Blanched Shrimp in Spicy Sauce

Blanched Shrimp

　　People of a certain age who have lived in the Jiangnan water towns or the Li Xiahe area of northern Jiangsu are likely familiar with "blanched shrimp." It's a uniquely flavorful and rather amusing dish.

　　Also called "drunken shrimp," this dish requires live prawns whose whiskers are trimmed and bodies washed clean. Then, place them in a container (a wide-mouthed glass jar is ideal), and add an appropriate amount of liquor, ground pepper, minced ginger, sugar, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar. Cover the container and shake it around—thus completing this delicious dish. Due to the variety of seasonings used, the taste of these "blanched shrimp" is quite extraordinary: a mix of numbing, spicy, sour, salty, and sweet. Moreover, because the shrimp meat is nearly raw, it’s exceptionally tender, with even a slightly sweet aftertaste on the palate. But perhaps the most entertaining part is how the "blanched" shrimp seem "drunk" yet still "awake"—if you’re not careful, they may leap out of the bowl or plate, or even "jump" off the chopsticks, drawing laughter from everyone.

　　I had "blanched shrimp" about thirty years ago, but back then I didn’t really appreciate its flavor—I just thought it was “fun,” and even naively believed that this dish was an invention of us Jiangsu folks.

　　Now I realize that’s not the case. China doesn’t just have "blanched shrimp" in Jiangsu, nor did people start making it only in modern times.

　　According to the Tang Dynasty text *Records of the Extraordinary in the Southern Region* by Liu Xun: “Southerners often buy small shrimp, slice them raw along with vegetables like coriander, orchid leaves, and smartweed. They pour thick sauce and vinegar over the live shrimp, cover them with fresh greens, then top it all with hot drink and serve it right away. Sometimes shrimp jump out of the vinegar dish. It’s called ‘raw shrimp.’ The common folk (the so-called ‘vulgar’) treasure it as a rare delicacy.” This shows that over a thousand years ago, in the Guangzhou area, China already had "blanched shrimp," and ordinary people regarded it as a unique dish. By the Song Dynasty, "blanched shrimp" were also sold in the markets of Lin’an (now Hangzhou). During the Qing Dynasty, works such as Zhu Yizun’s *Secrets of Culinary Canon* and Gu Zhong’s *Record of Raising the Small* still included recipes for "drunken shrimp." One method reads: “Select and clean fresh shrimp, put them in a bottle, mix with pepper and minced ginger, and pour boiling good liquor over them. When serving, add salt and soy sauce” (*Secrets of Culinary Canon*). From this, we can see that the tradition of eating "blanched shrimp" has continued in China for thousands of years without interruption.

　　Nowadays, due to water pollution in rivers and lakes, fewer people eat "blanched shrimp." However, if live shrimp are taken from cleaner lakes and prepared properly (with proper sterilization measures), this dish can still be enjoyed by modern diners and even serve tourism. According to reports, some hotels in southern cities have revived the preparation of "blanched shrimp," which has been warmly welcomed by Japanese visitors who love eating raw fish and shrimp.