The red-billed magnum was a large marine fish species commonly found in The waters of Hong Kong from the pre-liberation period to the 1980s, so it has always been well known in the minds of people in coastal areas. Red-billed fish, shaped like a perch, is called "red-billed eel" in Chaoshan and southern Fujian, "silver turtle" in Zhanjiang, "golden silk turtle" in Wenzhou, and "black eel" in Southeast Asia, which is actually the same kind of fish. The red-billed egret is a high-value fish, and since ancient times, there has been a saying that "there is money to eat turtles, no money to eat free", which shows that its price is expensive.
The Chaoshan region is bordered by the sea, and in the past, the Area of South Australia was a place where red-billed magnose was often infested, and local fishermen could often catch red-billed turtles, so red-billed eel glue was highly known in Chaoshan itself. Although the price of red-billed eel glue is expensive, it has always been a good tonic favored by people in Chaoshan areas, and in the past, Chaoshan people's families would generally keep some good red-billed eel glue for their daughters or daughters-in-law to use when they were pregnant and childbirth. Red-billed eel belly is highly respected in Hong Kong, known as "Broad Belly Gong", "Turtle Belly Gong", "Raw Open Belly Gong" and so on, and has long been one of the high-end ingredients in restaurants.
First, the fingerlings of red-billed eel glue
There are two main species of red-billed eel glue, the bispined proto-yellowtail and the brown-haired salmon, which belong to the genus proto-yellowgut and the hairy-caudady in the totoaba family. Although there are two different species of fish, the two fish are very similar in appearance and the fish fins are also very similar, so the swim bladders of both species are called red-billed eel glue.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > diplodocus brassica</h1>
Protonibea diacanthus is distributed in the Indo-Western Pacific region, including Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, New Guinea, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the East China Sea and the South China Sea, with a water depth of 3 to 60 meters. It is carnivorous, feeding on fish and crustaceans, and has the habit of going up to rivers and estuaries with tidal fluctuations, and is an important economic fish.
Adults
The head of the double-spined proto-yellowgut is slightly pointed, the snout is not prominent, the mouth is large, the end is positioned, oblique, and the upper jaw is slightly longer than the lower jaw. The body is long and flattened, dark brown , and the abdomen is off-white. The body and head are scaled, the snout is rounded, the canine tooth-shaped eye circles are large, and the eye mask transparency is high red and bright. Above the horizontal line of the upper edge of the pectoral fin base, there are many black spots of different sizes, so it is called "Black Spotted Croaker" in places such as Southeast Asia or Australia. 10 to 11 dorsal spines and 25 dorsal fin soft strips; There are 2 hard spines in the fin and 7 to 8 soft strips in the fin. Juvenile tail fin is pointed, adult fish is wedge-shaped, the body length can reach 150 cm, bispinous proto-yellow gugu was previously classified in the "yellow gugu genus", due to phylogenetic differentiation, so it was later studied as a genus alone. Its maw is a primitive yellow, with 18 pairs of branches, in the form of pairs, the front and back branches do not overlap, and the second pair is particularly large.
There are almost no "ears" or "ears" in the red-billed eel glue, generally it is the fish maw of the double-spined original yellow cumin, 18 pairs of fish maw branches, in addition to the head and tail of the appendages, the "water holes" that appear on the body of the red-billed turtle glue are generally about 11 to 13 ears in size and length, compared with the entire fish maw, generally accounting for only a very small proportion. The length of the legal line on the naked-billed eel glue accounts for about 2/3 to 3/4 of the total length of the fish glue.
Juvenile fish
1. Wild double-spined yellow cuttlefish in Hong Kong waters
Once upon a time, the double-spined yellowgu fish also inhabited the coastal waters of the South China Sea and the East China Sea, from Zhejiang along the coastline to the south, all the way to Fujian, eastern Guangdong and the Taiwan Strait, and then all the way west to the Pearl River Delta, western Guangdong, and then to the Beibu Gulf of Guangxi, which is the main distribution area of the double-spined yellowgu fish. Zhanjiang Chizui, Yangjiang Chizui, Taishan Chizui, Zhejiang Big Ear, etc., are named after the places of origin at that time.
However, since the mid-1980s, the double-spined yellowtail has not been flooded, mainly because of the "destructive" fishing methods of Chinese fishermen, which have led to the imminent extinction of the same fate as the yellow croaker and yellow lip fish. As early as many years ago, Chen Dagang, a professor at the Ocean University of China, said that more than 90% of China's coastal waters have basically become "marine deserts" and there are no fish to catch. The operation methods of Chinese fishermen are very "poisonous", "chasing fish", where there are fish, they will go wherever there are fish, and all kinds of "nets of extinction", "ecstasy nets", "electric trawls" and other fishing gear that are cut off from generation to generation emerge in an endless stream, even microorganisms and fry are not spared, resulting in the depletion of fishery resources in China's near-coastal areas.
2. Double-spined proto-yellow fish cultured along the coast of China
In fact, state leaders and relevant experts have long realized that China's coastal resources are gradually depleting, so as early as 1979, the first national aquatic work conference made an important instruction to vigorously develop aquaculture. After a long period of research, the breeding industry of double-spined original yellow cuttlefish, the red-billed crayfish, began in the late 1990s, and began to be cultivated in Chaozhou Raoping, Zhangzhou Dongshan Island and other areas.
Red-billed crayfish mainly adopt the sea cage culture mode, it is best to choose the sediment bottom at a depth of more than 5 meters, good wind shelter, fresh water quality, smooth water flow, flow to a straight and stable sea area, such as Chaozhou Raoping County Tuolin Bay, because it has the most adequate conditions, so it has been one of the main areas for the cultivation of red-billed quail. Finger-length red-billed fern fry can grow to 4 to 5 kg after a year of breeding, 11 to 12 kg in two years, 15 to 16 kg after 26 to 28 months, and basically reach market demand in two or three years. Under normal circumstances, 12 to 20 red-billed magnums of 15 to 16 kilograms can produce 1 kilogram of fish maw. Due to the short time and quick effect of the cultivation of red-billed magnum, it is also favored by farmers on Shantou Nan'ao Island, and fish steaks from all over the island are competing for aquaculture. The red-billed hammer fish meat in the meat market is only sold for more than a dozen yuan a catty, the main economic value of the red-billed turtle lies in its fish maw, and most of the fish meat is processed into fresh fillets or salted fish for export to Countries such as Japan and South Korea. Due to the special natural conditions required for the cultivation of red-billed magnum and the low consumption of maw in some other areas, it is difficult to promote to other regions, and the current culture is only concentrated in Chaoshan and southern Fujian.
Now the cultured red-billed eel gum
3. Wild double-spined brassica in the Indian Ocean
Wild double-spined brassica grow rapidly, growing to 60 cm long in the first year and up to 90 cm in the second year. Related studies have reported that the dipentosaurus is thought to reach sexual maturity at 89 cm. In the Indo-Western Pacific region, it is found in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, as well as the island of New Guinea and northern Australia. Since the fishery resources in the Indian Ocean were not as exploited as well as those along the Coast of China, most of the wild red-billed eel gum came from the Indian Ocean from the 1990s to the present. Later, due to the continuous expansion of market demand and the intensification of fishing, the fishery resources along the northern coast of the Indian Ocean gradually decreased.
Many countries in Southeast Asia refer to the red-billed eel gum as "Datina". In India, the red-billed magnum is an important economic fish, known locally as "Ghol". According to a 2010 Indian study, in a small town of Diu on the western coast, about 2803.2 tonnes of totoaba catch per year between 2003 and 2007, accounting for 18.9% of total trawling catches, of which red-billed eels accounted for about 27.5% of toaba catches. Total production of red-billed magnum was 315.8 tonnes in 2003, increased to 1342.8 tonnes in 2005 and decreased to 788 tonnes in 2007. The period from 2003 to 2005 was a period of sharp increase in market demand, after which production gradually declined due to increased fishing.
Red mouth is cultured in Hong Kong
The red-billed magnum is also an important economic fish in Myanmar, known locally as "Ka-tha-myin". Myanmar is widely recognized as the best producer of red-billed eel gum in the industry, and it is from which the Myanmar red-billed and Taishan-based chizui from the 1990s onwards come from.
In Australia, the red-billed turtle is known as the "Black jew fish" and is a target for fishermen because of its large size. The Northern Territory produced 443 tonnes in 1995 and 667 tonnes in 2005. From the data point of view, Australia's red-billed eel production has not changed significantly, which can be said to be quite related to Australia's own fishing regulations, law enforcement and human environment. In the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia, the fishing limit for red-billed magnose is limited to 2 and the length is not less than 60 cm; On the eastern coast, there is also a limit of 2 fishing, the length is not less than 75 cm and there are strict regulations for the sieve mesh. Its commercial fishing has a certain quota every year. Australians who catch "unqualified" fish will also consciously release them. In contrast, Chinese fishermen's pursuit of fish and the predatory exploitation of resources have to be reflected.
Southeast Asian wild red-billed
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > brown maw</h1>
Among the red-billed turtle glue, some of the "ears" are larger, known as "big ears red mouth", "big ear flower glue", "big ears", etc., these species still belong to the red-billed eel glue, but their fish species are not the previous double-spined original yellow gullfish, but the brown hairy anchovy.
Brown maw (Megalonibea fusca) is a rayfin fish species of the totoaba family of totoaba in the family Totoabaidae, distributed in the Taiwan Strait, the East China Sea, the southern Part of the Yellow Sea and other seas, belongs to the coastal warm temperate demersal fish, body length of up to 143 cm, body shape similar to crayfish, is a rare and valuable endangered fish species in China, with important economic value and high academic research value.
The brown flounder, once named Nibea japonica, is a species named after the famous Chinese ichthyologist Zhu Yuanding and others (1963). According to records, at that time, Zhu Yuanding was the president of the Shanghai Fisheries College, and one day, his assistant Wu Hanlin was carrying 3 big fish with excitement, and Zhu Yuanding saw that it was the "Japanese yellow girl fish" he dreamed of. Foreign literature describes its dorsal fins as being between 22 and 29, and Zhu Yuanding is quite skeptical about this, feeling that the number of dorsal fin fins of the same fish cannot be so different. After doing the shape analysis, he personally took the scalpel, skillfully cut open the belly of the fish, and gently removed the internal organs, revealing the nearly one-foot-long maw. ... ,... The maw looks like an iron anchor, with two more ears than described in the data8...,... The final research results formed the treatise "Research on the Taxonomic System of Chinese Totoabas and the Description of New Genera and New Species", which is still an important reference for the study of totoaba species in the world. From Zhu Yuanding's description of the brown maw and related foreign academic reports, it is known that the fish maw of the brown maw looks like an iron anchor, and the head of the maw has two "ears".
Brown hairy blocus elongated lateral flattening, large mouth, anterior position, oblique fissure, two jaws about equal length; There are 6 chin holes, which are "six hole type" and no chin whiskers. The body is dark brown and the abdomen is gray; The body is scaled, the snout is rounded; The lateral line is straight and extends to the posterior end of the caudal fin. The dorsal fin is continuous, with 10 to 11 fin spines and 27 to 29 fins; The fin has 2 fin spines, 7 to 8 fins; The caudal fin is double concave, and the upper leaf has 9 fins and the lower leaf has 8 fins. Its leading edge is rounded, without protruding short sacs, with a thin tip at the end, 26 pairs of lateral branches of the maw, and the 4th and 5th pairs of lateral branches are extraordinarily large, with abdominal branches and no dorsal branches.
The brown-haired maw is the "big-eared red-billed red-billed" in the red-billed eel glue. Before the 1970s and 1980s, the "Zhejiang big ear" was the fish maw of the brown-haired flounder. Due to the narrow distribution range and small population of brown hair, it was only a small-scale fishing before the 1970s, with low fishing intensity and relatively stable resources. After the 1970s, the intensity of offshore fishing has been increasing, resulting in a deteriorating number of resources, which has long reached the point of extinction. In 1998, after the Fujian Fisheries Research Institute carried out artificial breeding and breeding of brown hair in China, a large number of artificial breeding began to be carried out in various places, and are currently mainly concentrated in the eastern coast.
The brown hairy tritone is not a unique toaba in China's waters, and there are also brown hairy tridents in Indonesia and Australia. In Australia, the brown flounder is known as the "mulloway". Since the "Zhejiang Big Ear" gradually disappeared in the 1980s, the wild Big Ear Red Mouth in the market is from Indonesia, Malaysia, New Guinea Island, Australia and other waters. As the name suggests, the "ears" with large ears and red mouths are larger, with lengths ranging up to 25% to 30% of the total length of the swim bladder. In addition, because there are 26 pairs of fish maw side branches of brown-haired maw, which is more than the 18 pairs of fish maw side branches of the double-spined original yellow girl, there are more water holes next to the gum line of the red-billed turtle, about seventeen or eight (calculated according to the water hole after removing the head and tail).
Second, the identification characteristics of red-billed eel glue
Red-billed turtle glue is divided into farmed and wild: farmed red-billed turtle glue comes from China, mainly in Coastal areas such as Guangdong and Fujian; Wild red-billed turtle gum comes mainly from the Indian Ocean. Farmed red-billed eel glue is relatively small, and weighing more than 1 or 2 is relatively rare. Wild red-billed eel glue is relatively large, the female belly can be up to about 1 and a half pounds, and the male belly generally does not weigh more than 1 pound. Red-billed eel glue has the following main features:
1. Red-billed eel glue has a pair of "legal lines". The legal line is a long " line" on the body of fish glue, and it all appears in pairs.
2. There is a row of "water outlet holes" next to the legal line, which can be seen with the naked eye and is more clearly illuminated by light. The outer appendages of the red-billed bladder or white flower glue will leave a small hole in the swim bladder after being removed, which is what we usually call the "water outlet hole".
3. Male belly (male fish maw) is "thick and thin meat", that is, the middle of the glue body is thick and thin on both sides, or vice versa; The gelatin of the female belly (female fish maw) is thick and even.
4. In the red-billed eel glue, the heads of the big-eared red-billed and golden-orchid red-billed have two "ears", and the "ears" of other varieties are small or not, such as Burmese red-billed, red-chicken red-billed and so on. Some large-eared red mouths also have multiple "small ears".
The characteristics of the red-billed eel glue are actually the characteristics of the fish maw of the species to which it belongs. Different maws have their own different characteristics of swim bladders, which are the characteristics of the evolution of fish to adapt to the living environment, such as the bladder of the money cray has a long thin tube at the front end, and the fish maw of the twill large spiny fish has a short tube at the front end and so on. The size and proportion of the "ears" of the red-billed eel glue, in addition to being related to the fish species, are also related to the marine environment in which the fish live.
Third, the classification of red-billed eel glue
Red-billed eel glue is the most complex of many fish gelatin species for a number of reasons: First, the fingerlings of red-billed eel glue are not a single species, there are different species such as double-spined yellowtail and woolly anchovy. Some of its bladders are "small ears" and some are "big ears", and there are certain differences in appearance. Second, there are many different classification methods of red-billed eel glue, such as origin, style, shape and so on. Second, different classification methods sometimes intersect, such as a certain breed, from the place of origin is the Burmese red mouth, but from the style point of view it is the red chicken red mouth. These reasons make the classification of red-billed eel glue by ordinary people prone to confusion.
If we start from the species of fish to which we belong, red-billed eel glue is undoubtedly divided into two categories: double-spined yellow fish glue and hairy anchovy glue. However, this classification method is not practical from the practical point of view, the two kinds of fish glue are only slightly different, some are even difficult to distinguish, and it is usually impossible to take all of them for DNA identification. Therefore, the classification of red-billed eel glue should still follow the classification habits that people are accustomed to, and combine different characteristics such as origin and style of fish species, and comprehensively subdivide into the following varieties:
1. Zhanjiang red mouth
Before the mid-1980s, red-billed eel glue was produced in many coastal areas of Guangdong, such as Zhanjiang, Taishan, Yangjiang, etc., and the fish glue was named Zhanjiang Chizui, Taishan Chizui and Yangjiang Chizui respectively, to show the difference between the production area and the different methods of taking the maw and drying the bladder by fishermen in various places. Later, the domestic wild red mouth was almost extinct, and fishermen in Southeast Asia first imitated the shape and style of Zhanjiang red mouth for sunning and shaping, so the market also continued to use the name of "Zhanjiang red mouth". The fish maw used in Zhanjiang Red Mouth is generally a double-spined original yellow girl swim bladder with smaller "ears". Zhanjiang chizui is very popular with the public, and later many production areas have used physical stereotyping and other methods to manually squeeze into an approximately round Zhanjiang chizui for sale, and most of the domestically farmed red-billed turtle glue is also made into such styles.
2. Taishan Red Mouth
Taishan Red Mouth is shaped like a saddle, which is another popular red-billed eel glue variety after Zhanjiang Red Mouth, which was originally produced in Taishan, Guangdong. Since the 1990s, Taishan Chizui is mainly produced in Myanmar and is recognized as one of the best quality chizui varieties in the industry. Because it is quite popular in the market, later, Pakistan's red mouth is also mostly made of this shape, also called "Taishan red mouth", the line is called "south goods", the quality is superior.
3. Red chicken with red mouth
Red chicken red mouth is mainly from Myanmar and Pakistan, often compared with Surabaya red mouth, is also one of the most popular varieties in the market. Its gum quality is more delicate than that of Surabaya Red Mouth, and its quality and price are relatively higher than that of Surabaya Red Mouth, but this cannot be generalized, and it depends on the actual fish glue situation.
4. Surabaya red mouth
Surabaya Chizui was previously the main source of Origin in Indonesia, but now it is mainly from India. Surabaya red mouth and red chicken red mouth are more similar in appearance, but Surabaya red mouth colloidal head is relatively large, the front or reverse of the glue body often has a "well" pattern, inferred to be related to the local fishermen's habit of drying fish glue. It was a variety of fish gelatin ingredients that were used for the 2014 CICA Summit Dinner.
The name "Surabaya Red Mouth" dates back more than 30 years. At that time, fish glue sold from Hong Kong to the Chaoshan region was called "vegetable glue" regardless of species and size. At first glance, many people don't know what it is, but they probably know the ingredients or ingredients used to make dishes. It is true that in the early 20th century, fish glue was indeed used as a soup in the domestic market or in foreign Chinese circles. However, the name "vegetable glue" sounds really ordinary and does not reflect the value of fish glue. Since the "vegetable gum" that came to the goods at that time was red mouth, and the origin was Indonesia, we named the red mouth turtle glue from the outer port for the first time, named it Surabaya (Chinese name Surabaya), the second largest city in Indonesia and the capital of East Java Province, called "Surabaya Red Mouth". This is the origin of the name "Surabaya Red Mouth" at that time. Later, there were more people doing fish glue business, especially Chaoyang people, and "Surabaya" became "sushui" according to the chaoyang sound, so the market also had the name of "sushui red mouth".
5. Burmese red mouth
In the accumulation of long-term experience, insiders generally believe that the quality of the red mouth produced in Myanmar is generally higher than that of other regions, so the Myanmar red mouth is listed as a separate species. In fact, the manual methods of fishermen in the place of origin are particularly important for the quality of fish glue finished products, sometimes, if fishermen operate improperly in a series of processes such as fishing, picking maws, sun maws, etc., it will affect the quality of fish glue if it is serious, which is reflected in the resistance to soaking, smell, color, appearance and other aspects. The red mouth produced in Myanmar has always been recognized in the industry as a high-quality, excellent quality red-billed eel glue.
6. Big ears and red mouth
Large ears and red mouth, although there are two "ears", but also different sizes. If the fish maw is opened, it is called "big ear red mouth", and if the fish maw is taken to maintain the original ecological cylinder shape of the fish maw, it is generally called "big ear red mouth tube". However, whether it is cylindrical or flaky, the large ears and red beaks appear in the original shape of the fish maw, and the "ears" are exposed. In the 1970s and 1980s, the big ear red mouth mainly came from the Zhejiang area, so it was also called "Zhejiang big ear", and the current big ear red mouth mainly came from Indonesia, Australia and other seas. Big-eared red mouth is not as crazy as Zhanjiang red mouth, Taishan red mouth, red chicken red mouth, etc. are crazy and popular in the market, so the price will be relatively low, generally directly processed by local fishermen, most of them are local goods, but in terms of quality, there is no big difference.
7. Kim Lan Red Mouth
The Golden Orchid Red Mouth is a new variety named after 2005. At that time, there was a kind of "new look of red-billed eel glue" on the market for the first time, which is said to come from the waters of Vietnam, and the traditional Zhanjiang, red chicken, Surabaya and other red-billed varieties are different from the shape of the big-eared red-billed, but the meat quality is relatively soft, so we borrowed the name of "Cam Ranh Bay" and named it "Cam Ranh Red Mouth", which has been used ever since. Jinlan red mouth can be described as big ears and red mouth in essence, but it is cleaner and cleaner than big ear red mouth in appearance, and there is very little oil.
8. Thick belly and red mouth
In the Burmese red mouth or Taishan red mouth, some fish glue in the light, the permeability is very high, the gum is like "glass meat", obviously more delicate, soft, they are called "thick belly red mouth", becoming the best in the red mouth. Thick belly red mouth production is not much, colloidal will not be very heavy, generally within a few or two. Compared with other varieties, the color of the thick-bellied red-billed and burmese red-billed red-billed color is much slower during storage, and even after a long period of storage, the color still does not change much. Therefore, it is not accurate to judge the storage time of fish glue by color alone, and it is also necessary to judge it in combination with the characteristics of the variety and the colloidal grain.
9. Yangjiang Chizui (Tram Road)
Originally produced in Yangjiang, Guangdong Province before the mid-1980s, it is a rare red-billed variety. Yangjiang Chizui also has a more famous name - "Tram Road". Why does fish glue have such a strange name? It turned out that this was related to the Hong Kong Tram. Trams, one of the oldest means of transport in Hong Kong, began service in 1904. At that time, Hong Kong's Sheung Wan had developed into an important Chinese business district, where many seafood shops were opened, selling seafood such as abalone wings, roughly ranging from what is now called "Seafood Street", which was exactly near the Hong Kong tram line of that year. Therefore, when the "Hong Kong Tram" met the "seafood", the simple working people at that time could not come up with a more connotative fish glue name, so there was the name "Tram Road" in the fish glue varieties.
10. Stone belly
Stone belly, in the red-billed turtle glue can be described as its own style, because it often uses the highest quality of red-billed turtle glue to make the proprietary shape of stone belly, so the price is much higher than similar red-billed turtle glue, can be called the noble of red-billed fish glue. General merchants will list the stone belly separately when classifying, which shows that it does have a very unique status.
The shape of the stone belly is like "瓠" (Chaozhou pronunciation: bu fu), and the wooden tool used by the Chaoshan people to scoop water in the past was called 瓠- the gourd melon was dried and cut in half to form a gourd. Therefore, some people also call the stone belly "under the glue". In addition, the shape of the stone belly is also very similar to the local money eel glue (small whisker money). Tracing back to the origin of this shape, it was thirty or forty years ago. In the past, there were many golden turtles and red-billed turtles in the Humen area of the Pearl River Estuary, and there was a batch of money eel glue and red-billed eel glue, which were specially processed by a master in Macao, and the styles of the two kinds of fish glue were similar, which is the shape of the current stone belly. The "first generation of stone belly" in the market now is actually a wild red mouth produced in the Pearl River estuary area. The wild red-billed eel in Hong Kong has been extinct for many years, and the rarity is expensive, so the first generation of stone belly is very expensive, becoming a veritable "noble" in the red-billed eel glue.
Why are there so many varieties of red-billed turtle glue in the market? In fact, because the fresh fish maw taken out of the fish body is wet and plastic, fishermen around the world handmade into various shapes according to their own customs and habits, air-dried or sun-dried, and finally finalized into the finished fish glue in the market. Although there are many varieties of red-billed eel glue, in fact, different varieties represent different shapes, different styles, or different origins. No matter which red-billed variety, it belongs to the large classification of red-billed eel glue, as long as the fish glue is clean, clean and odorless, it is really not necessary to stick to a certain variety and a certain style.