Today we talk about eating fish. We Chinese people have a long history of eating fish, and traditionally the most commonly eaten is the carp order "Six Great Kongs" - the north is dominated by carp and crucian carp, and in the south, the "four big fish" blue carp, grass carp, silver carp and bighead carp are more common.
But have you ever noticed that now whether it is the fish fillet in the hot pot restaurant, the sauerkraut fish in the Sichuan restaurant, the fish steak in the canteen, or the frozen fish fillet in the supermarket... The protagonists are often "basha fish".
Basha fillets
What is this kind of basha fish with a full sense of existence? And generally 30 pieces of takeaway can eat basa fish, this fish is so cheap, will not be fed with feed, right?
What exactly is a basa fish?
The "basha fish" on the market mainly refers to two species of catfish freshwater fish - Pangasianodon hypophthalmus (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus) and Pangasius bocourti (Pangasius bocourti). Native to the Mekong River Basin in Southeast Asia, the two species are similar in size and habits and were introduced into domestic aquaculture in the 1990s.
Two species of basa fish, low-eye toothless 𩷶 usually have a blacker body color , while Bosch toothless 𩷶 is silvery-white. Image source: hablemosdepeces.com
And "Basha" is their Vietnamese name, meaning "three fat fish", and you can tell it's a big fat fish.
Basa fish first became famous in the country, not in the world of edible fish, but in the field of ornamental fish.
In the tropical fish market in the 1990s, there was always a kind of big fish called "blue shark" or "tiger head shark", swimming leisurely in the fish tank, quite a bit of shark boss momentum. At that time, there were not many big fish in the domestic tropical fish market, and the "blue shark" with a frightening appearance was quite popular, and was often raised by local tycoons in large tanks to fill the façade.
Now there are also small blue shark fry for sale online
Image source: A screenshot of a treasure
Later, there were more choices, and everyone knew that this "blue shark" could not fight with the shark eight rods, but it was just a catfish eaten as a dish, and they gradually passed.
So, don't blame your cat for always liking to pull the fish tank and raise a catfish in it, you are not hungry, is it not hungry?
These two species of basa fish are packaged as "sharks" and do have some capital: they are long and stout, with a body length of more than 50 centimeters. The caudal fin is large and slit, the triangular dorsal fin stands tall and erect, the eyes are large, the mouth is large, and the whiskers are few.
Compared to the large, small, full-bearded common native catfish, such as the catfish (Silurus asotus) and the largemouth catfish (Silurus meridionalis), the basa fish looks much more energetic and even quite temperamental.
Catfish with a full mouth and beard
Image source: inaturalist.ca
Why is basa fish so cheap?
Matching their tough shape, both basha fish are athletes in the catfish order and swim very fast. It's just that the "toothless" in the name reveals their Buddhist nature: basa fish are mainly vegetarian in the wild, mild temperament, and rarely attack other fish. Because they have no teeth, they are like the carp and crucian carp familiar to Chinese foodies, mainly relying on the throat teeth in the throat to grind food.
Basha fish have a solid body, grow fast, can breed up to two rounds a year, and the water quality requirements are not high. That's why basa fish is so cheap.
This fish nugget is only 10 yuan a pound, and what bicycle do you want
Shooting: Xiao Xie
But there is a little trouble: as tropical fish, they are very afraid of cold, the water temperature below 16 ° C will stop eating, below 10 ° C will freeze to death. Therefore, in China, the cultivation of basa fish is mainly limited to Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan (almost wiping out the farming industry of the "predecessor" tilapia and squeezing them into invasive species), and it is impossible to spend the winter in the open in the two vast parts. At present, the global production center of basa fish is still in Vietnam, and China is the largest import market.
By the way, the basa fish is in the mekong river hometown, and there is also a big brother who pulls the wind - pangasianodon gigas, commonly known as the Mekong giant catfish. It has been recorded for fishing at 2.7 metres long and weighs 293 kg, making it the largest pure freshwater fish ever confirmed (sturgeon that migrates into the sea does not count).
The largest giant toothless is currently caught𩷶
Image source: planetcatfish.com
Although the giant toothless is large, it is mainly vegetarian like the basa fish, and is not the legendary "man-eating river monster". They are already critically endangered, and Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand are undergoing artificial breeding.
Basha fish is catfish, will it be dirty?
The ubiquitous basha fish turned out to be catfish, which may be a little awkward: it is said that catfish are dirty, will it be bad for the body to eat this often?
Indeed, in the impression of many people, catfish are slippery and scaleless, and the appearance of large mouths and long whiskers is not very attractive, and they are omnivorous fish that eat what they eat, from garbage to dead bodies...
In 2013, there were news reports of catfish foraging in garbage dumps
Image source: Xinhua Net Hainan Channel
In fact, whether catfish is "dirty" is mainly related to the living environment. Feed is eaten in regular farms, or garbage is eaten in stinky gutters, and the fish that come out are naturally different.
Moreover, these two kinds of basa fish, mainly inhabiting the middle and upper layers of the water body, have habits similar to the silver carp and bighead carp in the "four big fish", and rarely eat in the mud under the water.
So rest assured to eat, people don't eat garbage, nor garbage fish.
Image source: hablemosdepeces.com
Compared with the four major fish and carp, crucian carp and other carp edible fish, catfish edible fish generally have the racial advantage of no intermuscular spines and tender flesh. Although the meat quality of basa fish is not superior, it is at least suitable for processing, there is little odor, the color is white and sells well, the price is cheap and sufficient, and it is an excellent people-friendly ingredient.
Let people all over the country spend the same price as pork and chicken, you can eat a large piece of low-fat, high-protein, no small spines of fish, basa fish can be described as immeasurable merit.
Someone used it to impersonate a dragon fish
In the market, Basha Fish once had another common stage name "Dragon Fish", but this is an imposter.
Traditionally, the dragonfish refers to a class of marine fish , the flounder , the Cynoglossus semilaevis of the family Lycaenidae , and its close relatives , the " rays " in tongue twisters.
Semi-slippery tongue rays
Image source: Wikipedia
Flounders are the famous flounder family, which is a benthic fish with delicious edible fish. Among them, the bodies of flounders and turbots are wide and flat, while the bodies of the flounder family and the tongue family are relatively slender, like a tongue.
If a group of semi-slippery tongue rays get together, it's a bunch of tongues... The scene was at one point very emmmmmmm.
Semi-slippery tongue fish culture herd
The common name of the semi-slippery tongue fish should actually be written as "dragon mate fish", and "脷" refers to the tongue of livestock in the dialect of Guangdong. So why not use the word "tongue" directly, called "agave"? Because "tongue" is similar to the pronunciation of "eclipse" for doing business losses, how can the loss be done, so it is replaced by the word "脷", which is homophonous with "profit".
Unfortunately, as a legitimate dragon fish, several kinds of tongue rays have only been popular in the southeast coast for a long time, and there are not many sales in the mainland. Although the artificial culture of tongue rays has gradually matured in this century, the name of the dragon fish has been "preemptively registered" by the basa fish. Only in recent years, with the gradual standardization of the market, many merchants have quietly called back the basa fish.
Pan-fried dragon fish
Image source: foodnetwork.com
Although several kinds of tongue rays are delicious, they suffer from slow growth and small size, generally only 20 to 30 cm long. It is more expensive than the basa fish, but the fish is not as large and thick as the basa fish.
Therefore, the status of the tongue fish in the marine aquaculture industry is far less than that of the basa fish in the freshwater aquaculture industry; for the catering industry and the cold and fresh industry, of course, the bara fish is more cost-effective. But if you pass off cheap basa fish as a high-priced goods, it is not authentic.
What you eat in the restaurant is usually cooked fish, and it is difficult to tell whether it is a dragon or a basa fish. Generally speaking, the dragon fish is more expensive and the body of the fish is thinner; the basa fish is relatively cheap and the body of the fish is thicker.
But if the merchant makes the basa fish fillet in two, then... I'm afraid even the mother of the dragon fish can't recognize it.
Delicious and that's it
Image source network
bibliography:
[1] "Key Points of Artificial Breeding Technology of Basha Fish" Huang Wei Huang Muzhen Lin Bihai
[2] "Analysis of the Development Prospects of basa Fish Industry", Chen Huichong, Sun Hanbin, Cao Ming
Written by | Zi Fan
Image | Figureworm creative
WeChat Editor | What a cool