It is a genus of fish in the family Herringidae , with a fusiform body , a polar flattened , and a serrated prismatic scale on the ventral margin. There is no lateral line, the head is medium-sized, and the sides are flat and blunt.
Spotted dumplings
The lipid eyelid is more developed, about half of the eye cover, so the Qingdao people also call it "ancient eye fish" (or should it be written as "drum eye fish"?). There are places in the north called "bubbles", which also describe its eyes. The mouth is small, close to the anterior position. The back of the body is blue, the underside and ventral surface are silvery white, and it looks a bit like crucian carp, which is called "sea crucian carp" by southerners and "sea crucian carp" by Huangxian people (the real sea crucian carp is of the sea crucian family of the order Perciforme, and is not a species of moray carp). And because its shape is very similar to anchovy, the fishermen in Zhoushan mistakenly call it "small anchovy". The upper scales of the body have small brown spots, which are connected into 6-9 thin longitudinal bands. The gills are mostly golden yellow, so they are also called "yellow stream fish". The last fin of the dorsal fin is elongated and filamentous, which can be seen when it is pulled up. There are two species of amberjacks, and the gills have a large blue-black spot on the top of the gills.
Flower dumplings
There are about 4-6 dark spots on the side of the body. It is mainly distributed in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, and the spotted dumpling is produced along the coast of China.
It is an inshore pelagic fish that prefers to inhabit coastal harbors and estuaries, often moves in groups, has a wide range of salt, and can live in both seawater and two-sum water (brackish water), and sometimes enters fresh water without dying. Although it is an offshore fish, because of its impatient temperament, the scales are easy to fall off and easy to die, so there are generally no live spotted dumplings on the dock. It feeds on phytoplankton and zooplankton, mainly a variety of algae, copepods, crustaceans, shellfish larvae, and organic detritus. In the 1980s, the Annual Output of Spotted Dumplings in the Yellow Bohai Sea was 4,000 to 5,000 tons, which was a common small miscellaneous fish on the docks, a few dollars a pound, and it was also cheap among small miscellaneous fish. In recent years, production has declined considerably due to seawater pollution and reduced river runoff.
Spotted dumplings are not large, generally more than ten centimeters long, and weigh no more than two or two, but their meat content is high, the meat is tender, the taste is delicious, or deeply liked by people. According to expert estimates, its fish crude protein content is close to cod (Huangxian dialect called "big head fish") and real snapper (that is, "red scale plus plus"), higher than bonito and herring (scientific name Pacific herring, Huangxian dialect called "blue fish"), protein content is very rich, fat content is higher than cod, real seabream, bonito, herring, and mostly unsaturated fatty acids, very beneficial to the human body. Because of its more oil in the body, it is also known as "oil fish", generally do not take it to dry fish, the oil is large, not good to dry, and it is not easy to dry. It is also because of its high fat content, fish meat is easy to oxidize and deteriorate, is not resistant to transportation, and can only be sold nearby, so the price cannot go up. Spotted dumplings have many small bone spurs (called "cow burrs" in Huangxian dialect), so they are also called "thorn fish". Huangxian people like to eat crispy, fried after putting a pressure cooker with a small amount of water stew, stewed so that the burrs are soft, you can directly eat the stomach. Or eat it fried, fry it the first time to cool it, and fry it again, and the little burr will be crispy. Seaside people also use it to pickle soup fish, pickled soup fish and fish sauce is not the same, fish sauce is to chop the fish marinated, pickled soup fish is to kill the fish without washing, directly put on the salt into the jar, can kill the soup, when eating bubbles washed, put in the Bowl, put on the oil, green onions, when making dumplings a pot of steamed, in the past mackerel is also so pickled.
There is also a folk saying, "Autumn roasted dumplings can make daughters-in-law who have run away from home return home", which means that autumn dumplings are extremely delicious.
Charcoal-grilled spotted dumplings
Koreans call it the king of autumn seafood and can be made into sashimi, sashimi, grilled dumplings, boiled dumplings and so on.
Spotted sashimi
Compared with Koreans, Japanese people are more obsessed with spotted dumplings. Some fish are called "birth fish" in Japan, and "birth" has the beautiful meaning of promotion and tengda. People are concerned about the growth of the birth fish, and at different stages of its life, it will be given a variety of other names, just like the promotion of an official change and a title. For example, the real seabream is one of the born fish, if you associate the fish with Japan, there is no doubt that the immediate association is the seabream, as the saying goes, "cherry blossoms in flowers, seabream in fish". In Japanese culture, sea bream represents nobility, elegance and peace, and its pronunciation and "gratifying" are indispensable fish species for Japanese festivals. In the spring, when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom, the real seabream is the fattest time of the year, known as the "cherry seabream", and the price is also the most expensive.
Cherry snapper
Cherry seabream sashimi
In the late summer and early autumn, during the wheat harvest period, which is the period after the seabream spawns, the physique is weak, the lack of fat, the worst quality, known as "wheat stalk seabream", basically no one eats. In late autumn and winter, when the maple leaves are red, the real seabream eats a large number of shrimp and crabs and takes in more astaxanthin, so it shows the most vivid deep red color of the year, known as "red leaf seabream", and the taste is also very delicious.
Red leaf seabream
Spotted catfish is also a type of born fish, and the fry with a length of less than 9 cm are called "new seeds", 9-14 cm are called "small fins" or "small muscles", and those over 14 cm are called "steamed buns". As an ingredient in sushi, spotted dumplings the size of small muscles are more commonly used, so "small muscles" are often used to refer to the entire variety. In Japan, the small muscle is regarded as the representative sushi ingredient of Edo-mae sushi, the taste is delicious, but the processing is very difficult, to be salted and then washed once, and then marinated with raw vinegar and sweet vinegar, the whole process requires the control of fish and spices in place, it is difficult to achieve without rich experience. Therefore, the small muscle is also known as the horizontal class of sushi (the highest level of sumo wrestling).
Different from the usual standard of general fish for beauty and preciousness, the smaller the more expensive the dumplings, the new seed one kilogram fifty or sixty thousand yen is very common, equivalent to more than thousands of yuan, to 200 pieces per kilogram, each small new seed price is more than ten yuan, equivalent to eating a bowl of beef noodles.
The smaller the more expensive the new seeds
It is very common to make consistent sushi (sushi one is called consistent) with 3-4 new seeds, which is called "new three-piece grip" and "new son four-piece grip"; a little larger, you can only use a whole piece of consistent sushi, called "whole fish grip"; to later two pieces of fish under a fish fillet, with one piece can make consistent sushi, which is called "slice body grip".
a handful of 8 shinko
Of course, there are also more than a dozen new seeds to make consistent sushi, such as "new seeds fourteen grips" to use 14 new seeds, which only local tycoons can afford to eat (the more you use it, the smaller the new child, the more expensive the price).
The always beautiful small muscle sushi gives people the feeling of light, light and refreshing, and the aroma of vinegar blends perfectly with the tenderness and deliciousness of the fish, with a light, crisp and long taste and flavor. Jiro Ono, the god of sushi, once said, "My dream is to work in front of the sushi table until the last moment, and the last hope I hold is the small fin." The little fin is very delicious, it matches the temperament of sushi, this fish is not amazing whether it is sashimi or grilled, only salted and then soaked with rice vinegar, is its most beautiful destination..."
Ono Jiro's spotted sushi
The small miscellaneous fish that has not entered the stream has become the horizontal class of the sushi world, which has to make people lament the cultural differences, and the world is also colorful and colorful because of the diversity of cultures.
Some of the pictures are quoted from the Internet, and the copyright belongs to the original author