Chapter 28 Chapter 26: Three Treasures of the Northeast and Several Strange Foods

When I first arrived in Inner Mongolia, it was mid-winter, it didn’t light until nine o’clock in the morning, and it was already dusk at three o’clock in the afternoon. I had nothing to do. I quickly learned to set traps to hunt animals. The main target was foxes, red foxes about one meter long (with tails). One fox can be sold to a native product company for 25 to 30 yuan. Foxes have always been considered cunning among animals, but they are actually very clumsy and not difficult to catch. When they were beginners, they had a record of catching three, but they were all ordinary red foxes. As for white foxes and black foxes, even See and have not seen.

Before leaving the customs, I often heard that there are three treasures in the Northeast, ginseng, mink and Uralia grass. After catching a fox, I became very ambitious and wanted to catch a mink. At that time, people laughed at me: We have been here for several years. Seen, still haven't met, you want to catch? At that time, he also snorted: Someone must catch it, otherwise, where did the mink come from. However, after a few months, I realized that marten is very difficult to catch, and it is difficult to catch everything. This small animal is extremely vigilant to people. When it sees a person from a long distance, it runs like lightning and disappears in an instant.No matter how ingeniously the trap is set, no matter how delicious the bait is, it will never be fooled, and no one will be caught.

There is a legend that the mink has a good heart, so the mink catcher lay naked in the snow and waited for a large group of mink to catch them.In order to avoid freezing to death, the mink catcher swallowed strong wine and red arsenic in advance. Although this kind of legend was written into a movie script, it is really nonsense.Under such severe cold, no matter how much strong wine and red arsenic you drink in advance, and you are naked on the snow, even if the marten really comes to save people, it has not arrived, and people have already become zombies. As for ginseng, I have already said that Ulagrass can be regarded as a treasure, but it is quite reluctant. It is said that this thing can keep out the cold, how can it be as good as wool and cotton?There is really no other way but to take advantage of it.

Ulagrass can grow continuously on the ground and can be found everywhere. The process from picking it to being usable is quite complicated. After drying, it should be placed on the veneer and knocked with a mallet to break the grass body into strands of fiber. , and then you have to rub it together to get a little fluff before you can use it. When you use it, wrap your feet with it, and stuff your bloated feet into a kind of cowhide shoes called gatars, which are a bit like sandals.As soon as I put it on, I felt a sense of warmth. After wearing it that time, my feet were numb from the cold within half an hour after I went on the snow.

Woolgrass is also used to tuck into felt bumps a kind of wool felt boots which is quite useful for this purpose as it absorbs sweat from the feet and keeps the inside of the felt boots somewhat cooler but not as good as horsehair , Chicken feathers are widely used, naturally because the living standard is too poor, it is not enough to be called a treasure. Can't catch mink, but the trap used to catch mink has caught unexpected uninvited guests, mostly hedgehogs, followed by voles. There are stories about voles. The size of a hedgehog is the size of a volleyball when it shrinks into a ball. It has thorns. If the thorns are removed, the diameter is only about twelve or three centimeters. This thing was originally caught and thrown away. Later, someone told me that this thing is good. It's delicious, but it's hard to make.

Hearing that there is game to taste, he naturally asked the tribe what to do, and the man laughed and said: "It's easy to want to eat, but the difficulty is how to get the meat out of it!" Under the pleading, the man really demonstrated it once, but although he learned it, it was only once, not because it tasted bad, but because the process was not only complicated, but also very cruel.First throw it into the hot ash, and use the heat of the hot ash to burn all its thorns. During this process, it will emit a strange smell, which is probably caused by its thorns when they are burning. smell.Then, before the skin is peeled, the skin should be scalded in boiling water until the thick skin is peeled off. The meat of a hedgehog can be eaten in one bite at most. It is very troublesome. The meat tastes very delicious. , I don't want to eat anymore.

Speaking of cruel ways to eat, the legendary eating of monkey brains is probably the most cruel, but I have never tried it.Eating sand chicken in Hohhot is to press the sand chicken alive on a red-hot ceramic plate and let it struggle. The purpose is to make its palms bleed profusely. It still tastes like chicken feet. There are even more cruel ones, which I ate near the Confucius Temple in Nanjing. At that time, I saw a crowd of people in front of a tent, and everyone was eating and drinking with a bowl of broth. The meat was fragrant. I walked over and asked, it was donkey broth. Naturally, I also wanted to try it. I asked clearly that I wanted leg meat. After a while, I had a bowl in my hand. I have never tasted such delicious food before. I was surprised and asked, and the answer was: Of course, this is donkey meat in boiling water!Asking about it again, I wanted to eat a second bowl, but I no longer have the appetite.

It turned out that a live donkey was tied up in a tent with a pot of boiling water next to it. The part that the diners wanted to eat would be poured with boiling water continuously, and then cut off and served to the guests when it was cooked. Looking into the tent, the donkey was still alive, but several parts of its body were cut to the bone, and the eyes of the donkey showed grief and indignation, so scared that it turned around and ran away, how dare it What about eating the second bowl? Although the hedgehog steals the watermelon is hateful, but its appearance is very funny, people will not offend me, I will not offend others, if you want to use fire to burn its thorns alive, try it once is naturally enough!