Chirping snails, an important symbol of Quanzhou food culture

Screw is an ancient gastropods, the world's snails have more than 40,000 species, snail meat tender and flavorful, known as the "pearl in the plate" of the name, coastal people especially like.

But the snail has parasites, so the snail for cooking fire requirements are very high, cooking is not cooked, insects can not kill, cooking is too cooked, the snail's meat is old, the lack of the snail itself is delicious.

Screws are very troublesome to deal with, especially chirp screws, very small, you have to keep scrubbing, shaking, change the water, and so on several times to wash clean, and then use a pair of scissors to slowly one by one to the snail to cut the tail, this is a grinding work, time-consuming and laborious, but the result is delicious and very worthwhile.

Chirp snail is one of the most inconspicuous of the more than 40,000 species of snails, is a close relative of the black snail, the body is very small, tapered. This snail grows in the seawater salty and light, Quanzhou's mudflats a lot, Quanzhou people like.

"Chirp" is an onomatopoeia, simulating the sound of people sucking the flesh of this small snail, people in Quanzhou is very imaginatively called "chirp snail".

This also shows that people in Quanzhou this snail favorite, there are special nicknames.

As the chirp snail is very troublesome to deal with, the rhythm of life of modern people is very fast, will not be fine for a plate of chirp snail and spend the morning time.

And the other snails? It is really difficult to master the fire, want to taste good, tender meat, not careful will even parasites together into the stomach, and overcooked, meat old inviting people to dislike, but also a waste of a plate of delicious.

Not an old driver, generally not easily at home to cook a plate of snails.

But the snail is all the interest of my childhood. There was no red tide, the sea was not polluted, the snail was a pure animal, a delicacy on our plate.

My father loved snails, and at that time, they were cheap, so we had chirp snails, flower snails, king snails, iron nail snails, and so on, as our daily dishes.

Grandma is a master of cooking snails, snails in her hands, will be very delicious, grandma only control the fire, do not need any seasoning, a plate of snails out of the pot, with the mouth to suck out the snail meat, or with a paper clip to pick out the snail meat, dipped in soy sauce and vinegar, so simple, tender and flavorful meat.

All the snail shells are our decorations and toys. The small chirp snail can be strung into a necklace by a bunch of us little girls, and the big conch is made into a horn by our brothers, and as long as the horn is sounded, our brothers will charm a group of younger siblings with their proud postures.

That all became memories, nowhere to find.

In the 70s and 80s, Zhongshan Road, East and West Streets, there are a lot of small and large screw stalls, West Street, in front of the theater screw Zai Fen is just one of them, these only night stalls screw stalls like stalls, comfort the stomach of people in Quanzhou at night.

Quanzhou is a very lively city, the night life has never been broken, when I lived in Zhongshan Road in the street in the old house, the night of the whole street stalls are very lively, from time to time will wake me up in my sleep.

No one would complain about the street noise, because that is life, that is part of Quanzhou.

I often hear workers off the night shift to eat a bowl of noodle thread paste discussion, can also hear a cup of old wine on a plate of small black snail chirping sound, chirping the end of the snail shells spilled all over the place, the boss side of the sweeping side of the sound of moving chairs, the most woke up by the noise is to drink hemp wine fight, bottles fell to the ground, chasing each other to grab ......

Zhongshan Road, the old wooden windows out of a confused head, hazy look at everything in front of them, see strange, quietly waiting for the public security to arrest.

I was in the middle of the road, screws in the West Street, roughly the same situation.

I have long been out of the Middle Road, but Luo Zifen is still in the West Street, I can imagine that these decades of experience, Luo Zifen how strong.

In addition to the admirable perseverance, what makes a restaurant like Lo Chai Fan a classic Quanzhou restaurant and its legacy is the flavor that penetrates into the taste buds of the people of Quanzhou.

The people of Quanzhou are fond of peanut butter, and if you want to have peanut butter on your noodles, you must have it on your snails. When I was a child, my grandmother's chirp snail is clear snail, that is, white burnt snail, and snail boy stall chirp snail is fragrant snail, the reason why fragrant, with a flavor seasoning is peanut sauce.

Not any peanut butter can be strong aroma, can attract the taste of local gourmets in Quanzhou, is bound to Quanzhou local button child beans ground into peanut butter, button child beans is a variety of peanuts, small grains, smashed into peanut oil or ground into peanut butter, Quanzhou unique flavor.

To achieve a dish of delicious chirp snail, in addition to the authentic peanut sauce, there is also shake snail craft.

Chirp snail in the big teeth jar shake, keep shaking, so that the snail meat and peanut sauce and other seasonings fully integrated, which is a bit like the operation of the bartender, all depends on the craftsman's efforts, which is the chirp snail can not become a classic elements.

Many people say that so-and-so now have no flavor of childhood, which is not only nostalgia, some really less flavor of childhood.

Such as snail Zifen Jojo snail, really use button peanut butter? I do not think so, and that in the big teeth jar shaking snail craft has also been replaced by machines, no Fen master shaking snail temperature, there is less interest in eating chirp snail.

However, the West Street chirp snail is still hot, there is the former planted trees, the next generation of cool factors, but also in the traditional basis of continuous innovation, continuous improvement, continuous and the results of the times.

Screw Zifen more and more varieties, craftsmanship is also becoming more mature, in order to cater to new generations, screw Zifen does not stick to the past, the old store for a new look, chirp screw can also do a very hip.

The chirping snails of the West Street snails, as an important symbol of Quanzhou's food culture, have set an example.

Quanzhou has a lot of very good taste of the old store is not under the efforts to improve, so that guests either hate the service attitude is not good, or poor hygiene, and the development of more and more advanced modern life contrary to slowly, even if the taste of the awesome will be eliminated.

I do not want to see the day, Quanzhou many food culture can only be found in the memory, become a hidden flavor from memory.