Chapter 9: Barely Eaten
River fish, especially the river fish in the north, are difficult to resist the taste of "fine leaf green onion", which is called "Zhai Zhai Miao" in Datong folk, and uses the juice of this wild vegetable to mix grain, and even better than sesame oil when making nests, and it is easy to gather fish.
However, in addition to the Xiamizhuang Reservoir in Datong area, there are not many fish in the river, and there are few opportunities to test this method.
As for the digging pit and laying stone nests planted with reed grass, it is a means to catch fish, the fish in the river will be attracted by the bait, and after entering the puddle, because the puddle has a certain depth, the fish in the pit will not flutter and escape, plus the bait is scattered in the reeds, the fish in the pit are looking for and devouring, it is easy to be entangled by the reeds, in this case, the fish often do not struggle.
Zhu Da has used the means of baiting and catching fish, but he never thought that there would be such a good effect, a big fish of nearly two feet, two more than a foot long, and four or five about half a foot, these fish have really not been caught, it is too easy to catch.
The three largest ones are grass carp, and the rest are carp and crucian carp, all of which are very tenacious, jumping on the river beach, and one of them is about to jump back into the river.
He added some hay and dead branches to the fire, and then washed the prepared flat stone in the river, dried it on the fire, and set it aside for later use, and then found a stone chip a few inches long by the river, which was washed by the river, and it was easy to find, and washed and dried.
Zhu Da took a few fish to the big stone by the river, and began to cut with this stone chip, peeling off the head and fins of the fish, removing the internal organs, pulling out the fishy tendons, and then hanging out the scales, this stone flake is not sharp enough, can only continue to increase the force, and the cutting is also adherent, he frowned while doing it, but he could only endure it.
Without suitable tools, the progress was naturally not fast, and Zhu Da's movements were not very skilled at first, but gradually accelerated, and a few fish still cleaned up, except for the fat part of the fish that was specially torn off and retained, and the others were put aside first.
The body of the fish that is removed from the head and tail and the internal organs is not complete, the stone chips are not knives, which naturally cause damage, and Zhu Da can't care about this, he washes and crushes a few wild vegetables he picks, and carefully smears and rubs the fish inside and out.
When Zhu Da did this, he was still puzzled in his heart, the harvest in Baibao Village could only make the villagers barely satisfied, which was still difficult for the Zhu family with a small population and a large number of people barely making a living, but on the one hand, it was not enough, and on the other hand, the development of food resources was seriously insufficient, no one caught the fish in the river, and no one paid attention to many edible wild vegetables outside the village.
However, Zhu Da remembered the allusion told by a friend during his travels, saying that the coastal areas of Shandong did not eat seafood for a long time in history, because the sea ban policy made people stay away from the sea, there was no fishery, and naturally there was no concept of eating seafood, I don't know if the situation in Datong is similar.
Zhu Da picked out some of the wild vegetables that had been applied to the fish, washed them, then placed the flat slate on the fire, first put the fat parts of the fish on them, then tore the wild vegetables and sprinkled them in, and mixed them together with stone chips.
Wild grass carp, carp and crucian carp are all extremely earthy, even if the head, scales, fins, etc. are removed, the degree of improvement is still limited, just the shore is already fishy, twelve-year-old Zhu Da was choked by this smell disgusting, relying on his heart to endure it.
When these wild vegetables are smeared, the fishy smell is gone a lot, the slate conducts heat very poorly, and the heating is also very slow, and the fat on it will not melt for a while and a half, taking advantage of this moment, Zhu Da will take all kinds of offal and miscellaneous pieces that he doesn't want to take to the river, tear them into small pieces as much as possible and put them under the reeds in the puddle, and use that small piece of cake to attract herbivorous fish, which may attract omnivorous or even carnivorous fish, which will taste better and have more oil.
After finishing this, the fish oil on the slate has melted, and the aroma of melting fat and the fishy smell of the fish itself are mixed together, which is not so good, in addition to these two smells, there is also a spicy aroma, which suppresses a lot of fishy smell.
Zhu Da burned the straight dead branches he picked up on the fire, skewered the fish, and began to fry on the stone slab, when both sides were soaked in fish oil, then go to the fire to roast, and so on, if it is done by raw hands, the fish is easy to bake and paste, if it is a layman to do this, the fish is now fishy and there is no way to eat, he is now very rusty but experienced, and he starts a fish to fry and grill a little mush, but it is still cooked.
In those more than 20 years of life, Zhu Da would throw away such a fish directly, but now he can't be picky, or even hot, and eat it clean one bite at a time, fortunately, he must pay attention to the fish bones, otherwise he will gobble it up immediately.
It has been treated as much as possible, the fish is not so fishy, wild onions, wild leeks and wild garlic These wild vegetables have the effect of suppressing the fishy smell and increasing the spicy aroma, but the effect is limited, and the wild vegetables are of course inferior to the original onions, ginger and garlic. And the most important thing about this fish is that there is no salt.
If you want to make it delicious, you need salt, soy sauce, etc., but to ensure basic seasoning, you must have salt, which is the source of all deliciousness, but Zhu Da does not have it, salt is expensive, and Zhu's family is very economical, that is, Zhu Da only added more when he got sick, and as soon as he got better, it immediately became lighter, so the taste of this grilled fish is not very delicious, and the fish itself has umami, but it also has a mushy smell and fishy smell.
But at this time, Zhu Da didn't pay attention to this at all, since he woke up, except for eating eggs in the days of recuperation, he has not supplemented any protein, and he can only eat enough grains every day.
The first fish is a practice, and the next few are becoming more and more proficient, melting the fish oil, adding spicy wild vegetables, and then repeatedly frying and grilling the fish until it is fully cooked, Zhu Da does not dare to make a half-cooked for the sake of fresh taste, God knows what germs and parasites there are.
After eating four fish in a row, Zhu Da was full, he didn't stop, and finished baking the remaining three, Zhu Da left the largest three without eating, and he was going to take them back to his family.
Eating full and hungry is not the same, eating grains and eating fish and meat is not the same, and has been on the edge of the fire, Zhu Da is warm all over, at this time he feels full of strength, but at this time it is too late to exercise, because the sun is already in the west, digging a pit to catch fish and then frying and roasting the fish, from beginning to end is empty-handed, using local materials, and spending a lot of time.
Zhu Da went to look at the puddle again, and found that two palm-sized small fish went in, directly caught them and cleaned them up simply, scraped the scales and removed the internal organs, and then wrapped them with the remaining wild vegetables, and threw them directly into the fire, the fire had been extinguished, covered with ashes, and pushed the hot stones together, and they would definitely be cooked tomorrow.
At this time, Zhu Da's heart was full of a sense of achievement, and the originally depressed and confused mood was also swept away, it was funny to say, if you want to survive in this era of cannibalism, you have to learn martial arts, if you want to learn martial arts, you must have a strong body, if you want to be strong, you have to eat well, today the most basic conditions have been solved, he looked at the free fish in the river, and his mood became better, these fish can be used for a long time.
The sun has not yet set, but Zhu Da knows that he has to go back, and if he goes back a little later, his parents are afraid that they will come outside to find someone, before leaving, he rubbed the ashes on the three grilled fish, and at first glance he couldn't see anything, although fishing for fish and grilling fish is a trivial matter, but for this conservative and closed small mountain village, it is always good to be less noticed, so as not to give birth to right and wrong.
Walking on the road in the field, being sprinkled all over his body by the afterglow of the setting sun, Zhu Da was in a good mood and wanted to fly, and couldn't help humming a little song, there were few people in the field, no one noticed him at all, and it seemed that it was in vain to wipe the ashes on the fish.
The reason why I went back to rest for dinner so early is because everyone is reluctant to light oil lamps, let alone some wax, so that they can save a little bit, take advantage of the light of day to clean up and cook, everyone goes to bed early when it gets dark, and gets up early tomorrow to be busy.
When there were more than 100 steps from the entrance of the village, Zhu Da saw his parents, and his parents also saw him, but he hadn't reacted yet, his parents had already run towards him, Zhu Da didn't know what was going on for a while, but he heard someone shouting in the field: "Zhang Da, your sheep have gone to the mountains again?" ”
“...... The land lord blesses, but don't lose it......" Listening to the shouting in his ears, his parents had already arrived, only to see his father Zhu Shishi's face full of anger, raised his hand to fight but hesitated, and said angrily: "You rabbit cub, if you don't let you learn martial arts, you have to run, where are you so bold!" ”
Zhu Da was stunned for a moment, but at this moment, his mother Zhu Wangshi rushed up and hugged him, only then did he see clearly in the backlight, and only then did Zhu Da find that his mother had cried, Zhu Wangshi hugged Zhu Da tightly, sobbed and said: "Xiaoda, do you want to scare your mother to death?" If you want to learn martial arts, go and learn, our family will help you find a master, don't go home! ”
Speaking of this, Zhu Da reacted to what happened, daring to love his parents thinking that he was angry and ran away from home, looking at his father who was hiding his concern under his anger, and feeling the love contained in his mother's embrace, Zhu Da was first moved, and then laughed dumbly, he has been very rational and adult in dealing with his parents since he woke up, but he forgot that children and children can be tricky, coquettish and even coerced.
Seeing Zhu Da's smile, his father Zhu Shishi was completely angry, pointed at Zhu Da's nose and shouted: "You still have a smile, it's your mother who spoiled you, ...... today and today" Although the words were ruthless, the hand never fell,
"Dad, mother, I'm not trying to run, you guys are so good, how can I run."
“...... Next time you do this, Lao Tzu will definitely beat you! ”
"Dad, mother, let's go home and eat fish!"