This slippery wild delicacy was dug out of the mud 30 years ago, and now it has become a top-tier delicacy popular across the country

In rural areas there are many delicious wild foods, and for those who grew up in the south, there is one dish that always leaves them unable to resist, making their mouths water. Whether braised in oil or red-cooked, or simply stir-fried, it always makes friends who love it eat until the plate is clean. Especially when we were young, when the family's living conditions were not good either, and we rarely ate spareribs and the like. Back then, when the season came, my father would take me to the river to catch them, then bring them home to prepare a big dinner for the evening. This delicious treat was the rice field eel (Monopterus albus) that lives in the water.

I still remember 30 years ago, when I was still very young, my father took me to catch rice field eels. At that time we would bring catching tools, then search for rice field eels in the shallow water of the river. Usually we would dig them out of the mud, then hook them with a tool, which made it easier to catch the rice field eels, because rice field eels are very slippery. If you simply grabbed them with your hands, they would easily slip away with one careless move.

In our local area, rice field eels are called snake fish, also because rice field eels look very much like snakes, only they live in water, so they are called snake fish. In many other places, there are still many different names for rice field eels.

When I was little, my father and I could spend half a day and catch a basin full of rice field eels. After returning home, we would always first send part of them to relatives in the family, and finally keep what was left for our own family to eat. In that poor era of living from hand to mouth, the greatest happiness was waiting for Mom to come back in the evening and cook a big meal for me. At that time, as long as it was rice field eel made by Mom, our family would eat it all up and nothing would be left.

Now that I have grown up, I still often buy rice field eels and bring them home for Mom to cook, but the rice field eels bought now are all farmed artificially by farmers, and I always feel there is a slight difference from the rice field eels I ate as a child. Maybe it is because there is less of the fun of catching rice field eels with my father. Now in some rivers, you can still see people catching rice field eels, only there are fewer and fewer wild rice field eels, and they are getting harder and harder to catch. Many people still choose to go to the market to buy ready-caught rice field eels.

Now in the market, the price of rice field eels is higher than the price of ordinary fish. In restaurants in the water towns of the south, almost every restaurant has a dish made with rice field eel, which shows people's preference for rice field eels. It can also be said that today's rice field eels count as a top-tier delicacy popular across the country.

Now many farmers build their own ponds and begin to breed rice field eels in large quantities. Rice field eels have very strong reproductive ability and have gradually become a means for farmers to get rich. Many farmers also rely on rice field eels to improve their lives.

As for rice field eels, what other memories and fun do friends have? Come and share them with me.