We already know that the scallops of Zhangzidao will "leave", so where does it "come" from? This time, I will talk to you about the scallops who have crossed the ocean to take root in our country and meet the Chinese people's pursuit of delicious food.
Scallops Scallops, where did you come from
Common farmed scallop species in China are Chlamys farreri,orifice scallops (Chlamys nobilis), Bay Scallops (Argopecten irradians) and Mizuhopecten yessoensis. The first two are native scallops, while the latter two are cultured species imported from abroad.
Scallops have a long history of aquaculture in China, and are also one of the pillar industries of national important offshore aquaculture, and the harvested products are exported to all over the world. As early as the 1980s, China introduced exotic scallop species from abroad for breeding.
Chlamys shells of different colors and sizes | Joanbanjo / Wikimedia Commons
Ezo scallops, also known as Sail Shellfish, are native to northern Japan and the Russian Far East, and belong to strict cold water species, so they are only farmed in the northern regions of China, including Shandong, Liaoning and other places. Another kind of bay scallop imported from the east coast of the United States in the Atlantic Ocean, similar to the native ctenophore scallop, can tolerate a wide temperature, a wide salt range, in China's aquaculture range is much wider than the Ezo scallop, in addition to Shandong, Hebei and other northern coasts, Guangdong and other southern regions are also cultured. These two types of scallops have spread to seafood markets all over the country.
Shell of bay scallops | Naturalis Biodiversity Center
Will the scallops have a chance to escape?
Scallops undergo a change in their lives from drifting to taking root. In this life, we have to start from the scallop babies, and people mostly obtain scallop seedlings through artificial seedlings. The preferred scallop parents are carefully cared for in the breeding tank, and after the male and female scallops release gametes in the water to form fertilized eggs, the fertilized eggs are collected and cultured in a pool, and they are raised by feeding algae to the hatched larvae. When the floating scallop babies are about to start settling, they put plastic sheets and other pieces to become the attachment of the seedlings, and take good care of them to survive the most fragile seedling stage.
At about 3 cm, the scallop babies are transferred to offshore waters and reared in cages hanging in water (cage hanging type) or threaded on the shell to fix the main rope (ear hanging type), or even directly sown on the seabed (bottom sowing type) until the market. Scallops are filter-feeding organisms, mainly relying on phytoplankton and organic detritus in filtered water as food sources, so there is no need to throw bait in wild farming.
Ear and cage hanging culture | M. Dredge et al. / FRDC Project 2000 (2002)
Compared with hanging breeding, bottom sowing lacks direct control over farmed species, and there is a feeling of raising sheep in the endless grassland, and in the absence of effective management, it is easy to reduce production, harvest is not easy, and the advantage is that the cost of input management is low. In the 1980s, Zhangzidao made its fortune by bottom-sowing farming.
In contrast, the suspension mode is easy to understand the condition of scallops, and harvesting is also convenient, but it requires more maintenance on weekdays to prevent the cage from attaching algae too densely, sludge accumulation, resulting in adverse effects such as poor water flow. Of course, it also deprives the scallop of freedom of movement - the scallop has a strong closed shell muscle, and when the shell is closed, the front end is blocked with the margin membrane, so that the water can be sprayed out from the back, and it can move forward. However, scallops can only run a few meters away and will not "flee en masse".
Harvesting cage-mounted scallops | Figureworm creative
Alien giants and dwarfs
Ezo scallops, compared to China's native ctenophore scallops, can be described as one is a giant and the other is a dwarf. Ezo scallops are larger than ctenophores and luxury ctenophores. The shells of large individuals can reach more than 20 centimeters in diameter (studies have shown that this "giant" scallop is at least 15 years old). The main cultured species of the famous Zhangzidao is the Ezo scallop, which is commonly found on the market, and the age is generally about two years old, and the size is between 10 and 15 cm. On the back of the shell of the Ezo scallop, the radial "fan bones" are smooth, and the "scallop bones" of the ctenophore scallops have spine-like protrusions.
Yin Xiaoyuan | Aomorikuma / Wikimedia Commons
The imported product of bay scallops belongs to the small head, and the adult bay scallops are only 5 to 7 centimeters, even compared with China's ctenophore scallops (conventional size 7 to 9 centimeters) are still small. Bay scallops are characterized by fast growth rate and short time to market, and individual varieties can be marketed in less than a year. There are more "scallopes" on the back of bay scallops than ctenophores, and the shells are rounded (ctenophores scallops are triangular).
Bay scallop blue eyes | unoit333 / Flickr
The color of the ctenophores and bay scallops varies widely, while the Ezo scallops are slightly inferior in appearance, with one more white side and one side brown. Nowadays, due to the development of breeding technology, scallops have also bred some varieties that cater to market preferences, such as the "Zhongke Red Bay Scallop" cultivated by the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the South Australian Golden Shell (Luxurious Ctenophore Scallop) cultivated by Shantou University.
Red and white crescent bends, how to eat scallops
The closed shell muscle of scallops, which we often call scallop meat, can not only be eaten raw and cooked, but also one of the ingredients for making the "Hai Bazhen" Yaozhu. In addition to the scallop meat, there are various organs, the most attractive of which are the red and white reproductive glands. White is male and red is female. Some hermaphrodite scallops have a strange red-and-white mix of gonadal colors. In Japan, skilled sashimi chefs can even taste the different flavors of female and male scallops. These two color differences appear only during the breeding period, after which the female and male gonads degenerate into colorless transparent forms and become the same appearance.
The internal organs of Ezo scallops are female in red and male | in white Joanbanjo / Wikimedia Commons
Similar to sea urchin yellow, crab yellow, etc., scallop reproductive glands are the most delicious in their late spring or autumn breeding period. On the European continent, delicious scallop gonads are even sold as delicacies. Scallop gonads don't need to be overcooked, just slightly cooked, slightly salty to taste, and have a texture like an animal's liver. Due to the white middle closed shell muscle of the scallop superimposed on the outer edge of the red half-moon-like gonadal form, it is like the sun and the moon overlapping, and it is also known as the sun and moon shell. Incidentally, the sun and moon shells are also another common name for scallops: the Asian sun and moon clams (Amusium pleuronectes).
Scallop fans are probably the most well-known in the scallop cuisine world. Some of the scallops in the pre-packaged scallop fans are not "original" - the scallop shell is a blank shell that is washed in advance and sold well, and the scallop meat is taken from the scallop in advance, frozen separately, and then combined to form a "pre-life" appearance.
Grilled scallops may not look "original" | Pixabay
In addition to prepackaged scallop vermicelli, many people also buy individual scallop meat, which can be fried and fried, or rolled with bacon and crab seeds to make Western dishes. You can also buy fresh live scallops at the market, remove the inedible cheeks and offal dough, and then the rest can be used, as you can cook them into Western-style cream or cheese-grilled scallops, Chinese steamed or vermicelli scallops. When eating scallops, don't forget to show off what kind of scallops these scallops are, whether they are boys or girls.
This article is from the species calendar, welcome to forward
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