The king of lobsters, 2,000 yuan / jin of French blue lobster, only 1 per 2 million ordinary lobsters, why can it be sold so expensive? Is it an IQ tax?
Blue lobster, a fantastic and precious lobster, the signature ingredient of French romantic dinner, one of the world's top ten top ingredients, and the top delicacy dreamed of by countless foodies around the world, has always been known for its rare yield and delicious meat.
In fact, the blue lobster is not a separate lobster species, but a special species of European crayfish. Because of rare genetic mutations, the originally reddish-brown or greenish-brown European crayfish produces a large number of abnormal proteins in the body, and the protein reaction forms a blue compound astaxanthin, which gives its shell an extremely rare bright blue color.
Generally speaking, this rare genetic variation, only 1 in 2 million ordinary lobsters, the probability of production is extremely low, it can be called one of the rarest top ingredients on the planet, of course, the price is also expensive.
Take our butter crab in the Pearl River Delta basin of China to compare it, as we all know, butter crab is a mutant variety of female green crab, the success probability of mutation is about five per thousand, which is already an extremely rare precious crab, but compared with the probability of 1/2 million of blue lobster, butter crab is still much inferior, so you can imagine the prestige of blue lobster.
At present, blue lobster is mainly distributed in the northeast Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and the coast of the British Isles, and also distributed in Australia, but now the blue lobster in Australia has become less and less due to long-term overfishing. However, the blue lobster from the Brittany Peninsula in France is the most famous, and it is also recognized as the highest quality, and it is also the most expensive.
Brittany is located in the northwest of France, bordering the English Channel in the north and the Bay of Biscay in the south, with a long coastline, the local average sea temperature is about 22 degrees, very suitable for the breeding and survival of a variety of marine life, since ancient times has been famous for a variety of top seafood, such as the world-famous "king of oysters" - Peron oysters, from Brittany, and the king of the world's sea salt, "bride salt" - salt flowers, also produced in Brittany.
Blue lobsters, which only appear on average 2 million ordinary lobsters, are rare sea creatures comparable to living fossils. However, although the blue lobster looks very dreamy, this special color does not help it, and sometimes it is fatal and dangerous, because the bright blue makes the blue lobster look particularly eye-catching compared to the surrounding environment, and is easier to be found and hunted by predators (in fact, mainly humans).
The strange thing is that although the blue lobster is all blue, when people cook them, they will show the same reddish yellow color as ordinary lobster, do you know why? Welcome to discuss in the comment area.
The main reason why blue lobster is extremely rare on the earth and the price is often sold for 150-200 euros (2000 yuan / jin) is because the production is too low. First of all, as a mutant lobster, only 1 blue lobster appears for every 2 million common lobsters; Secondly, a blue lobster grows from juvenile shrimp to adulthood, which takes about 35 long molts, and takes 7 years to grow to 30 centimeters (almost 2 pounds), almost twice the growth period of Boston lobsters, and the whole growth process is very slow.
However, the meat quality of general lobster may be due to age and size and produce a huge difference in meat quality, take Boston lobster (Bolong is not actually a real lobster), more than 1 kg of Boston lobster meat quality is not too tender, the meat is hard, the taste is also very bad, but the meat quality of blue lobster is not affected by age, size and weight, no matter how long it grows, how big it is, the shrimp meat of the blue lobster is still tender and refreshing, sweet and rich. Normally, blue lobsters can grow up to about 60 cm and weigh 5-7 kg, but there are also some blue lobsters that can grow to more than 10 kg.
In France, a fresh Brittany blue lobster, the price in the production area has been as high as 50 euros / jin, if sold to Paris and other French cities, the price to sell to 80-100 euros / jin, go to the restaurant to eat blue lobster is more expensive, according to 5 kilograms, eat a blue lobster to spend at least 20,000 yuan, is definitely a proper sky-high price of ingredients, ordinary people do not think about it, take Xiaobian for example, I don't like to eat blue lobster.
However, if the blue lobster dies halfway, the price will plummet, and no one in France will even want to eat it. If it is covered with a damp cloth and put in the refrigerator, the blue lobster can only be stored for a maximum of 7 days, and the quality will decrease after a long time.
Nowadays, because of the rarity of Brittany blue lobster, France rarely exports abroad, and will give priority to meeting the needs of French local restaurants.
There are more ways to do blue lobster, today I will introduce you to three conventional practices, of course, you can also decide whether to continue reading according to your economic ability:
1. Steaming: Clean the blue lobster and put it in the steamer to steam, which is light and refreshing.
2. Steamed garlic: Wash the blue lobster and put it on a plate, add garlic, soy sauce, oil consumption and other spices, and steam it in a pot.
3. Small stir-fry: wash the blue lobster, remove the shell, chop it for later use, cut the white onion, celery, broccoli into fine cubes, and then stir-fry with the chopped garlic for a few minutes before putting in the shrimp meat, and finally pour into the brandy and stir-fry, the wine can be started after the aroma of the wine volatilizes.
By the way, have you ever eaten French blue lobster?
