When autumn is clear and cool, it is the season for the cinnamon and crabs in the south of the Yangtze River to be fat. At this time, you will deeply understand the benefits of growing by the Yangtze River.

The crab legs are hairy and cannot withstand the autumn wind. When the autumn wind sounds, the crabs in all waters immediately receive instructions and hurry up to the sea along the river. The sky is flowing clouds, the chrysanthemums are yellow, and the crabs are fat. Holding their claws and floating the cups on the big white are truly a pleasure in the world. The golden shield hairy crab, one of the "Three Fresh Fresh Yangtze River", is famous for its yellow, heavy oil and huge shape. This is a wild and long river crab, which is definitely even better than the Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs that wear rings today.

The crabs are very indecent in appearance. They stare at the eyes of cicadas, spit out foam all over their mouths, and their long legs are erect, and they are often tall and open like clamps and cut. Shen Kuo recorded in "Mengxi Bitan": "There are no crabs in Guanzhong. In Shaanxi, I heard that people in Qinzhou collected a dry crab. The natives feared their shape and thought it was a monster. Everyone who had malaria in their houses borrowed them to hang them on the door, and they often suffered from it.

Not only do people not recognize it, but also ghosts not recognize it." This is because people in Shaanxi do not recognize it, and they live up to their stomachs without eating crabs, and mistakenly regard delicious beauties as evil spirits to drive away diseases and devils. However, in my hometown, drinking and rock-scissors often have to warm up the crabs and wine, and everyone slapped their sleeves and high-highs: "One crab, eight legs, two big claws are pinched..." Before the wine could enter the intestines, the majestic momentum came out.

In the early years, there were so many crabs in rivers, lakes and lakes. When the west wind blew, the crabs would climb everywhere. Especially in foggy mornings, the crabs climbed to the edge of the river, into the rice fields, under the fence, sprayed a bunch of white foam, and stepped on one under their feet without any attention. I remember that once, I let old ducks spend the night on the river beach. Because I was afraid of the harm of wild animals, I lit the lanterns all night long and hung them above the duck shed. When it was dawn, the ducks were quarreled and loudly. When I got up, I saw that a corner of the open space in the duck pen was densely filled with crabs!

When I was a child, I pulled the pure beans from the fields in autumn, and the crab nets from other places came. The nets were usually two, about ten meters long and more than half a meter wide, and two thick bamboo poles were supported. A simple shed was built on the river bank, a horse lantern illuminating, and the lights on both sides were all from the crab nets. Under the starlight, the river water flowed quietly. The upper and lower lines of the net were pulled sharply, and the crabs touched the net. The net was closed, oh, what a big two crabs!

It was so itchy that we chose a flat beach nearby, dragged straw, rubbed a few thick straw ropes, tied a brick at one end, threw it into the center of the river, and pressed it under a big rock at the other end. Turn on the flashlight, stared at the water surface with wide eyes, and saw a series of fine bubbles coming out from the bottom of the river...

The straw rope moved, and a crab climbed up the straw rope. As soon as it hit the ground, it excitedly danced two big claws against the flashlight column. After a moment of notice, eight legs crawled horizontally and quickly. Later, some people didn't know where to learn the trick, and used a half-charred straw rope to block it into the river. It was strange. When the light shone, the crabs smelled the smell and crawled them one after another, gathered the straw rope, and then caught them.

When catching crabs, use your index finger and thumb to press the sides of the crab's back shell so that its double claws cannot be used. You cannot directly grasp the crab's legs and claws, otherwise the crab will cut and escape by itself. The back shell is black and green with bright light, and the belly button is protruding, so the flesh must be thick and strong; while the back shell is yellow, it is undoubtedly a thin crab.

"In September, the navel is pointed in October" means eating female crabs in September, and eating male crabs in October. On the dining table, when you drink wine for a certain time, you will get a crab. If you go through the crab's private parts one by one, it will be unsightly. In fact, just one glance will make you look at the male crab claws, and the female crab claws are small, so you will never be wrong. But even if you eat the wrong male and female crab, although the male crab has little yellow paste, the fat is thick and the claws are full. The beauty of the crab lies in the meat, so why should you focus on the navel?

If you are really enthusiastic and must choose the best crab to the venerable, then I will teach you the trick: First, the chest is bulging, the more bulging the flesh becomes, the more plump the flesh; second, look at the connection between the crab cover and the bottom of the crab, the bigger the distance, the more plump it is, because the cream is bloated inside. More than ten years ago, my colleague Ma Jun and I were taken to Fanchang New Port by a car and ate a real wild river crab. One of them is six or seven taels. The cream is yellow as big as an egg, so hard that the chopsticks can't even poke it!

Crabs are usually eaten steamed, but the heat is difficult to control. If the time is short, the paste will not solidify. If the time is long, the crab meat will harden and the fragrance will decrease sharply. In fact, heat a small bowl of water, add pepper, salt, ginger, and rice wine, and then put it into the bundled crabs. Cook them in medium heat for about fifteen minutes. The crab body will turn red and the fragrance will overflow. Because of the sufficient moisture, the meat will be tender, the paste will be tightened and the fragrance will be strong. But once I ate crabs, an old man in the seat passed on my experience, and first smoked the live crabs with vinegar, and then put them in a pot to steam them, which will have a unique taste.

When eating crabs, you should be hot, and when it is cold, it will smell fishy. First, solve the eight legs, then remove the cover and taste the fat, then open the crab body and eat it horizontally, and finally eat the claws. This will not burn the mouth and always keep it warm. The crab claws are hard, and can be crushed with pincers to avoid damage to the teeth. Often, people chew the meat and shells, and even the crab beards, "crab monk" - the stomach bag of the crab, are also chewed into their mouths.

Liang Shiqiu's "Yashe Talks about Eating" talks about eating crabs in Zhengyang Tower, Peking. Each person gave a small boxwood hammer, knocking and hitting, thinking that it was a kind of exquisiteness. The deceased gourmet Lu Wenfu once boasted with the characters in his writing that Suzhou people eat crabs, and there are as many tools as 8864.

In the early years, some people used "eight pieces of crab" to eat crabs, which were small silver items. They were used for hooks and knocking and clamping, and they could not damage the crab shell. There were rumors that there were experts, and the meat was eaten all over, and the shell could still be spelled out whole crabs. However, usually crab eaters could only rely on ten fingers and a pair of sharp teeth, and they could also eat them in sequence to make up and down: eating legs is the overture, and eating covers is like getting better gradually, eating ointment is the climax, and finally eating claws is the end of the song, and the sound is lingering. There are many specialties in eating crabs. After each meal, peel off the dura mater at the joints of the crab legs and put them into a butterfly pattern and stick them on the wall.

Crabs are cold in nature and can easily damage the stomach. After eating, drink sugar ginger tea to relieve it. After eating crabs, the fishy smell of the mouth does not go away for a long time. You can chew tea leaves or rinse a few mouthfuls of tea. You can also wipe coriander leaves or wash the tea water with your hands. In "Dream of the Red Chamber", Lin Daiyu praised: The squeezing sealed jade is full, and the shell is full of red fat and fragrant. Jia Baoyu said: Holding the squeezing prefers the coolness of osmanthus, splashing vinegar and ginger to be crazy.

Even Feng Jie ordered the little girls to take the mung beans smoked from the chrysanthemum leaves and osmanthus stamens, and prepare to wash their hands after eating. This is a good start and end. But I ate crabs in Nanning, Guangxi a few days ago. After the banquet, I held my hands and asked the waitress for coriander water to wash, but the other party shook his head and didn't understand.
Chapter completed!