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Fermented food has its own characteristics all over the world, it is the love of some people, but also the nightmare of others, such as Chinese stinky tofu, French blue cheese, Japanese natto and so on. But these fermented "stinky" foods are nothing compared to South Korea's "rays", because the dish smells like a public toilet (and there is no pejorative meaning, and then look down to see why). Even so, there are still many people who like it.
To know why it stinks so much, it's worth learning about the ray creature. Rays are close relatives of sharks, and are somewhat similar to sharks, having no kidneys and bladder, so they can only detoxify through the skin, resulting in a large amount of uric acid on their surface, which is also the main source of odor.
It is this characteristic, the world's method of eating rays is to take advantage of the fresh and quick to eat, can avoid a lot of odor caused by fermentation, but the Korean people go their own way, have to put the rays in the cold storage to let it ferment naturally, after a month, a large number of "fragrance" is emitted, people who like it flock to it, and people who hate it can't avoid it. What's even more amazing is that the fermented rays are cooked in slices and eaten raw.
For this dish, according to the Korean boss, the smell of fermented rays is the best signboard, and there is no need to advertise, and the lovers will come in when they smell it. As for when the dish began, the boss also said that he was not clear, but said that he watched his parents make it when he was very young. Guess what, this should have been an ancient way of preserving freshness. In the era without refrigerators, how to keep food from deteriorating is a headache. Although other fish have a delicious taste, they do not have the shelf life of ray. So when we pinch our noses at this delicacy, we have to admire the wisdom of our predecessors.
The way this dish has been eaten has also changed, through spicy spices such as peppers, garlic, kimchi, and eaten with boiled pork slices and rays fillets to cover up the strong smell. However, lovers of rays think that this way of eating is not right, it masks the "aroma" of rays, and even they feel that they should take a big breath in the rays before eating, which is said to speed up the adaptation to the taste, and there will be a mint smell in the throat, so that eating the rays will feel delicious.