Although fugu cuisine has become one of the signatures of Toei sashimi in modern times, the history of eating fugu in China is even longer.

It is recorded in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" that everyone knows: Dunshui flows out of Yan, and flows eastward into the water of Yanmen. The fish kills by eating. This one?? The fish refers to the pufferfish.

The Yuan Dynasty's "Dropout Record" also recorded: catfish, pufferfish. The back is green and the belly is white, and when it touches things, it is angry, and its liver kills. The physical characteristics and highly poisonous parts of the puffer fish are clearly explained.

Cooking puffer fish is not the preserve of modern people, and the ancients have studied puffer fish in depth. It is also said in the ninth volume of "Dropout Record": The saltiness of water intersects to produce pufferfish. There are no scales and cheeks, and they are often full of anger. The shape is very elegant, but the taste is excellent. If it is not well cooked, it can kill.

However, it is the poetry of those literati who really make the beauty of puffer fish famous through the ages. Among them, the most popular is the Dongpo monk who has poetry, words, literature, calligraphy and painting.

His "Spring River Dawn": "Three or two peach blossoms outside the bamboo, the prophet of the plumbing duck in the spring river." Artemisia is full of short reed buds, which is the time when the puffer fish wants to eat. "It's all about the beauty and food of a place.

In his other poem "The First Eclipse of Lychee on April 11th", there is also a sentence "It is like a river ray cutting jade pillars, and washing puffer fish to cook belly", which reflects his full-level foodie attributes.

Dongying people have admired Chinese culture since ancient times, and they also highly respected Su Xian's poems, so eating puffer fish has also become an elegant thing for a time.

In fact, the little puffer fish has repeatedly appeared on the stage of history in Dongying and has become a key supporting role in some major historical events.

During the Warring States period of Dongying, there was a man who was nicknamed "monkey" because of his recognizable body type, and he successfully mastered the supreme power of Dongying in a counterattack.

But after conquering the world, he found that he did not have enough land in his hands to reward the generals who had made great achievements. At that time, there was no such effective weapon as the "agrarian revolution", and of course, even if the traverser told him, he didn't have the courage to kill the foundation of his life.

In line with the idea that "problems that cannot be solved by oneself must be lost to others", he launched a long-planned war of aggression on a huge scale, and sent troops to invade Goguryeo.

At that time, he gathered samurai from all over the country, but the military rations he had on hand were not enough, and the battle had not yet been fought.

In those years, the main reason for being a soldier and fighting was to be able to eat, and if there was no food, everyone had to find their own way. It happened that the vicinity where the armies had gathered was rich in fish. As a world-famous "fish-eating nation", what else is there to say when you come to the seafood production area hungry.

Eat, brethren!

The most delicious catch they ate was pufferfish, but at that time, there was no Food Supervision Bureau, and there were many unlicensed chefs all over the place, so a large number of samurai and soldiers were eaten to death.

Due to the non-standard handling methods of puffer fish at that time, and the effect of puffer fish poison was slightly different due to the different tolerances of different people. It magically appeared, everyone ate puffer fish together, some people didn't even eat a few bowls of anything and still looked ruddy, and some people ate such a small plate and immediately "became a puppet".

At that time, there were already formed firearms units (iron cannons), so everyone regarded eating puffer fish as charging at iron cannons, and it was all up to luck. If you're lucky, you can sing a haiku "Oh, it's okay, last night passed peacefully, and I can enjoy the puffer fish soup."

If you are unlucky, it is no different from being hit by an iron cannon, and you will die as soon as you are hit (at that time, iron cannons used lead bullets, and even if you didn't die on the spot, you would die of lead poisoning). As a result, the puffer fish sashimi also has a powerful nickname, called iron cannon sashimi.

Of course, when the "monkey" overlord heard about it, he was so angry that he yelled: "If you want to die, you will die in Goguryeo!" A ban was issued against the samurai to eat pufferfish.

Although this ban has been in place for a long time, it may be that the puffer fish is too tasty, so it has not been implemented well.

In modern times, when the first prime minister of Toei was passing by the fugu production area, a local restaurant called "Chunfan Building" served him a fugu dish. After eating it, it is said that he was amazed by the deliciousness of the puffer fish and immediately ordered the ban to be lifted.

There is actually a deeper meaning behind his move. For Dongying, at that time, all the hope of getting out of his own predicament was pinned on foreign aggression, the risk of war was huge, but the profit was more, just like the puffer fish cuisine, although it was highly poisonous, it was delicious, and he had to try it desperately.

Seven years later, after defeating the Chinese government at the time, Dongying set the place where the indemnity treaty was signed at the "Chunfan Building", and also served the puffer fish dish to the Chinese prime minister who came to negotiate.

For the former prime minister, the treaty he signed for the land cession and reparations was puffer fish meat, which seemed delicious but implied to be highly poisonous.

It is precisely because of the legend of the puffer fish that it is fortunate to be able to eat an authentic puffer fish feast in Toei.

Tang Yunfei spent most of his six years in Dongying learning how to make sashimi, and the production of puffer fish sashimi is the most important of them.

Regular fugu meals are usually eaten one by one according to kaiseki-like rules such as "first pay" and "eight inches".

However, due to the limitations of today's assessment form, Tang Yunfei could not present the entire set of puffer fish meals, so he made five food boxes containing the core flavors of the puffer fish meal.

According to traditional practice, chefs must try the food in advance to show that it is not toxic. Without hesitation, Tang Yunfei took a piece of puffer fish meat left over from the plating and put it into his snack plate, and then dipped it in orange vinegar and chewed it carefully in front of all the judges and examiners.

Seeing the mysterious smile that Tang Yunfei showed when he closed his eyes after eating, before the other examiners could say anything, the sound of the No. 3 examiner swallowing saliva came from the speaker.

Examiner No. 5 snorted disdainfully, while examiner No. 4 asked curiously, "Is this really that delicious?" ”

Examiner No. 3 laughed embarrassedly twice to hide his embarrassment, and then answered No. 4's question while staring at the food plate under the camera:

"Whether it's delicious or not depends on people, people who know how to appreciate it, this is the best taste in the world, and people who don't understand it will feel like that. However, today's meal is a wild tiger pufferfish, so even those who have never eaten it before should be able to appreciate the deliciousness. ”

"Hmph, it's just sashimi, and it's amazing." The fifth examiner directly shook off a sentence.

The third examiner sneered and replied:

"Don't be in a hurry to assert that there is a famous haiku in Toei who was also shunned by fugu at first, but when he ate it when he was 50 years old, he immediately called it 'Fuji Mountain'. It means, 'Whoever doesn't eat fugu must not let him see the beauty of Fugaku.' The other layer is: uneducated people are not qualified to appreciate art. ”

Tang Yunfei opened his eyes and said loudly:

"Coincidentally, the fugu dish I served to the judges today is called 'Fuji Mountain'."