Chapter 153: Top-quality Ingredients: Nanri Abalone
During dinner time, there were not many customers in Green Island Hotel.
Obviously, Xiamen’s economic situation in 1959 was not much better. The old man had not yet drawn a circle. Xiamen was at most a strategic location, not a special economic zone.
Lin Sanqi sat by the window, looking left and right, mentally assessing how much the restaurant's daily turnover could be, and whether it would make a loss.
Southerners' business acumen will never be lost no matter where they go; it is ingrained in their bones.
In fact, what Lin Sanqi didn't know was that the situation in the entire Hujian Province was even worse, because 90% of Hujian Province was mountainous and there was very little arable land. Since ancient times, it was considered not a place that military strategists must fight for because it was too poor and had no strategic value.
Coupled with the impact of natural disasters, the food supply in Hu Jian Province was never enough, let alone in 1959.
This is also the reason why a large number of Hu Jian people go overseas to survive. Their lives are very hard, but they really cannot support themselves in the country. Although they are close to the sea, they can't stop eating fish every day.
There are few customers, and there are probably a lot of chefs backstage, so the dishes are served very quickly, especially the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall.
When the yellow earthenware jar was placed on the table, Lin Sanqi opened it and smelled it. The fragrance instantly spread throughout the dining room, attracting many customers nearby to turn around.
Lin Sanqi was so happy that he stirred it a few times with a spoon:
"Wow, such a big sea cucumber! Such a big abalone! Two-headed abalone, and this is fish maw, right? What is this?..."
Seeing the young diner's excited face, the customers beside him all laughed, and the waiter was also proud of it:
"Comrade, if you want to eat the most authentic Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, you must come to our Hu Jian.
Our Hu Jian's Buddha Jumps Over the Wall uses the best abalone, sea cucumber, shark fin, fish maw, scallop, pigeon trotter, scallop, fish lips, pigeon eggs, flower mushroom, spare ribs, etc. There are dozens of ingredients alone, including all kinds of delicacies from land and sea.
We also have very high requirements for side dishes. For example, the sea cucumber must be from Liaohai, and it must be one with six rows of spines and pointed ends. The abalone must be from Hu Jian’s Putian Nanri abalone…”
Lin Sanqi listened to the waiter bragging, and suddenly his ears moved:
"Wait, comrade, the Putian Nanri abalone you mentioned is the same Nanri Island?"
"Yes, it's the Nanri abalone, which is unique to Nanri Island. Let me tell you, comrade, the abalone produced in this Nanri area is plump and thick-shelled, with tender flesh. It doesn't shrink noticeably after being cooked. There's no better abalone in the world."
Who doesn’t praise his or her hometown? But the speaker may not mean it, but the listener may take it to heart. Lin Sanqi’s eyes were already rolling around at this time.
"Also, not only is the meat of the Nanri abalone delicious, its shell is also a treasure. Roast it dry and grind it into powder to make the traditional Chinese medicine Lithospermum officinale. Don't you think the entire Nanri abalone is a treasure?"
Lin Sanqi felt relieved. He was going to Putian to purchase Shijueming, and he was going to Nanri Island. Now they were meeting each other.
At the same time, he was secretly happy, thinking that Hu Jian would not return empty-handed this time, as he had found another source of income.
The next day, Lin Sanqi went to the post office first.
Firstly, he sent a telegram to his work unit to report his safety and keep abreast of his itinerary; secondly, he also sent a postcard to Pan Ye to tell her that he was in beautiful Xiamen.
After leaving the post office, Lin Sanqi got in a jeep and drove quickly towards Putian.
Putian is only more than 200 kilometers away from Xiamen. If you take the highway a few decades later, it will take less than 2 hours. But in 1959, Lin Sanqi drove for a whole day and had lunch in Quanzhou in the middle.
Fortunately, the jeep was modified. If it was an old jeep, I would not be able to use my left and right feet and hands today.
The next day, Nanri Island.
Li Weihua, the director of the Nanri Abalone Economic Cooperative, was delighted when he saw the job and letter of introduction handed over by Lin Sanqi.
Before the Republic of China, there was no abalone farming on Nanri Island. All abalone were wild and had to be salvaged manually by diving into the seabed. The salvage right was in the hands of several landlords on the island.
After liberation, private individuals were not allowed to catch abalone, so a rural cooperative was established on Nanri Island. The policy adopted was collective catching, collective sales, and then collective distribution. Everyone was fair and there was no exploitation of anyone.
"So you are comrades from the capital! Ah, we have been waiting so long for you to come."
Lin Sanqi was a little surprised. Why was Director Li so polite?
But even if others are polite, I can't pretend that people in the capital have their eyes on the top of their heads.
"Director Li, you're too polite. I was commissioned by the hospital to come all the way to Nanri Island, over mountains and across ridges. How about the stone cassia seeds I want to buy? Is there any problem?"
What buyers fear most is that the locals say the product is out of stock. Then it’s all over, they either have to wait or go back empty-handed.
"Yes, yes, we have Shijueming. We have as much as you want, haha."
Lin Sanqi felt relieved when he heard this:
"That's good. This time I'm here to purchase 500 kilograms."
When Director Li heard this, the smile on his face immediately disappeared: "Ah, only 500 pounds?"
Lin Sanqi said with a smile:
"500 kilograms is quite a lot. After all, Shijueming is a niche medicine and its clinical usage is small. If the supply and marketing cooperatives were not too lazy to purchase it due to the small quantity, our hospital wouldn't have to travel so far to purchase it in person."
Semen Cassiae, in traditional Chinese medicine, can calm the liver, improve eyesight, and treat vertigo.
In fact, the raw materials are very simple. You just need to choose the Nanri abalone shell, remove the meat and clean it, dry the shell and then bake it, finally use a stone hammer to crush and filter it, and the fine powder obtained after sieving is Shijueming.
The medicinal stone cassia must be made from the nine-hole abalone or the large abalone produced in Nanri Island. Other abalone shells will not work.
As for why Nanri Jiukongbao is so important, you can ask Lin Sanqi. But who should Lin Sanqi ask? Or maybe you can send a WeChat message and ask Li Shizhen?
Director Li smiled and said cautiously:
"Comrade Lin, look at this warehouse. There are so many Cassiae sutchuenensis piled up and unable to be sold. As the director of the cooperative, I'm worried. As you can see, we are an island. We can't grow rice or wheat on it. All our food depends on being shipped in from the mainland.
We can't sell so much Cassiae, and we have no money to buy food. There are more than 2,000 villagers on the island, and they are really starving to death. Comrade Lin, your Capital Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine is the largest hospital in the country. Can you please purchase more? Please do me a favor."
Lin Sanqi blinked and asked in confusion:
"That's not right. Aside from our Capital Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, aren't other hospitals of Traditional Chinese Medicine in provinces, cities, and autonomous regions across the country coming to purchase?"
Director Li asked Lin Sanqi to sit down and personally made a glass of boiled water before explaining:
"I'm not happy with what you said. The amount of Shijueming used was originally very small. There used to be several businesses in Fuzhou that bought it long-term and then sold it all over the country. Now that we've been liberated, private clinics can't open anymore. This, this, this..."
Lin Sanqi understood that if private Chinese medicine shops and clinics were gone, downstream demand would be gone, and as an upstream raw material supplier, he would not be able to ship the goods.
It relies on a few traditional Chinese medicine hospitals in the country, and Shijueming is a niche medicine, so naturally no one buys it.
Even many provinces' traditional Chinese medicine hospitals have changed their prescriptions and stopped using Shijueming. This is because the capital's traditional Chinese medicine hospitals are "rich" and have sent staff specifically to purchase it.
Lin Sanqi rolled his eyes and decided to turn the topic to abalone.
"That's not right, Director Li. Shijueming doesn't sell well, but your Nanri abalone is world-famous.
I had Buddha Jumps Over the Wall at Xiamen Green Island Hotel before. The staff there highly recommended your Nanri abalone and said that authentic Buddha Jumps Over the Wall must be made with Nanri abalone to be delicious.
Your Nanri abalone sales must be booming, right? You've got abalone that's unique in the world, and you're worried you won't be able to sell it and exchange it for food?"
When Director Li heard this, the bitter smile on his face deepened, and he stood up immediately:
"Comrade Lin, come on, I'll take you to see our Nanri dried abalone."
Lin Sanqi followed Director Li to another warehouse nearby.
As soon as he opened the door, Lin Sanqi saw that the warehouse was full of flat-bottomed round bamboo winnowing baskets stacked up one on top of the other, with dried abalone in golden color placed inside.
Lin Sanqi took a sniff and said, "Oh, it smells so good! Wow, so much dried abalone."
Director Li was a little proud after hearing this:
"That's right. Our Nanri abalone is famous because our abalone is first-class in color, smell, taste, and shape. Look at how pink and tender it is. It's so tempting, you can't help but want to take a bite. Only low-quality, trash abalone smells like the sea."
(Lin Sanqi thought, you wicked old man, you better say "abalone", otherwise this statement won't pass muster...)
After complaining inwardly, Lin Sanqi took a dried abalone in his hand, and was a little surprised:
"Wow, how come it's so big? It's bigger than my hand. Director Li, is this considered a double abalone?"
Director Li nodded and praised repeatedly:
"Comrade Lin is worthy of being from the capital. He has good taste. This is indeed a two-headed abalone. This abalone alone weighs nearly 300 grams."
"Hey, isn't abalone half a pound? It should be 250 grams."
"Comrade Lin, you may not know that our traditional abalone weighing is calculated in Sima Jin, which is approximately equal to 605 grams. There used to be a saying in the industry that "a thousand gold coins cannot buy two-headed abalone", which refers to this.
Don't be fooled by the fact that the abalone is only this big now. This is because fresh abalone loses 90% of its weight during the sun-drying process. So, if you reverse the equation, when a fresh abalone is caught from the sea, it weighs about 3,000 grams, which is equivalent to 6 jin in today's money.
Lin Sanqi was even more shocked: "Wow, an abalone weighs 6 jin, so it must be this big, even bigger than a plate."
Director Li laughed:
"This is just a two-headed abalone. There's also an even rarer single-headed abalone, which is as big as a washbasin when it's fished out. Comrade Lin, take a look. This is it. Isn't it big enough? This used to be presented to the emperor as a tribute."
Lin Sanqi took the single abalone and thought, “It’s this big?! ! ! How much can it sell for in 2013?! ! ! !
"Hey, Director Li, you have so many top-quality dried abalones, there must be a lot of people rushing to buy them, right?"
Lin Sanqi is not stupid. The director of the cooperative flatters him so enthusiastically that he even takes him to the warehouse to see the dried abalone. Several warehouses are piled with abalone like mountains, which is obviously unsalable.
(End of this chapter)
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