster Ball" (that is, a choy sum and a small piece of Jinhua ham stuffed into the lobster ball) ) and "sweet and sour plum steamed lobster", etc., in fact, these are heresy.In my opinion, the most primitive means are enough to deal with big or small lobsters.To put it bluntly, this method is a boiled word, a fresh lobster, throw it in boiling water (put some salt in the water, preferably sea salt, and the water in the pot must not be without the top of the lobster) and slowly cook "red" , Then pick it up and you can chew it as happily as you eat hairy crabs.As for seasoning, some people advocate using hot butter. I think it depends on the feeling and mood of the taste buds at that time.Sometimes, just dipping in a plate of soy sauce can also be eaten lively and fragrant, and the climax will come one after another. American funny poet Ogden Nash wrote during his lifetime: I found the essence of prophecy Buried in eternal clichés let's say you like lobster And the lobster doesn't like you In fact, not only does the lobster dislike you, but it will not let go of any chance to attack you.According to foreign reports, when the French woman Le Douleau was eating lobster with her friends at the famous Alf Celeste restaurant in Paris, she was accidentally "breasted" by the lobster-when she picked up the fork and put it on her plate When the lobster poked, the whole lobster slid out of the plate and flew straight to her chest, and the shrimp claws happened to clamp her left breast.The friend at the same table immediately went to help pull it, but the shrimp claws, who did not know whether it was dead or alive, were still firmly twisted, and it was only after several rounds of fighting that the shrimp claws were pried off.Yi Ren was not only in terrible pain, but also made a fool of himself. This matter involves two issues: First, eating lobster is the same as eating hairy crabs, and requires skills. Tuck the napkin into the neckline; 2. Twist off the lobster's claws with both hands, break its shell with lobster pliers, and take out the meat with lobster pliers; And continue to bend the tail of the lobster until the head and tail of the lobster are separated; 4. Then take out the most tender and juicy piece of meat of the lobster, don't hesitate!At this time, both hands are still omnipotent, and one hand grasps the back of the lobster tail, so that the back is facing down, so that the other hand can tear off the row of fin-like things at the bottom of the lobster; At the bottom of the lobster with "obstacles", carefully push out the whole piece of lobster meat from the front end, then you can use a knife and fork, and dip it in sauce to enjoy it at your leisure. Second, the chances of being bitten by a lobster are high.Because lobsters must be vigorous, dead lobsters cannot be sold at all.Lobsters from non-lobster production areas are all airlifted and anesthetized with drugs before shipment.Therefore, the lobsters we see in the seafood ponds of restaurants have actually been dead and alive.Therefore, such lobsters either give up on themselves and give up resistance, or go berserk and extremely "violent".However, once bitten by a lobster, in fact, as long as the bitten part is immersed in the water with the lobster, the danger can be saved.But for a case like Miss Le Douleau's, if you want to get out as soon as possible, you'd better find a swimming pool nearby and jump into it.