Japanese eel, an old friend of the Chinese people, may have to say goodbye to us.
According to many media reports such as Japan's "Mainichi Shimbun", the "fish shortage" of Japanese eels has intensified year after year. At the beginning of 2018, The Japanese fishery was faced with an "extreme shortage of eels" in the catch of only 100 kg of native eel fry, and the catch was only 0.2% of the same period last year.
△ Eel / figure worm
In 2019, the eel famine that lasted for six years did not improve.
Due to the warm current change "Kuroshio Great Snake Line" affecting the return time of eel fry, coupled with a long period of overfishing, according to the Japan Fisheries Agency, the eel fry catch this year is only 3.7 tons, the lowest level since 2003.
Production becomes smaller, and with it comes a surge in prices. At present, the price of eels has exceeded 5,000 yen (320 yuan) per kilogram.
Since the Japanese eel was listed on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) endangered list in 2014, eel freedom on a global scale seems to be getting farther and farther away.
The eel is a fish that spans three East Asian countries
When it comes to slippery eels, many people's first reaction is the fragrant, golden eel rice in the island country next door. In fact, the similar-looking eel has different interpretations in Kanto and Kansai.
Starting with the live killing of eels, the Kanto and Kansai cuisine methods have taken different paths. Influenced by samurai culture, Kanto avoids cutting the abdomen and killing fish from the back, while Kansai cuisine cuts the eel directly from the abdomen.
The Kanto people prefer a light and soft taste, and will grill the eel first, then steam, and then grill, removing the grease of the fish fat, and the taste is more refreshing and soft. Kansai people, on the other hand, grill live eels directly and grill them on a charcoal fire to dry the interdermal grease to make the eel skin crisper.
No matter which way it is grilled, the soul of eel rice must lie in the secret sauce of the shop. Japan's famous eel shops abound, and their own sauces, which have been passed down for hundreds of years, are their exclusive differentiating trademarks.
The eel sauce is made up of eel bones, soy sauce, miso, and sugar, but the subtle difference in proportions creates a unique flavor that diners will never forget.
In addition to charcoal grilling, refreshing snacks such as eel jelly and eel jade rolls also have a unique flavor. Moreover, the whole body of the eel is used in the Japanese kitchen.
Fish intestines and fish maws are rich in collagen, full of rich and sweet flavor; eel liver is slightly bitter, making eel liver soup is bitter and greasy; fried eel bones are only hung with a pinch of thin salt, crispy and salty, which is a good accompaniment to drink.
△ Eel roll / figure worm
Eels are most famous in Japan, but eels have been added to Chinese's river fresh luxury packages for more than a thousand years, and the practices are much richer. The eels south of the Yangtze River Basin are called white eels, because of their large size and tight flesh, they often serve as the finale of the feast.
The most well-known practice is the best concave sauce pan dragon eel.
The thick white eel is cut into bones and coiled in a large disc like a dragon, steamed over a thick soy sauce. The white fish is tight and the sauce is salty and slightly spicy, evoking the fresh taste of fresh white eels.
△ Soy sauce white eel / figure worm
Shunde people who love to eat fish also live up to expectations, and they have also studied many tricky tricks on white eels.
In the old days, the parietal eel was specially offered to the wealthy family, and the fresh eel was cut until the bones were broken, fried in oil to remove the fish, and then boiled with oiled roast meat and garlic.
Just cooked thoroughly, that is, the original strip is taken out with chopsticks to remove the bone, replaced with high-quality ham, and then steamed with lard oil to cover the rich ingredients such as white eel, roast meat, ham, and tangerine peel for half an hour.
△ Fire dragon eel / video screenshot from the documentary "The Story of the Eel"
The boiled live eels in the mountain springs of Fujian are completely fresh eel solo stages.
Cut the live eel into sections, add goji berries and ginger slices to the mountain spring water and cook for ten minutes, drink the soup first and then eat the meat, only add a little salt, the soup is sweet and moist, the fish is tender and tender, and the fish can be cooked with extraordinary skills.
△ Documentary "The Story of an Eel" / Video screenshot
In South Korea, hard-core live roasted eels are popular, where the eels are cut in half and placed directly on a charcoal stove-fired net, slowly roasted over a weak fire.
Because the nerves of the eel's muscles are very sensitive, the eel can still be seen struggling and squirming in pain when grilling.
Sympathetic diners can't help but put their chopsticks on the heat and taste the freshest fish with a little bit of fishy lemon juice and pepper powder.
At the beginning of the story, eels are a marketing game
Eels have names on the menus of the three East Asian countries, but when it comes to enjoying hegemonic influence, it is undoubtedly in the Japanese context. The world-wide roasted eel has been popular in Dongying for three hundred years, but at first it was just a marketing campaign for food and beverage merchants.
The Edo-era scholar Hiraga Genuchi was the first to set off this storm.
It is said that a friend of his opened a new eel shop and asked him to make a plaque on his behalf, and Hiraga Genuchi made a clever move to write one of the most provocative slogans in the history of Japanese food: "The ugly day of the earth is the day of eels, and if you eat it, you will not lose to the summer heat."
Friends' eel shops were so popular that their peers followed suit, and eating eels gradually became a traditional japanese summer-limited diet.
The appearance of eel rice is a little late.
△ Eel rice / figure worm
Legend has it that during the Cultural Period (1804-1818), The patron of the Hasaikai-cho drama class, Okubo Imasuke, could not bear to watch the roasted eels cool, and took advantage of the steaming japonica rice underneath them to keep warm.
With plump eel meat, a mellow sauce and fragrant rice, this unpretentious combination has since become a handle on Japanese food culture.
Every summer, the Urawa Eel Festival is held in Saitama Prefecture, Japan, where rivers are wide and rich in fish, attracting eel lovers from all over the country to visit with their families.
△ Eel Market / Figure Worm
If you don't go to the eel festival, you will definitely queue up for hours at the entrance of the major famous shops to eat a bowl of the best eel rice in your impression. In the Japanese world, the presence of eel rice in summer is equivalent to the dumplings in the eyes of northern Chinese people at the winter solstice.
Eel rice spread to China and became so popular among young people that one had to be named Kojima Motota.
The little fat man in "Detective Conan" is the first spokesperson of Japanese eel rice in the minds of countless Chinese post-90s, he weighed 90 pounds at the age of seven, and two-thirds of it is the credit of eel rice.
△ The second from the left is the little fat man Kojima Motota / Figure worm
It is precisely because of his unique skill of "reasoning about eel rice when you think of anything" that Japanese food has been widely recognized among young people before it was popular in the land of Shenzhou.
The children who watched Kojima Motoko's eel rice grew up, so the evaluation of eel rice has also become an important daily leisure for Young Chinese people. In the list of must-eat Japanese food in first- and second-tier cities, there is no shortage of high-priced or even sky-high-priced eel rice.
These eel restaurants are elegantly decorated, the service staff is well trained, the menu must be only three or four items, and more choices are not enough.
The chef is either Japanese or a Chinese student studying under a Japanese master, and the hundreds of bids are no longer the simple family eel rice that Kojima Motota has in mind, but more like a low-key luxury and connotation of social symbols.
But in Western countries that prefer to eat large seafood, eels seem to be less popular. In their eyes, the eel is more like the giant monster of Loch Ness in the centuries-old legend than the fat and oily food.
Without eels, what else could we eat?
There are 19 species of freshwater eels worldwide, collectively known as eels, the most popular of which is the Japanese eel. The Japanese, who make up 1.2 percent of the planet's population, ate 70 percent of the world's eels, and they started farming eels along the coast a hundred years ago.
In the past three decades, China has also built large-scale eel breeding bases in Guangdong, Fujian and other places, the largest in Shunde (the old artist is not surprised at all).
△ Chinese breeding eels / figure worms
It is said that it is artificial culture, but in fact, it is completely dependent on wild fry at the nursery stage.
Japanese eels spawn in the Mariana Trench, the world's deepest sea, and humans grow their eggs into fry, which are intercepted and harvested when they swim back from the ocean to freshwater and raised in feeding bases.
This captive chain is very mature, but it is also extremely fragile because it is almost entirely dependent on natural fry sources. The cost of conceiving eel seedlings through artificial insemination is as high as 60,000 yuan, which is obviously impossible to achieve commercial mass production.
△ Eel farming / figure worms
Technology cannot break through in a short period of time, the shortage of wild fish fry is only a growing trend, and the dilemma of no eel to eat seems to be imminent.
In 2017, Mori Tsukamoto, Japan's eel authority, issued an initiative to eel lovers: "Cherish eels and eat them sparingly." Eat eels a few times a year on congratulatory days. ”
Desensitizing eels, although reluctant, is a hurdle in front of eel lovers. The choice in front of consumers is, on the one hand, "there are eels to eat in this dynasty, and next year may not have to eat", and on the other hand, "the current ninja mouth is for future reunions".
△ Herons are catching eels / figure worms
Fears of the disappearance of eels haunted the Hearts of the Japanese people, and an eel information account called the "Eel Fighting Campaign" on Twitter recorded the eel catch and trading price movements, which garnered 15,000 followers in just two or three weeks.
The left hand is the big love, the right hand is the small love, and the old artist who is caught in the dilemma chooses the middle way. Eating a substitute for eel can also reap the same happiness.
Japanese eels are not eaten, and there are many varieties such as flower eels, hel eels, Filipino eels and American eels for feeding. These species have a large number of wild-producing eggs, and as long as they are properly harvested, there will be no serious endangerment problems, which makes people feel at ease.
△ Eels caught in the Caribbean/figure worms
In Japan, the eel shelves that used to be full of eels have gradually emerged with new faces:
Grilled pork belly, mackerel and salmon in eel sauce can also be rich in oil and tender in taste; eel-flavored grilled catfish developed by University not only has an 80% similar appearance to eel, but also has a taste that is not lost at all, and is launched by retail giant Aeon as a fist product.
△ Grilled catfish began to become a substitute for Japanese eel / figure worm
Eels are limited, but foodie ideas are unlimited. The crisis of eels may be the opportunity for creative cuisine.
If eating a few less eels can save the marine ecology, the old artist will not hesitate to raise his chopsticks and say to the creative eel alternatives on all sides, I am willing.
【Author today】
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