The smell of braised fish on the oil stove
In the houses on both sides of the street, the “American” oil lamps were lit. Here and there on the sidewalk, a few children were still busy using rags wrapped around their middle fingers to rub the light bulbs to remove the soot, leaving glassy eyes, while their mothers scolded them for being too busy playing and forgetting to do housework.
The American lamps gave off the smell of kerosene, the most potent of all. Not just the burnt hair from bending over to read and pressing it against the bulb, not the nostrils blackened by smoke from bringing the kerosene lamp into bed to cover yourself with the blanket and read secretly, but in every dish.
At a time when kerosene stoves were the main cooking stove, almost every dish had a strong smell of kerosene. For those who were not used to it, the smell was unpleasant and made the dish unappealing. But once one got used to it, the smell of kerosene became memorable. At this time, the darkness was so thick that one could sweep one’s hand and smear one’s beard and mustache on one’s face like soot.
But in that cold, stealthy darkness, the smell of salted kerosene wafted out. I recognized the smell of my house thanks to the familiar smell of kerosene. The smell of kerosene in every house was the same, but in the past, kerosene was mixed with some chemicals to save money, so they gave off a different smell.
I am so familiar with the smell of kerosene in my house that I can tell if the food is from my house by just smelling the smoky smell. Just like now, when I eat sweet soup, I always have the feeling in my head that this is not the dish I used to crave because it was not stirred on a kerosene stove on a night when the electricity was flickering for fear of overloading.
In the cold wind, the smell of braised crabs is even more attractive. Crabs are brackish water crabs, they dig burrows in coastal rice fields in Hai Hau, Giao Thuy (Nam Dinh). They look like crabs but are not crabs because crabs are available all year round, while crabs are seasonal.
The crab's body is flatter than the crab's body, its legs are also flatter and have more hair, so the crab can swim very quickly and strongly in flowing water, not content with living in the fields with still water like the field crabs.
October is a month of turmoil.
According to the proverb about food and season, this lunar October has crabs, and they are the most delicious crabs, with the most eggs, the roe is firm, thick, and fatty like fish eggs. "September has crabs, October has crabs", each season has its own food, not chaotic like eating ripe jackfruit in the middle of winter or pickled young kohlrabi in summer.
In this short lunar October, “before you laugh, it’s dark”, the most delicious crab of the year appears, and only exists for about 20-25 days, shorter than the sardine season, the worm season, and the lotus root season. Now many people don’t even know what a crab is, how to cook it, or how to eat it.
In recent years, the October crab has become increasingly “disgraced” because this crustacean that prefers clean habitats cannot live in alluvial plains and fields that are contaminated with herbicides, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, etc. Just like the firefly, the disappearance of the crab is an indicator of environmental pollution.
As for the crab in my mind, in the ninth lunar month, it laid eggs and covered its back with roe. However, it was not until October that the roe reached its peak, red like cinnabar, with a rich flavor and a rich, fatty taste, as if it could be bitten with your teeth.
The crab is bigger than a Thong Nhat matchbox (not counting the spread legs and claws). The crab’s shell is also harder than the shell of a field crab, making the crab process more “complicated” than that of a field crab. First, the crab is washed and shaken in clean water to remove all the mud and dirt.
Then, remove the legs and set aside to pound to get the broth to cook the soup like crab soup. However, crab soup is richer and saltier than crab soup. You have to collect a lot of crab legs to pound a delicious pot of soup, because few people pound the whole crab to get the broth, which is a waste of a gift from heaven.
The body of the crab is processed with a knife. The belly is peeled off, then a betel knife - a sharp, hard knife with a pointed tip used to split betel nuts - is used to poke the betel nut forehead, under the shell and peel off the shell to expose the egg yolk. Peeling the shell like this is to expose the egg yolk when cooked for beauty.
Why not remove the whole shell like crabs to make it easier to handle? That's the reason why this is such a laborious job. The reason why we don't remove all the shell, but keep the bottom 1/3 of the shell is to keep the crab's structure from disintegrating after the shell is lost. When processed, the remaining shell is pink, making the clean, red part stand out even more.
That is why, those who are new to crabs almost do not know how to peel the shell without detailed instructions. If not careful, the crab will be crushed to pieces, but when you are used to peeling, you can do it in one round like peeling soaked persimmons. The shell part is also pounded with sour water like the legs.
After peeling the shell, sprinkle a little seasoning powder on the crab fat, then fry it in a pan or wok. You have to use lard to fry the crab to make it fragrant, but in the past, you only used a little bit of lard, not much. Arrange the crab in the pan, belly side close to the pan, back side with the fat facing up to avoid breaking the fat.
The frying heat must also be low so that the bricks do not splash out. The crabs cook quickly, so it only takes a few minutes to fry. At this point, pour in the fish sauce and simmer over low heat until the crab skin turns white (due to the fish sauce being mixed with a lot of salt), then sprinkle in some sliced betel leaves. Leave it like that in the pan, the pan will gradually cool down and the crab will color.
Red flower among white rice
The meal was served when the yard was already dark, but in the middle of the house, the meal tray was lit by a large oil lamp and became sparkling. Partly because of the light from the lamp and partly because of the plate of bright red crabs placed in the middle of the tray. At the meal, each person was given two large crabs, and that was the main food for the whole meal.
Scoop out a full bowl of rice, bury the crab in the middle of the bowl, then eat some vegetables first. The rice was so hot that after just a few minutes, the rice surrounding the crab turned a shimmering orange-yellow color. The fat and roe of the crab spread out there, so I scooped up that part of the rice to eat, then continued to bury the crab.
The rice with the color of the flower stuck to the salty taste of the crab and became a delicious piece. Then he lifted the rice and buried it, as if the salty crab was an endless source of nutrition, providing the salty taste and the fatty, fragrant flower color until the crab was left in the empty bowl.
The famous singer Vanessa Williams once sang: “Save the best for last.” The braised crab at the bottom of the bowl is also the best. Its body is red with red bricks, proud as a flower, defying all darkness and cold wind.
In the darkness of the tenth lunar month, that flower not only invites lips and teeth to join in the pleasure. After admiring it enough, one "reluctantly" puts one's teeth into the crab meat like Adam biting the forbidden fruit. The white flesh from both sides of the back rises under the pressure of the teeth, slips through the thin skin, and falls into the hardship.
The meat is firm, white, slightly crispy and rich in protein. The red brick is like a well-burnt brick, even the color of ceramic, touching the tongue feels hard, but just a light bite will break it, releasing an invisible fat, making the tongue feel the rich, fatty, salty, and nutty taste of the brick.
It was very soft and pleasant to the mouth, not as bitter as crab roe. That bright red flower was also broken in half, then crushed. After all, all that remained was the joy of eating a delicious piece of crab roe, satisfying the anticipation and the sweet and fatty aftertaste of crab roe on the tongue. Not only that, there was also a faint smell of kerosene on the braised crab roe.
