There is a sentence in the Book of Poetry: "If you eat fish, you will be the carp of the river", and the "carp of the river" mentioned here is the carp of the Yellow River.
The Yellow River is more than 5,000 kilometers long, known as "copper head, iron tail, tofu waist", of which there are 692 kilometers through Henan, located in the position of "tofu waist", the shallow riverbed is wide, the sediment content is very high, there is a large amount of sediment, such as in the Section of the Yellow River in Kaifeng, Henan, the riverbed has been 7-10 meters higher than kaifeng city, the Yellow River water is sandwiched between the levees on both sides of the river from Kaifeng City, like the "Tianhe", this is the famous "Kaifeng Hanging River", Li Bairuo will definitely have a deeper impression of "the water of the Yellow River in the sky" if he is alive. The sediment in the river is mixed with a large number of minerals, nutrient salts, aquatic plants, the water temperature and light in Henan are just right, it is very suitable for the growth of carp environment, although ningxia, Shanxi, Shandong Yellow River are produced carp, but the Yellow River carp in Henan section is the traditional sense of the "Yellow River carp", and Songjiang perch, Songhua River salmon, Xingkai Lake fish are known as "four famous fish", have the reputation of "freshwater fish king".
Such a high honor is naturally superior, the carp raised in the general pond is used to arch in the silt at the bottom of the water to eat, most of the abdominal cavity has a layer of black membrane, the meat also eats with a dirty smell, and the real Yellow River carp, the abdominal cavity is almost no black membrane, the meat is tender, there is no "earthy smell", the fish meat even with a fragrance. The shape of the Yellow River carp is also very different from the general carp, its scales are golden, shining with light, the body is huge like a golden dragon, the folk have "the Yellow River three-foot carp, the point is not a dragon, return to accompany the mortal fish" saying.
The status of carp in China and even In Asia is relatively high, when Kong Shengren named his son "Kong Carp", Japan also set the fifth day of the fifth month of the fifth month of the lunar calendar as Boys' Day, the family should hang the iconic "Carp Flag", and the proverb of the carp leaping dragon gate also gives the carp the proud quality of perseverance and going up against the current. In terms of attitude towards carp, Chinese both reverential and practical, when the entrance, is not soft, must eat is full of praise, and the Yellow River carp is the best of carp.
Yellow River carp slender body, scales shining golden light, fin tip bright red, ridge because of the amount of movement, the meat is relatively thick, less internal organs, small bones, and ordinary carp have obvious differences, in the 1950s, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Zhengzhou, Sanmenxia and other places have a special fishing team in the Yellow River to catch carp, a year can catch more than 150,000 kilograms of Yellow River carp, and by the early 1980s, the number of Yellow River carp has dropped sharply, the annual catch of less than 10,000 kilograms, And the size of the carp is also significantly smaller. The lack of carp fishing, coupled with the hybrid fever introduced by domestic carp species at that time, mixed with a variety of hybrid carp in the Yellow River Basin, so that the original Yellow River carp germplasm resources were seriously damaged, and the Yellow River carp began to have different body colors, scales were messed up, body shape changes and other trait variations, and the taste and texture also decreased a lot.
At present, there are very few "native Yellow River carp" in the Yellow River Basin in Henan, and most of the Yellow River carp that can be eaten are farmed hybrid varieties, such as "Dalian No. 1" hybrid abalone, Su's round-bellied fish, Yuxuan Yellow River carp and several other species are very good breeding varieties. For example, Yu xuan yellow river carp is the use of native Yellow River carp as parents, after 8 consecutive generations of selection and breeding, the body size has been close to the native Yellow River carp, the same golden scales red tail, irregular scales are also less than 1%, fast growth, high survival rate, the scale of breeding is relatively large.
However, there are still many farmers because of technical reasons, can not correctly distinguish the difference between the Yellow River carp and other carp, often crossed carp, carp as the Yellow River carp for artificial breeding, although the use of Yellow River water, but because of the difference in varieties, the quality of the "Yellow River carp" produced is seriously degraded. It is almost not much different from ordinary carp.
Now many restaurants on the market advertised "Yellow River carp", in fact, is not the kind of "wild Yellow River carp" fished in the Yellow River decades ago, almost all of them are artificially farmed, some of the better quality of the farmed Yellow River carp will use the Yellow River water, Yellow River sand and other "living water" culture, but also has a lot of Yellow River carp characteristics, the quality is much better than the general pond culture of carp, but compared with the Yellow River carp that was once selected as the "state banquet", it is naturally still a lot worse.
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