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Text|Huang Muqiu.
Because it is a water town, Huzhou's winter is particularly wet and cold, but it is precisely because it is a water town that there is a bumper harvest of fish ponds and the joy of no fish.
When the fish pond is harvested in winter, we are most reluctant to miss the activity of rushing to Linghu Town to watch a lively fishing net and taste a freshly baked fish soup and rice.
As the "freshwater fish capital of China", Linghu Lake, once known as Lingbo Pond, is located in Nanxun District. According to records, the ancient town of Linghu was founded in the Tang Dynasty and has a history of 1190 years. It is abundant with silk and prosperous with fishing. The history of fish farming in Linghu Lake can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, creating the world's earliest ecological cycle aquaculture model - mulberry fish pond.
It is not easy to pull the net to fish, it requires several people to wear rubber jumpsuits to go down to the fish pond where half of the water is pumped, and slowly retract and pull up the fishing nets, and hundreds or even thousands of pounds of fish are jumping around in the nets, which is spectacular.
This is very different from what I remember when I watched my uncle help his neighbors catch fish. Fishing in such small ponds does not require a net at all, and the water is almost drained by a pump, and the fish are fluttering in the shallow cement pit at the bottom of the pond. At that time, my cousin and I, as well as the children in the neighborhood, liked to squat on the shore and watch the adults wear galoshes and go down to the fish pond, bending down to pick up one big white fish after another. At the end of the day, the owner of the pond would give us an oversized fish, my cousin would hold the head, and I would hold the tail, carrying the big fish all the way, like a fisherman returning with a full load. Halfway through, the fish writhed and struggled, and I was so frightened by the feeling that a slippery life in my hand was desperately trying to escape, so I let go and screamed, and my cousin also took it off, and we watched together as the fish struggled to move on the ground. In the end, it was my uncle who came, caught the fish with one hand, and woke us up helplessly with the other.
The fish soup rice is made with freshly caught herring cut into pieces and boiled in a large iron pot on an earthen stove. In fact, the children in Huzhou grew up eating all kinds of freshwater fish, and they have long remembered the taste of fish in the depths of their taste buds, and they are very picky. However, the most ancient fish dish, the fish soup with rich sauce and aroma, still makes us have an appetite. A pot of steaming braised fish soup is served on the table, first sandwich a piece of fish, with the soup in the mouth, the fish is delicious and tender, and melts with a light sip. After tasting the fish, it is time for the essence of the fish soup with rice.
"First take out the big fish bones, pour the fish broth, pick out the remaining small thorns inside, and then mix the rice and soup well, so that every grain of rice is wrapped in the soup." My son followed my demonstration, mixed the rice, tried a mouthful and nodded vigorously, and then devoured it.
In addition to fish soup and rice, there are also a variety of fish products, on the basis of traditional fish dishes, Huzhou people's love for fish to the extreme, the fish meat into minced fish, fish balls, fish rolls ......The various categories gradually formed the later Huzhou Hundred Fish Feast. In order to celebrate the harvest of fish ponds in winter, the fish soup and rice customs activities are not only in Linghu Town, but also in Digang in Nanxun, Xiazhu Lake in Deqing and other places.
Ogiko also features traditional fish soup and rice, and has set up a "fish culture festival", which has been held for more than 10 consecutive sessions. The fish soup and rice in Xiazhu Lake have been passed down to this day, and it is no longer a simple fish soup rice, but a theme that has been integrated into the lives of the villagers.
Because it is a water town, Huzhou's winter is particularly wet and cold, but it is precisely because it is a water town that there is a bumper harvest of fish ponds and the joy of no fish. Therefore, come to Huzhou to eat fish, just like the old gluttonous Su Dongpo, before he arrived in Huzhou, he was already "Wu Er's wisps are thin and want to fly, and he didn't go to say gluttony first".
Get a glimpse of the beautiful China in the blessed land of Huzhou, and read your inner self on the south bank of Taihu Lake.
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This article was published in the early December 2023 issue of Xiaokang.