Golden Fishing Village

As the saying goes, a rich man in a remote mountain has distant relatives.

Seeing Ao Muyang asking for white shrimps, other villagers who were collecting fishing nets came over with buckets.

Ao Muyang kept saying enough, but everyone didn't care and insisted on giving him some shrimps. He looked like he was giving a gift with an iron hand, and he had to accept it!

When he got home, Lu Zhizi, who was picking pine nuts for the little monkey, was shocked: "What are you doing? Why did you bring back so many shrimps? Are you going to make a shrimp feast?"

Ao Muyang smiled bitterly and said, "It's hard to refuse such a kind invitation."

The two of them were in tune with each other. With just one sentence, Lu Zhizi understood what he meant: "It's not even the New Year or the holidays yet, and you're accepting the gift?"

Ao Muyang said listlessly: "I have had a dream of being a corrupt official since I was a child, but I never thought that the gift I received after becoming an official would be white shrimps from the lake."

He took out a whole bucket of white shrimps and washed them with water.

After smelling the sweet and fresh taste of the shrimp, the head of state was interested in scratching the edge of the basin and curiously looking at it. His beloved concubine who was taking care of the baby was about to give birth and needed to supplement nutrition.

Freshwater crabs are rich in protein and calcium. The head of state knew that this thing was good for both the expectant mother and the expectant baby.

Ao Muyang generously grabbed a handful and put it in his food bowl. Wolf Er shamelessly wanted to take a bite, but was hit by a claw. Fortunately, he dodged quickly, otherwise he would have been scarred.

The head of state was a little uncomfortable with Lao Ao's generosity for a while, and stared at him with his round, furry, and chubby head tilted.

Lao Ao didn't care about it. He cleaned the shrimps and dried them for a while. After draining the water, he propped up a large iron pot in the yard, poured oil into the pot, put the shrimps in and stir-fried them vigorously.

The shrimps quickly turned from white to red, and from red to dark red. The rich freshness filled the air, and the chickens, ducks, and geese in the yard stretched their necks and were excited.

The chickens, ducks and geese were not locked up. When they found the shrimps in the iron pot, they swarmed in.

Wolf Two followed the fish in the muddy water and sneaked in. Lao Ao caught it and beat it hard, scaring the chickens, ducks and geese away.

Li Ji came to find him and saw him beating Wolf Two and asked, "What trouble has this naughty kid caused again?"

Ao Muyang said, "No, I'm trying to scare the tiger."

After a while, the chickens, ducks and geese surrounded him again. This time, Wolf Two hid in the corner, but was pulled out by Lao Ao and spanked several times on the butt.

Li Ji was stunned: "What's wrong with it?"

Ao Muyang said, "This is called killing the chicken to scare the monkey!"

When the chickens, ducks and geese were about to surround him for the third time, Wolf Two suddenly became angry. It opened its mouth and pounced into the flock of chickens, ducks and geese, biting and slapping with its mouth and claws, and drove the chickens, ducks and geese away.

Li Ji was stunned for a moment and said, "This is called analogy."

Ao Muyang couldn't help laughing and asked, "Teacher Li, what's the matter with you coming to me at this time?"

Li Ji waved his hand and said, "You cook first, you cook first."

Ao Muyang added water to the fried shrimps, then turned down the heat and simmered them. At this time, he wiped his hands and said, "It's okay, Teacher Li, you talk first."

Li Ji was silent for a while and said, "Why did I come to you at this time? Don't you have any idea?"

Ao Muyang continued to cook with his head down. Anyway, he had to make a lot of shrimp paste tonight.

The shrimps were simmering on a low heat, and he used the kitchen pot to fry a lot of onions, mashed garlic, chopped celery, chopped carrots and other vegetables. It was also stir-fried. After the aroma came out, he added water and simmered it on a low heat.

During the period, he added water several times, boiled the shrimps for half an hour, and boiled the chopped vegetables for more than 20 minutes. In the end, the shrimps were cooked and the chopped vegetables were also mushy.

At this point, he mixed the shrimp paste and vegetable soup together, and began to sprinkle a lot of salt into it. After mixing and boiling for five minutes, he took out a net bag to scoop out some shrimp shells that were not cooked and threw them away. The rest was the homemade shrimp paste of the fisherman.

It was not over yet. There were some bamboo tubes in his yard. These were originally sent by Ao Jinfu to him to make bamboo tube rice. He poured the shrimp paste into the bamboo tubes, and then put them in the steamer and steamed them for more than ten minutes.

Turn off the fire and cool down. He opened a bamboo tube and scooped some shrimp paste with a spoon to taste it. It was full of freshness, slightly fragrant and sweet, and had the fresh taste of bamboo. Of course, the fishy smell of shrimp paste was indispensable.

Li Ji asked, "Are you making shrimp paste?"

Ao Muyang said, "Yes, Mr. Li, you're welcome. I'll find a bottle and fill it for you later."

Li Ji laughed and said, "How can I be so embarrassed? It's fine if I eat here, but I have to take it away? By the way, when I walked in just now, I saw a small plastic bucket in the living room. It's quite clean. How about you use that bucket to fill it for me?"

Ao Muyang looked at him in astonishment and asked, "Small plastic bucket? You mean the red one?"

"Yes."

"That's a 10L bucket!"

Li Ji pretended to be surprised, "Ten liters? Yeah, then fill it halfway."

If Ao Muyang didn't respect his knowledge, he would have beaten him out with a rice spoon at this time.

The bamboo tube shrimp paste is only a semi-finished product after it appears. It can be eaten directly, but a better way to eat it is to fry it with green onions and eggs.

Ao Muyang put shrimp paste, green onion and egg into the hot oil pan, and seasoned it with chili peppers. After frying, the fishy smell of shrimp paste could hardly be smelled, only the delicious and spicy taste.

Lu Zhizi went to buy the big steamed buns that were freshly cooked in the evening, and paired them with rice porridge. The three of them ate so much that they couldn't straighten their backs.

After eating and drinking, Li Ji patted his belly and sighed: "This meal brought back my memories. I remembered the days when I was doing scientific research on the South China Sea Island when I first started working. The conditions were not good at that time, and the Republic Our foundation is poor. What we eat most on the island is seafood, such as splendid lobster, large and small yellow croaker, sea cucumber, abalone, crab and sea sausage, all kinds of seafood..."

Ao Muyang squinted at him and said, "Isn't this a good condition?"

Li Ji said: "What do you think? It's comfortable to eat seafood once in a while. If you eat it as a meal, you can't eat it at all. After all, people's stomachs still need oil, water and rice noodles. At that time, we would improve our lives by eating steamed buns with shrimp paste instead of frying them. Yes, there is no oil. Where can I get oil to fry shrimp paste for you at that time? We always add eggs and steam them, and serve them with steamed buns mixed with multi-grain noodles. It’s so delicious!”

Ao Muyang originally thought that the old man was teasing him, but as he spoke, the old man's eyes became misty and his tone gradually became heavier: "In the blink of an eye, it's nearly half a century. At that time, I was younger than you are now. I My colleagues around me were also young, and my life was really happy. But when I turned around, I was almost seventy years old!”

Ao Muyang had to give him two more bamboo tubes of shrimp paste to appease his sad heart.

The shrimp paste he stir-fried was relatively salty, so he could eat it on the go. The next day, he packed it in bamboo tubes and gave it away to people he was close to.

After he had almost delivered the shrimp paste, he slowly returned home and was stopped by someone at the door. Someone folded his fan, adjusted his sunglasses and said with a smile: "Director Ao, we meet again."