知道鹅肝味美的人不少，然而，大快朵颐者寥寥。因为动物内脏胆固醇高，健康专家把肝脏之类的“下水”划入禁食或者少食行列。

        把鹅肝从禁食行列救赎出来的，是法国人。但最早吃鹅肝的，却是埃及人。大约在公元前25世纪，埃及人发现野鹅在迁徙之前会吃大量的食物，把长途飞行所需的能量储存在肝脏里，此时捕获的野鹅味道也最为鲜美。

        随后，鹅肝的吃法在欧洲各国流传、融合，直至16世纪，法国人才把它推上了食坛的顶峰，成为“法菜皇后”，并和鱼子酱、黑松露一起被誉为世界三大顶尖美食。目前，法国的鹅肝产量已占全球总产量的80%以上。

        那么，摆上金华人餐桌的鹅肝是否来自法国？非也。永康人对金华美食的贡献，不仅有质朴内敛的麦饼、爽脆香鲜的知了，还有肥美鲜嫩的鹅肝。

        鹅，是将大雁家禽化的鸟类。生物学家狄拉卡认为，家鹅起源于两种不同的野生雁种，大部分欧洲鹅种起源于灰雁。而以中国家鹅为代表的亚洲鹅种起源于鸿雁。据说，狄拉卡的观点已被学术界广泛接受。

        只是，家鹅多为白色，而永康鹅却是灰色的。永康“灰鹅”与欧洲“灰雁”仅一字之差，是否属同一品种，抑或同宗兄弟？笔者是外行，留待专家考证。

永康灰鹅养殖始于何时？在清嘉庆年间出版的县志上尚能查到“本地有苍鹅”的文字记载，家养历史似乎并不太长。农耕文化是延拓的。永康与义乌接壤，倘若从义乌乡贤骆宾王（约640～684）的《咏鹅》来推断，永康民间养鹅至少在1300年以上。灰鹅高大，生性凶猛，看到陌生人还会勇敢地追喙，甚至有人用它看家护院。

        鹅不在六畜之列，但地位并不亚于其他家禽。特别是越地山乡，吃鹅、送鹅更是蛮有讲究的。

        永康是“百工之乡”，长年外出谋生的匠人没法饲养家猪，仓促间回乡过年，往往无以祭祖，只能以灰鹅替代，久而久之，相沿成习──“凡喜庆及酬神扫墓悉用之”。

        一年之中，清明、重阳前后的那段时间，鹅肉最为肥美。春种秋收时节，女人们宰鹅烹食，好让出力流汗的男人“补虚益气”。而鹅是食草动物，有爱清洁、不杀生的灵性，象征着忠厚，毛脚女婿给丈母娘送鹅，则寓意忠厚、孝顺。

        散养的“走地鹅”自产自销，虽能讨得丈母娘的欢心，“效益”却不见得太好。因为一只“走地鹅”，简单的烹法也就白切、红烧，赚不了几个钱。真正让永康灰鹅声名鹊起的，还是在上世纪90年代初国家相关部门把法国鹅肝生产项目落户永康之后。

        永康是“制造之都”，一旦有了法国生产技术的支撑，不仅把舌尖上的异域美食做成了产业，而且举一反三，把提取肝脏之后的灰鹅细分成鹅头、鹅掌、鹅翅、鹅肠、鹅肉，居然赚得钵满盆满。

        吃鹅肝，吃的是口感。有人说，“滋味”里的“味”是味道，“滋”是口感。追求美食一半是为了“味”，一半是为了“滋”。好的“滋”，分为爽、脆、滑、润、软、嫩、酥、烂、黏、糯、筋道、瘦而不柴等，而肥鹅肝的妙处在于“化”——入口即化。

        当然，因个体的差异，“化”感会各有不同。譬如，一个吃货的“化”感是这样的：“好的鹅肝就像清晨时分来自爱人的吻，细腻柔和……完全无需动用牙齿，只要舌尖一舔，它就在你的体温里化开来，洋溢而出的鲜美只能用大胆浪漫的法国方式来表达了。”

        金华各地的高档宴席，大多少不了永康鹅肝的支撑。但就其吃法而言，义乌、东阳、武义等地均不如永康地道，因为后者既有便利的食材，也有娴熟的烹技。

        不过，笔者更倾向于国内著名美食专栏作家殳俏的看法：“真心热爱鹅肝的人，都会找到自己最挚爱的一款，而不一定要听信一家之言……鹅肝是最能反映私人爱好的食物，它测量的是你个人和天堂的距离。”

Tasty Goose Liver in Yongkang

Yongkang, a county-level city with a vast rural countryside, is part of Jinhua, the very central city in central Zhejiang Province. History indicates people in Yongkang raised gray geese as early as 1,300 years ago. This deduction was made on a famous poem titled , by the seven-year-old Luo Binwang (640-684), a native of Yiwu who grew up to be a poet. Now Yiwu is just a stone’s throw from Yongkang. It could be reasonably deduced that Yongkang must have had geese as home poultry just as Yiwu had. By the way, Luo is largely known as the author of a sharp-worded declaration against Empress Dowager Wu.  is a poem almost every Chinese child learns by heart in their preschool years. It would not be hard to imagine that the poem about the goose would make the poet immortal whereas only those who study ancient classical literature would know about the declaration.

The local goose species is different: geese in Yongkang are largely gray whereas the geese often seen in the rest of China have white plumage. The tall ferocious goose often appoints itself as a security guard and keeps strangers away from its territory.

In the past, a lot of craftsmen in Yongkang had to travel to find their customers. There was no way for these people to stay at home and raise pigs which could be used as sacrifices at important ceremonies such as ancestral ceremonies. Gradually, the gray goose was widely used in folk festivities, in rural religious ceremonies and family tomb visits.

The gray goose was a simple home delicacy in Yongkang until the 1990s when Yongkang began to raise the gray geese on a large commercial scale for exporting the goose liver to foreign markets. Since then, the goose has long been a delicacy in restaurants in Yongkang and neighboring cities. 

On important occasions, the goose liver is one of the best choices for diners in Yongkang and surrounding regions. On the other hand, an abundant quantity of geese with their liver removed provides a rich and cheap resource for local restaurant industry. Chefs in Yongkang have long since found ingenious ways to take a goose apart and cook different parts in different ways. The gray geese are divided into various parts such as the head, the feet, the wings, the large intestines, and the meat. These yummy dishes are prominent on the menus of local restaurants. It would not be difficult to understand that chefs in Yongkang are resourceful. Yongkang is China’s number one powerhouse of hardware manufacturing and trade and has been hosting an annual national hardware expo for the last 20 years and more. Yiwu, the world’s biggest household commodity marketplace, is nearby. Chefs in Yongkang are as ingenious as their cousins in the hardware industry.

Local people like the French-style delicacy for different reasons: some have a passion for the mouth feel of the goose liver whereas some just love the melting as soon as it touches the tongue. A gourmet in Yongkang describes his love for the foie gras (French words for goose liver) this way: a slice of goose liver is like a kiss in the morning from your love. You tongue it and it melts there. The French-styled delicacy delivers the fulfilling sense.

So Yongkang natives like the goose liver. And they know the delicacy is one of the best dishes in the French cuisine, but the knowledge doesn’t make the delicacy exotic. After all, the gray goose is local and has been around for at least 1,300 years and has been playing a central role in the local life for centuries.