Chapter 175: Childhood Rice Flower Fish
Luckily, they were now leading an entire grade on a visit, and with the floating platform blocking the view, Manager Wu had neither the time nor the opportunity to continue pestering.
However, this did not stop Manager Wu from occasionally looking toward Xiang Chuan’s side with glowing eyes.
Being stared at in public by an elder who might be decades or even a hundred years older than herself with starry eyes, Xiang Chuan almost couldn’t help but shout: This is not the kind of pain an underage youth should endure!
Even if her mental age was rushing toward forty, she still couldn’t bear it!
She hoped modern people could have more awareness as elders!
However, Xiang Chuan’s worry didn’t trouble her for long, because she was soon surrounded by her own classmates.
“Xiang Chuan, does the rice flower fish you mentioned have any other scientific names? Is it recorded in ancient literature as being raised in rice paddies?”
“Xiang Chuan, are there records in ancient literature of other aquatic organisms suitable for farming in rice paddies? Preferably edible ones.”
“Xiang Chuan…”
The Class Eight Grade One students were now also gathering over with sparkling eyes. Some even eagerly opened the recording program and voice-to-text program on their terminals, waiting to dig up the latest recipes—oh no, the latest intelligence on freshwater aquatic organism farming.
The Class Eight Grade One students were “unlucky” enough to be the first to taste the new dishes in Xiang Chuan’s daily lunch bento. From the grilled fish and steamed fish during the initial field training, to the tofu fish soup, pan-fried fish fillets, and fish balls she later tinkered with in her spare time, it greatly broadened their horizons on edible aquatic organisms, and every one of them was captivated by the fresh and delicious taste of the fish after cooking.
Now hearing that fish could be raised in the fields, it directly aroused their curiosity and saliva.
After the live stream footage of this year’s freshmen field training at Nongda Affiliated High School spread widely, freshwater fish, which had previously been despised, suddenly became the target of many food processing companies and gourmet food enthusiasts.
There were quite a few wild freshwater fish in the nature reserve, and some fish raised in the six production escort ships for purposes like making feed.
Once the video footage came out, these fish were targeted by people, but the Agriculture Bureau acted faster than them.
After Xiang Chuan finished field training and returned home, leaders from the Agriculture Bureau had visited the Xiang Family Mansion. When they left, the leaders’ terminals had several TB more of documents.
Subsequently, the Agriculture Bureau strictly controlled the circulation of freshwater fish, trying to preserve the quantity of fingerlings and putting them into the aquatic organism farms quickly built on the production escort ships.
Freshwater fish farming was just starting out, so whether it was live fish in the market or the fish sold at Yue Xiang Restaurant, the prices were quite high due to supply not meeting demand. A five-jin heavy freshwater fish could sell for up to two thousand star coins, rivaling the price of seafood exported by the Fourth Fleet.
But even so, freshwater fish in the market were often in a state of having a price but no availability.
People’s demand for seafood could be satisfied nearby by freshwater fish, and the taste was so fresh and delicious—how could it not be popular!
Every time they thought that freshwater fish farming had just started and market prices for freshwater fish would take at least half a year to drop, it made them wish they could become millionaires, like the ancient people in the historical documents provided by Xiang Chuan, able to eat fresh freshwater fish every day!
Xiang Chuan looked at her classmates in front of her, each swallowing hard, and thought: Why have all my classmates turned into gluttons one by one?
The classmates all showed hungry and thirsty eyes, as if rice flower fish was some top-tier mysterious delicacy, and they were in a state of starving hunger.
They completely forgot that they had filled their stomachs that morning, and it had only been about two hours since breakfast.
These youths, tempted by gourmet foods they had only heard of but never seen, occasionally gazed at the plump rice ears in the fields with the eyes of predators eyeing large prey, making Xiang Chuan’s mouth twitch wildly.
To prevent her classmates from going hungry and resorting to the unharvested rice paddies, Xiang Chuan had to start talking about rice flower fish.
The memories of rice flower fish were flavors from her childhood summer vacations.
Every year during the summer harvest season, the rice flower fish in the fields were the freshest.
When she was little, after lunch, Xiang Qi would often take Xiang Chuan and Xiang Xue, each carrying a small bamboo basket, running to the fields. The three would jump around in the fields catching the fish that their parents had casually released during spring planting.
Thinking back now, there seemed to be some crucian carp mixed in, but as kids they didn’t know these things.
The three braved the scorching sun, weeding and catching bugs in the fields while grabbing fish. Luck with catching fish varied; when lucky, by dinnertime Xiang Qi’s small bamboo basket could be half full of rice flower fish.
The caught rice flower fish naturally went to the dining table.
Lin Minzhi’s cooking skills were average, but the grandmother who was still alive at the time made delicious home-style dishes.
Grandmother’s ways of cooking rice flower fish were varied, from the basics like tofu fish soup and deep frying, to braising and more.
Little children have a natural love for fried foods, and the three Xiang siblings were no exception. Grandmother would set aside three or six of the caught fish, specially pan-frying them golden and crispy as appetizers before the meal for the greedy siblings.
The pan-fried rice flower fish was tender and crispy. Dipped in a bit of salt, it became a delicious snack that even Xiang Weiguo couldn’t resist fighting the three kids for when he got home.
Although rice flower fish was a variety of carp, compared to real carp, it was smaller in size with fewer bones, one of the small fish that Lin Minzhi and grandmother could rest assured let the children eat heartily.
Xiang Chuan vividly described the flavors of pan-fried rice flower fish and fried tofu braised rice flower fish, so immersed that she didn’t notice a figure with sparkling eyes appearing behind the Class Eight students surrounding her.
Manager Wu wiped the disobedient drool from the corner of his mouth along with the surrounding Class Eight students while furiously taking notes in the document on his terminal.
If looked at closely, one could see that he was actually recording what Xiang Chuan said.
He looked at the rice paddy under his feet with fervent eyes, as if he could imagine the beautiful scene in the future of this field swarming with various small fish.
Although the aquaculture department had been worried about insufficient reserve personnel during this time, whatever!
As long as it benefited the rice paddies, he could even bring his own department’s people to poach people!
Just as Xiang Chuan was talking until her mouth was dry, Liang Gong, who was standing on the same platform as her but had been silent, suddenly spoke up and asked:
“Xiang Chuan, what did you mean by ‘perfect with rice’ when you were talking to Manager Wu just now?”
“It’s the literal meaning.” Xiang Chuan blinked her eyes. “A slightly heavy-flavored dish paired with fragrant rice can sometimes make one eat two bowls with just one plate—”
“What is rice?” This time Ouyang Yating and Ainuo were also puzzled.
Uh.
Xiang Chuan froze. She realized she had let it slip.
