As soon as summer arrives, our table will be filled with all kinds of fresh flavors, crabs, crayfish, scallops, clams... That's what summer tastes like. Soup, scallion, blanch, blanch, stir-fry, teppanyaki, braised, drunken and choked, for foodies, there are countless ways to eliminate seafood. In fact, eating seafood is a science, and there are many small secrets hidden in the middle!
crab
Liang Shiqiu once said: "Crab is delicious, everyone loves, there is no distinction between north and south, regardless of elegance." "Throughout the ages, the charm of a crab has been steamed and fried, and it has not faded for thousands of years, and it has fascinated countless people.
For the name "Chinese river crab", many people will feel a little strange, but it is actually a hairy crab.
This guy with furry pliers is widely distributed in China, from Liaoning in the north to Guangdong in the south, and it can be seen in the north, especially the producer of Yangcheng Lake is the most famous. The main reason is that the low-lying terrain and proximity to the coastline make it an ideal habitat for hairy crabs, a migratory creature.
Compared with Taihu Lake, Yangcheng Lake can be said to be very young. It was formed by the continuous settlement of the Taihu Plain, and the earliest record of it was in the Song Dynasty, and an earthquake during the Yongzheng period laid the current extent of Yangcheng Lake and the shoreline of the lake.
Since then, the hairy crab of Yangcheng Lake has gradually become well known as an independent species.
Later, adjacent to Yangcheng Lake, Shanghai became more and more prosperous, the consumption power increased day by day, Shanghai is very popular to eat hairy crabs, guarding this huge "appetite", relying on the excellent quality of water and soil cultivation, Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs have become a highly recognizable brand.
Many people love crab paste and crab yellow when eating crab.
In recent years, bald butter has been particularly hot. In fact, "bald" is the "unique" meaning in the Wu language, and bald butter refers to oil that contains only crab yellow. Fresh crab yellow, put into lard, simmer the aroma of crab yellow over low heat, put it out and let it cool, it can be stored for a long time.
Use it to mix noodles and bibimbap
Or made into crab yellow tofu, it is a delicious taste that is difficult to refuse.
I unilaterally declare that crab yellow is the fattest part of hairy crabs!
There are also crab powder lion heads
Crab yellow soup buns
All so delicious!
So what is crab paste?
As a friendly reminder, the crab cream of female crabs has slightly higher cholesterol!
scallops
When scallops are closed shells, the muscles will be very developed, this muscle is called closed shell muscles, commonly known as shell pillars,
After it is dried, it is the dried scallops sold in the market.
The developed closed shell muscle is the most delicious part of the scallop, and the large number of amino acids and nucleotides in the cells brings it plenty of fresh sweetness, and excess spices and excessive cooking will damage its taste
So simply frying and steaming is best.
And the dried scallops that many people eat come from ctenophores.
The shell of the ctenophore scallop is shaped like a folding fan, the surface of the shell has radial lines, and the shape of its two shells is slightly different, generally speaking, the left shell is flat and the right shell is slightly bulging. When inhabiting the seafloor, it is often a flat left shell on top, and the hinge of the two shells has an ear in front of and behind it, and the name of the ctenophore scallop is because its right shell front ear has fine ctenophores and foot filament holes.
Ezo scallops are also a scallop variety that we are more familiar with. What is Ezo? The only ethnic minority in Japan is the Ailu people, and the ancients translated it as the Ezo people, so the scallops of the Ezo people are called Ezo scallops.
Its biggest feature is its large size, its shell is about 28 cm, and the shell column is more than 15 cm.
In addition, there are long ribs of the sun and moon shells. In Taiwan, it is called the Asian Sun moon clam, and in Hong Kong, China, it is called the Sun Moon Fish, and the word Sun and Moon originates from the fact that the color of the shells on the left and right is different.
Importantly, many of these scallops can be hybridized with each other, and many of the ones we see in the market are hybrids, so it is more complicated to identify, but it doesn't matter, they are all delicious!
Pippi shrimp
Because of a popular phrase "Pippi shrimp, let's go", Pippi shrimp has become an Internet celebrity in seafood. But in fact, long before becoming a national Internet celebrity, Pippi shrimp was very famous.
This is mainly because it is a natural fighting race, in front of its body, under its head, there is a pair of toothed hammer joints, whenever there is a prey approaching, pippi shrimp fists and feet will be fierce and powerful. Each time pippi shrimp "punches", the speed is as high as 80 kilometers per hour, and the high-speed friction can instantly increase the surrounding temperature to 7,000 degrees. God's reward of the attack ability, so that pippi shrimp stands near the top of the bottom of the sea food chain, we regard the delicacies of the ocean, are its daily food.
The day of Phi Phi shrimp is probably a crab for breakfast
Lunch is only sea urchin
Smash a few more shells at night!
In general, the female Pippi shrimp is not as large as the male, and the abdomen will have a white "king" near the head. The male Pippi shrimp has a pair of small feet under three pairs of steps, if you can't find these two feet, then it must be a female shrimp.
For foodies, the distinction between male and female is just to further confirm whether the shrimp seeds are full, which is the most important. Whether from the back or abdomen, there is a red line running through the head and tail, this red line is the shrimp seed bred in the mother shrimp, the clearer and swollen, the more delicious it is!
Small seafood
After talking about these common seafood, let's talk about small seafood from Ningbo. Small seafood, as the name suggests, is a smaller seafood product.
Take the mud snail, for example
Bergamot snail
Sea melon seeds
Oyster yellow and so on.
Among them, the most famous is the mud snail. Ningbo people call it "spitting iron". China's coastline is 18,000 kilometers long, and there are mud snails produced along the coast, but if you talk about Ningbo yellow mud snails, you should be the "king of mud snails".
As a small home jasper in seafood, it is rarely elegant, but in the humid and sweltering summer, the refreshing and appetizing drunken mud snail is almost a must-have for every family.
Wash the mud snails picked up on the beach, sift off the mucus on the surface, remove the moisture, put it into a closed container, marinate it in light salt water for half a month, and seal it for ten days with Shaoxing rice wine, and it can be put in the refrigerator for refrigeration and stored for a long time.
The small seafood commonly found on the table of Ningbo people, as well as the "Lady of the East Sea" mussels. Its scientific name is mussel, also called mussel, shell vegetable, northerners also call it haihong. Mussels also have the reputation of "eggs in the sea", with a protein content of up to 59% and a very low fat content.
Mussels are not easy to mine and collect, because they all rely on their own unique foot silk, tightly attached to the rocks on the seashore. Not only that, but they can also be adsorbed on the rocks under the ship and on the bottom of the sea.
There is a kind of seafood, even with "blood", people who love it will not hesitate to eat it, this is the blood cockle. The blood of blood cockles is rich in heme, so the flesh of the cockles is bright red. Folk believe that blood cockles are "full of flesh and blood" and are great tonics. As early as the Three Kingdoms period, there are records of eating blood cockles.
After watching so much seafood, are you hungry? Wait, be sure to remember the correct posture to open the seafood - seafood may contain highly pathogenic microorganisms, be sure to disinfect before eating; drink beer when eating seafood, the body will produce too much uric acid, causing gout. In short, the best food brings endless aftertaste, not regret when seeing a doctor or diarrhea. Remember this principle, then let's eat, you seafood control!