来源：FoodWine吃好喝好
In the past, the puffer fish at the dinner table was capable of killing.
Zhao Yanwei's "Yunlu Money" in the Song Dynasty tells that Su Dongpo once talked about the beauty of puffer fish with people in Zishantang, saying that "he will die until he dies". On the last day of 1932, Lu Xun wrote a poem, "The hometown is gloomy and locks the clouds, and the night is far away from the spring. In the twilight of the year, I can no longer be melancholy, and I drink and eat pufferfish." The future of the country is uncertain, so let's eat puffer fish for the time being; The Japanese potter of the same era, Kitaoji Lushanren, replied in the air, "Nine times out of ten, life is unsatisfactory, and after eating pufferfish, I know that being a man is still worth it." Puffer fish and life have a similar weight. In 1997, Wang Zengqi wrote the poem "Jiangyin Memories · Fugu was annoyed, "In the past 60 years, I have never eaten puffer fish desperately." It was in that year that he died.
Highly toxic and taboo, delicious has become a unique taste. The Japanese Edo people wrote about the desire of fugu, "stealing someone's wife is thrilling and delicious, like tasting fugu." Hairen and Xie Wucun wrote about the despair of the pufferfish, "The unfulfillable love affair, tonight I decided to give up and drink the puffer fish soup."
Zhenjiang puffer fish soup.
When I eat pufferfish, I always feel that I can't empathize with my predecessors. I understand the strong and undulating emotions of the puffer fish when they eat them, but I can't get them, because the puffer fish has changed. The puffer fish is a new species that has been reshaped by modern farming, there are no taboos, no poison, and I only eat the small fish itself.
With the responsibility of feeding the population safely, the modern dining table cannot accommodate so many obscure matters of life and death. The process of "puffer fish detoxification" is divided into two parts, one is the physical removal of the toxin, and the other is the policy and cognitive lifting of the ban.
When a puffer fish encounters an alien danger, it inhales air
Float your entire body to the surface in a bulb shape.
In 1909, Japanese scholar Yoshijun Tahara discovered pufferfish toxin (Tetrodotoxin, TTX). The secret of puffer fish's "great beauty and great poison" has finally been known to the world. This is a neurotoxin, similar to a local anesthetic, that blocks the signaling of sensory nerves, leading to loss of sensation and paralysis of respiratory muscles, leading to respiratory failure and death. It is 1,000 to 10,000 times more toxic than cyanide, and to date there is no antidote. The puffer fish is the second most toxic vertebrate in the world after Colombia's golden poison dart frog.
Studies have found that pufferfish toxin is an exogenous toxin, and the toxicity of puffer fish mainly comes from toxic algae, which are enriched in the body by eating these algae to reach a certain concentration. Through artificial control of water quality and food chain, non-toxic puffer fish can be successfully farmed.
Is it written "pufferfish" or "pufferfish"?
The "Compendium of Materia Medica" is recorded as pufferfish, and the "Kangxi Dictionary" is recorded as pufferfish.
Follow the interpretation and usage of "Xinhua Dictionary" and "Chinese Dictionary",
Involves the academic name of fish, which is written as "pufferfish" when used in biological Chinese naming;
Freshwater pufferfish can be written as "pufferfish" because pufferfish defend themselves
The bulging body resembles a small pig (porpoise), and it has been commonly known as "pufferfish" since ancient times.
There are more than 100 species of puffer fish in the world. From north to south, there are more than 40 different varieties along the coast of China. The Yellow Sea, the Bohai Sea and the East China Sea are rich in puffer fish, Hebei is called "Latou", Shandong is called "Boat Ba", Guangdong is called "Good Fish" and "Chicken Hug", Fujian is called "Street Fish", and Jiangsu and Zhejiang have the saying of "Black Wolf". Most of the puffer fish on the beach are made into dried fish. Every spring, the puffer fish that lives in the ocean travels up the Yangtze River from the mouth of the Yangtze River to become a "river fish", which enters the inland and enters the dining table of the Yangtze River people.
The fate of the puffer fish is contrasted in China and Japan.
Because of the poison, only China, Japan and South Korea eat puffer fish in the world. There are also more than 100 species of natural puffer fish in the Sea of Japan, and a total of 22 species are allowed to be eaten, the most famous of which is the "redfin oriental pufferfish" (Takifugu rubripes), the famous "king of winter taste". In "The Kingdom of Cuisine", the people of Kitaoji Lushan wrote, "The deliciousness of puffer fish is far from being comparable to that of Akashi sea bream, sea cucumber, or foie gras", which is a "tasteless taste". The chewy puffer fish meat is thinly sliced and arranged in the shape of cranes, chrysanthemums, and peonies. It is usually aged, highlighting the solid texture and rich, delicate flavor of wild fish. During the puffer fish season, which runs from October to February, Japan's top kaiseki dishes made with natural tiger pufferfish can cost more than 50,000 yen per person.
Documents displayed in the Yangzhong Museum show that in 1955 in Yangzhong, China
Fugu is already being sold in a restricted manner and cannot be sold live to end consumers.
Japan eats pufferfish, bans early, and opens up early. In 1592, Japan enacted the "Fugu Fasting Order", which lasted for more than 300 years until the 19th century, when the flavor changed. In 1887, Japan's first prime minister, Hirobumi Ito, was impressed by a puffer fish dish at his hometown of Shimonoseki (formerly known as Shimonoseki) in Yamaguchi Prefecture and thought it was so delicious that there were ways to cook it and it shouldn't be banned. The following year, Yamaguchi Prefecture took the lead in lifting the ban on puffer fish, and Shimonoseki became the birthplace of modern Japanese puffer fish culture. Governing a big country is like cooking a small fresh. From the signing of the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Tianjin to the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, it took less than ten years for Japan to complete major events such as the establishment of a modern cabinet system, the expansion of armaments, the abolition of unequal treaties with foreign powers, and the lifting of the ban on eating puffer fish. When Hirobumi Ito signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki with Li Hongzhang in 1895, it was at the famous pufferfish house "Chunfan Building" in Shimonoseki, Japan.
Similar to the fishing problems encountered by all modern countries, due to the industrial revolution, which exacerbated fishing efforts and environmental pollution, Japan's "natural" puffer fish are becoming less and less fished, and farming is an alternative. As early as the 1960s, experiments with puffer fish farming began in Japan. By the end of 1989, 1,657 tonnes of farmed puffer fish had been produced in Japan. In 1983, Japan promulgated the "Sanitary Assurance of Fugu Fish" Notice, which stipulated a series of requirements for the circulation of puffer fish: such as the classification, identification and sale of fishing vessels after returning to port; Only those who have passed the fugu chef exam and have a license can handle fugu cuisine, and those who do not have a license cannot process fugu.
The body of the Oriental pufferfish is brown, the lower sides of the body are yellow, and the ventral surface is white.
There are 4~6 inconspicuous brown horizontal stripes on the dorsal surface, between the horizontal stripes
It has 3~5 white striae. There is a large round black spot on the posterior upper body wound of the pectoral fin,
Continued white. It is mainly produced in the Yellow Sea, Bohai Sea and East China Sea.
So far, Japan's fugu policy is relatively complete and mature, and it has shaped a highly tense fugu food culture that has attracted the attention of the world. While Japan has left the responsibility for detoxifying puffer fish to licensed terminal chefs and restaurants, China's policy prefers to cut and dispose of it at the source.
China's puffer fish ban came much later. China has eaten puffer fish for thousands of years, but regulation has been left blank. In 1990, the Ministry of Health issued a ban on puffer fish, and the Measures for the Sanitation of Aquatic Products clearly stated that "puffer fish are highly toxic and shall not enter the market".
The exploration of detoxification and breeding of puffer fish in China has had to be carried out in a gray area, and the large-scale puffer fish farming began in the mid-1990s, when the redfin pufferfish in Dalian first began to break through. Encouraged by the Japanese market, China's earliest puffer fish farming originated from the redfin pufferfish for export purposes, and the main breeding areas are Liaoning, Hebei, Shandong, Tianjin and Fujian wintering bases. Dalian Tianzheng is the leading enterprise of redfin pufferfish, and Caofeidian District of Tangshan, Hebei Province has become the main production area of redfin pufferfish because of its geographical superiority, and has unexpectedly become the "hometown of Chinese puffer fish".
Three fresh specimens of the Yangtze River.
Unlike the light and chewy tiger puffer fish sushi in Japanese cuisine, the Yangtze River's most famous oriental pufferfish (Takifugu obscurus) is served in Chinese pots with a thick umami flavor and a soft texture of fish after a long simmer.
In the past 20 years, the wild Oriental pufferfish has declined, like other fish stocks in the Yangtze River. In the years before the ban on fishing in the Yangtze River, when the price was high, the price of a catty of wild dark striped Oriental pufferfish reached 2,000 yuan per catty. The cultivation of oriental pufferfish has become a lucrative and promising business, making it an alternative species after the boom in eel farming at the beginning of the millennium. According to the 2017 survey data, in addition to the mainstream redfin pufferfish and dark-striped pufferfish, there are also chrysanthemum pufferfish, two-spotted pufferfish, yellowfin pufferfish and some hybrid varieties farmed in China.
Puffer fish grows at 20~25°C at the fastest rate, and Guangdong has become the most advantageous production area of "Yangtze River puffer fish" because of its warm climate and relatively lower breeding costs. In the past, wild puffer fish could only be eaten in spring, but now farmed puffer fish can be eaten in all seasons; In the past, puffer fish was obtained in the Yangtze River, and now the national pufferfish is cultivated in Jiangsu, Shanghai, Fujian, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Hainan and other provinces and cities.
The 1998 book Puffer Fish and Its Processing and Utilization seeks to use modern data
And the way to take off the highly poisonous and useless hat to the pufferfish.
The book exemplifies the ways in which puffer fish can be produced and utilized from skin to internal organs.
In addition to the delicious meat of puffer fish, the once formidable puffer fish toxin is a treasure of scientific research.
As early as 2006, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued an authoritative report: the "Zhongyang" brand Nantong Yangtze River puffer fish, which has been developed by Jiangsu Zhongyang Group for a long time, has been strictly tested as "non-toxic". This signifies that farmed puffer fish has the legitimacy of market access.
Finally, in 2016, the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Food and Drug Administration jointly issued the "Notice on Conditionally Liberalizing the Processing and Operation of Farmed Redfin Oriental Pufferfish and Cultured Oriental Pufferfish". The 26-year-old ban on puffer fish has been lifted, even if the conditions are very harsh: only two species, the redfin pufferfish and the dark striped pufferfish, have been lifted, and there are many requirements for the circulation of puffer fish. The puffer fish industry has entered a new phase.
Jingjiang River Pig.
In many cities in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, you can eat traditional puffer fish dishes.
In Suzhou, I ate the famous dish of catfish lung soup made from juvenile puffer fish; In Zhenjiang, I ate the white soup made from puffer fish, and the yellow soybean oil and puffer fish liver oil were very tempting; In Jiangyin, the white-braised puffer fish is simmered in a variety of fish broths, which are graceful and complex; On the other side of the Jingjiang River, a dark and thick braised puffer fish, with the seedlings and white seeds, trembles and towers...... But everyone will tell you that to eat pufferfish, you still have to go to Yangzhong.
Yangzhong can be called an enclave for eating puffer fish.
Puffer fish can be seen everywhere in the street scene of Yangzhong.
Looking south from the Taizhen Expressway, a huge golden puffer fish sculpture stands on a small sandbar in the Jiajiang River. Built in 2013 at a said cost of 70 million yuan, the golden puffer fish caused a sensation that year and became a new landmark in Yangzhou. It is said that "puffer fish do not poison the Chinese people", and it is said that "there are masters in every village, and every household burns puffer fish". While other cities secretly eat puffer fish in a low-key manner, this city eats boldly and beautifully.
Yang Zhong is proud of the puffer fish and is not shy. Wherever you go, there will be a puffer fish within 100 meters as far as the eye can see. There are puffer fish on the street lamps, puffer fish in the background of the bus stop, and even the information signs on the trees are in the shape of puffer fish - bulging, staring, modern and cute. This reminds me of Shimonoseki City, known as Japan's "hometown of puffer fish", where the economic proportion of the puffer fish industry chain accounts for more than 30% of the city's GDP.
In 2009, "Yangzhong Puffer Fish Cuisine" collected the creations of 8 puffer fish cooking masters.
There are 100 fugu dishes that are prepared using farmed puffer fish as ingredients
The richness is very strong, mainly roasted and boiled, and also steamed, fried, slipped, fried, raw and other methods.
There are various forms, including whole boiled pufferfish, and ashish milk, puffer fish skin,
A dish prepared separately for puffer fish roe, puffer fish liver, and puffer fish.
Even the map of Yangzhong is in the shape of a pufferfish. Yangzhong is the largest island in Jiangsu and the smallest county-level city. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the sediment of the Yangtze River from the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River was deposited in the downstream estuary section one after another, and small sand began to emerge from the water surface, and the silt alluvium formed the prototype of the river island after thousands of years. Yangzhong River is wide, the water flow is gentle, and the bait is abundant, which is a natural puffer fish breeding ground, and has also accumulated a rich puffer fish culture in the long river of time.
As early as 2004, Yangzhong took the lead in formulating the "Industry Code for Safe Edible Operation of Puffer Fish", carried out the training and certification of puffer fish cooking chefs, and held the first puffer fish cultural festival in the same year. At the local South Park Farmers' Market in Yangzhong, you can see puffer fish from all directions. Local gourmets prefer the "chrysanthemum porpoise" because its meat is firmer and has the flavor of wild pufferfish. The common farmed "Oriental pufferfish" has different versions in the north and south.
The chrysanthemum oriental pufferfish is also known as "starry sky".
In 2004, the artificial seedlings of Oriental pufferfish were successfully raised and cultivated in batches.
One of the main producing areas is Fujian. According to the report of "China Aquatic Products",
In 2020~2022, the relevant departments will conduct a review of the chrysanthemum oriental pufferfish
The results of tracking and monitoring of pufferfish toxins during the breeding process showed that
The skin and meat of puffer fish are non-toxic, and the next step is to include the farmed chrysanthemum oriental pufferfish
The conditionally open pufferfish species in mainland China provide strong data support.
A search for puffer fish in Yangzhong yields 7779 results on Dianping. Fugu is served in almost all restaurants. There are three most famous puffer fish aquariums here, namely Zhou Changshun's "Changshun Puffer Fish House", Kong Qingpu's "Magnolia" and Jiang Kaihe's "HSBC Puffer Fish House". In Yangzhong, Jiangsu, these three chefs are well-known as "puffer fish masters".
The Changshun Fugu Museum is a three-story building hidden in a small alley in the middle of the city. The middle-aged lady at the entrance is soliciting customers, and the price of 350 yuan for a farmed puffer fish is staggering, which is basically the highest peak of the Yangtze River boundary.
The puffer fish does not have pelvic fins, belt bones, ribs on the vertebrae, and the elastic skin on the abdomen allows it to allow a large amount of air or water to enter the extremely elastic stomach, expanding the body size several times to scare off predators. But now, turning a farmed puffer fish into a "balloon" requires some special massage techniques – they are not too afraid of people anymore.
Puffer fish are bony fishes that have a set of beak-like teeth.
It is used to crush and cut prey.
Master Zhou did not hesitate to take out live puffer fish to show the guests. Coming to the puffer fish house to eat and taking pictures with the "puffy" puffer fish has become an important part of emotional value. I asked Master Zhou how long the puffer fish could stay on land out of the water, and he replied "one hour". The teeth of a puffer fish are the same as those of a baby rabbit, with two "beak-like tooth plates" on the top and bottom, which can crush hard shells. "Take a closer look, you see how cute it is."
74-year-old Zhou Changshun, who entered the industry in 1966, has been specializing in puffer fish cooking for more than 50 years, is a member of the Chinese Cuisine Association and a master of Chinese puffer fish cooking. The most distinctive dish is the "fried puffer fish roe".
"Puffer fish ovaries, highly poisonous! You can only eat it on my side. Swallow it in one bite. Incense, right?"
Celebrity chef Zhou Changshun and pufferfish.
The muscles and nests of puffer fish are often considered non-toxic, while the eyes, ovaries, liver and gallbladder and lungs of puffer fish are considered to be highly toxic parts of the puffer fish. I asked the master what is the method of detoxification? The master said "secret Chinese herbs", he paused again and said, of course, the toxicity of farmed puffer fish is very low now, and it is also a double insurance.
The grainy texture of the fish roe creaks and the umami of the fish permeates the mouth, but there is no wave in the heart. If delicious food can be imagined, happiness can be played, but fear cannot be pretended. And the "drawbridge effect" of eating puffer fish in the past, the excitement and ecstasy after being nervous will not happen – I know that farmed puffer fish are not poisonous.
The scene of slaughtering puffer fish in Yangzhong Aquatic Products Shop.
Every room in the "Changshun Fugu House", whether it is a 10-person table or a 4-person small table, is full of printed photos of sports stars, film and television stars, business and political celebrities, and international friends from Brazil, Iran, and the United States write praises for the puffer fish on red cards. In 2024, the 350 yuan puffer fish sells not only the small fish stewed on the plate that cannot be seen, but also the past and present life, praise and aura of the puffer fish packed in each room.
I sat at the table eating the non-poisonous puffer fish, listening to these traditional "Yangzhong puffer fish customs" may forever become a story, and I don't need it.
Cooking puffer fish requires a special chef's license.
Rule 1: Don't say to the guest, "Please eat pufferfish", you can only say, "I ordered a table of puffer fish today, and I left an extra pair of chopsticks", whether to come or not is the guest's own choice.
Rule 2: When the guest comes, he must put a coin on the table to once again indicate that he or she is willing to attend the banquet and that he is responsible for the accident.
Rule 3: For safety reasons, the chef himself must eat the first chopstick, and the host must eat the second chopstick 10 minutes later, and then it is the guest's turn to eat.
The road to detoxification of puffer fish is also like the process of disenchantment.
Puffer fish products and prepared dishes in supermarkets.
And new charms will emerge from reality. There is an old saying in Yangzhong that "eat puffer fish desperately", in fact, there are also "fight to wash and eat puffer fish" (if you clean it up desperately, you will not be poisoned) and "eat puffer fish with joy" (eat puffer fish when you are happy and happy events). Not at the cost of life, just talking about appetite, puffer fish is delicious. Fish with a high protein content can be stewed into a sticky soup because of the oiliness of the fish liver and the gelatinous texture of the skin, and the soup spreads a long umami finish over the rice. Fugu is cultivated in all seasons, but the vegetables in spring are the gifts of the season, and the oil of the puffer fish moistens the bamboo shoots and holds up the freshness of the grass. The puffer fish white seed (male fish essence nest) nicknamed "Shih Tzu Milk", which the locals call "ribs", bursts in the mouth, has a melodious umami taste, and it is really wonderful.
On a different track from the restaurant, Fugu inexplicably stepped on the trend of pre-made dishes. The puffer fish is one of the rare fish that I know that doesn't get fishy when cooled. Whether it is Yangzhong, Zhenjiang, or Jingjiang, famous puffer fish stores can always see dozens of packed orders from high rollers. In 2023, Zhongyang and Hema launched several puffer fish products to the northern market. Fugu may transform into a more everyday way of entering public life.
Zhongyang Group is a "puffer fish manor" integrating production, education and research in Hai'an.
Jiangsu Province is still the traditional source of Oriental pufferfish, and the aquaculture volume accounts for it
More than 40% of the country. Zhongyang Group, located in Hai'an, Jiangsu Province, is
The largest and most advanced Oriental pufferfish breeding base at home and abroad.
And I can't finally break away from the culture that has accumulated over time. "Artemisia is full of short reed buds, it is the time when the puffer fish wants to be on it", Su Dongpo's poem is like a Chinese mantra, and you will hear it in 2024, mostly from the promotion of a restaurant marketing account. But the moment I heard it, there was still an electric current flashing in my veins, and a strange sense of excitement struck: I had to hurry up and eat puffer fish.
With such a legendary past life, the non-toxic puffer fish in this life deserves a broader stage.
Resources:
"Puffer Fish and Its Comprehensive Research", Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute
2023 China Fishery Statistical Yearbook, National Bureau of Statistics
"Fugu Dream | China's Eating Culture and the Development of Puffer Fish Diet", Tianzheng Industry
"Jiangsu Zhongyang Group: Starting with Fish, Opening a New Chapter of Puffer Fish", a new perspective of the Yangtze River Delta
"The prefabricated food track adds another fierce general, and the puffer fish category carries the tens of billions of market", Sierfu prefabricated dishes
Analysis of High-quality Development Problems and Countermeasures of Fujian Pufferfish Aquaculture Industry, Li Shuigen, China Fisheries
"Banned for decades, now that the conditions are open, what kind of development has the puffer fish industry gone through", Aquatic Home
Shanghai Food Culture Research Association, Zhou Tong
"Yangzhong Puffer Fish Recipe", Zhou Changshun, etc
"Fugu: The Fish of Fortune in Japanese Culture", Dr. Korai