Fried river shrimp with pork

In the past, our hobby as kids was to catch betta fish and guppies. Accidentally, the shrimps would stick their heads into the net. So an idea came to us, while playing around in the fields, we broke off a branch of leaves and dropped it on the bank of the ditch to catch the shrimps, holding a net in our hands. A moment later, we just wrapped the net around the branch of leaves and gently, slowly pulled it up from the water surface. Then hundreds of shrimps with silvery bodies, fresh and alive, were neatly placed in the net. Just take it slow, don't startle the shrimps. Because if they are startled, they will run away together, rushing back to the water surface, all in vain.

Bringing the spoils home, I handed them over to my grandmother. She took out the shrimp, poured water on them to clean them of mud, let them drain, and then started "making moves".

In the past, my grandmother often fried shrimp with pork to feed the whole family. She took about half a pound of half-lean, half-fat meat and cut it into square pieces. Her old hands nimbly cut the shallots. Then she blew on the fire and put the cast iron pan on. She didn’t use oil, but instead used the pork fat to braise the shrimp.

The pan heated up, my grandmother put in a few pieces of pork to "preliminarily" release the fat. When the pieces of meat began to firm up, the pork fat also oozed out. My family's veteran chef put in the pieces of onion to fry. The fragrant smell rushed into my nose and spread throughout the house. The shallots slowly turned yellow, which was also the time when the "main character" was put into the pan. My grandmother put a chopstick of thick caramel sauce into the pan, then put in the pork and stir-fried it a few times until it was slightly golden, the shrimps came in one by one last. A puff of smoke rose, the pieces of meat were golden, the shrimps also changed their white armor, putting on a red coat like velvet.

I waited eagerly. I eagerly helped my grandmother so that I could stand in the kitchen and "enjoy the flavor". When she saw that the color of the dish was beautiful, my grandmother started the most important step: seasoning. When the shrimp spring rolls were sticky, she took them off the stove. I just waited for meal time.

The moment of bursting was when the tray of food was served. And more importantly, there were red-coated shrimps with shiny bodies lying on the tray. The shrimps were small but powerful, making me eat several bowls of rice in a row. The shrimps were tiny, but when bitten, they still felt crispy and had a fresh sweet taste. The salty taste of the fish sauce permeated, making the flavor of the shrimp "upgraded", the sweetness of the sugar held back, harmonizing the dish. Oh my, I no longer paid attention to the sky and the moon, only worried about eating rice and scooping shrimps. The dish was simple but consumed a lot of rice.

Nowadays, people inject too many chemicals, shrimps and prawns can no longer survive. The comfortable life makes people forget the rustic flavors of the past. As for me, every time my grandmother rides her bike to the market, I ask her to buy some freshwater prawns to fry.

Food is not just for enjoyment, but it is where we keep memories, and recall our childhood days. Every time I eat freshwater shrimp, I am nostalgic with memories of the afternoons I spent wading in the fields to catch Siamese fighting fish.

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