Every summer, crayfish will become an indispensable food on the Chinese table. At the same time, as a national supper food, crayfish occupied the large and small barbecue food stalls and food cities. Beer and crayfish are the most perfect combination.
Crayfish, formerly known as Crayfish, is native to northern Mexico and southern United States. This American species was introduced to China as an ornamental shrimp in the 1920s.
It may escape into the natural waters during the breeding process, and the crayfish spreads like flowers in the land of China, and it has an impact on the natural environment that cannot be ignored.
Crayfish once led to a decline in the population of frogs and tadpoles in the natural environment of Guilin, Guangxi, and also pecked the world cultural heritage, Hani Terraces in Yunnan into honeycomb.
Why do crayfish have such a great ability?
First, it is so fertile that this species can give birth to up to 200 crayfish in a single pregnancy.
Second, it is too edible. Aquatic plants, benthic animals, small fish and shrimps, tadpoles, small frogs… are all favorites of crayfish.
This means that crayfish can easily grab food from indigenous creatures, or eat them directly.
Third, it is too alive. Crayfish are good at burrowing. When it is too cold or too hot, it will hide itself in the hole, and the strong disease resistance makes crayfish suitable for most water bodies, even polluted water bodies. .
The Health Truth Behind Crayfish
The crayfish that grow up in the stinky ditch are indeed prone to heavy metals exceeding the standard and parasites. Pay attention, we are talking about wild crayfish.
In fact, it only survives in sewage. As long as there is enough food in the water body, crayfish actually prefer a clear water environment.
In clean water, it will grow bigger and faster, and the crayfish is also very clean and the meat is very full. Now the crayfish can only achieve high yield and high efficiency through artificial breeding.
So what is the human high-quality cultured crayfish like? And how did the Chinese eat the invasive species of the past without leaving slag, and also developed a complete industrial chain worth 400 billion?
Crayfish grown in healthy waters are actually rich in nutrients, high in protein, low in fat, low in cholesterol, and have a high proportion of digestible amino acids. Simply put, they are delicious and nutritious without growing meat.
With the unremitting efforts of the Chinese, the cultivation of crayfish has also reached a basic balance with the natural ecology. At present, the farming method that accounts for 80% of the total output and total area of crayfish farming in the country is paddy farming.
Rice fields provide a basic habitat for crayfish. The rich plankton in the rice field ecology is the favorite dessert of crayfish, and those aged seedlings are also bait for crayfish, and tall lotus leaves provide shade for crayfish.
The crayfish when unshelled is the most vulnerable time in its proud life. Hiding behind the seedlings can avoid the pursuit of other creatures and the same kind.
In turn, the excrement of crayfish can also be used as fertilizer for paddy fields, with bidirectional circulation and friendly coexistence.
Since the habit of crayfish like to make holes will not change, not all places are suitable for promoting crayfish in paddy fields. Most of the mountainous areas are terraced fields. Crayfish farming is very likely to cause it to make holes in the stalk and cause water leakage. Even the pond base collapsed, affecting agricultural production.
However, in the plain area, the length or depth of crayfish burrowing is still very limited, which is not enough to cause damage to the entire environment.
The reason why the deep-fried crayfish became popular
The problem we solved above is that the crayfish you eat is healthy, nutritious, and relatively ecologically friendly, but who was the first Chinese who really started eating crayfish? The Crayfish Museum can tell us the answer.
First of all, focus on the word “Xuyi”, which is a subordinate county of Huai’an City, Jiangsu Province.
If you can eat snail noodles, you have to thank the people of Liuzhou. If you can eat crayfish, the first person to thank is the people of Xuyi.
At first, crayfish were not popular, and people didn’t want them when they caught them. Until the 1990s, an old Chinese medicine practitioner in Xuyi suddenly opened his mind and used a variety of spices to deodorize and freshen the crayfish, creating the later famous ten Sanxiang lobster, it is said that the taste of thirteen spices is numb but not so hot to the tongue and spicy.
This is the first appearance of crayfish as a delicate dish in China, but it was quickly developed into garlic, steamed, sauerkraut, salted egg yolk and so on. , the dining environment has also been upgraded from a food stall to a royal court to Rococo.
It’s not enough for locals to eat. As early as before Tmall launched Maowan, Xuyi already knew how to use festivals to promote consumption 21 years ago, thus bringing in a steady stream of tourists from other places for consumption.
It may be hard to imagine these familiar faces standing on the stage for a county party.
At the 2019 lobster feast, 50,000 Xuyi and tourists ate 45 tons of crayfish in a performance art.
As we all know, marketing needs events. As a sign of national cuisine, crayfish has been polished through the “Lobster Spring Festival Gala”.
Of the 400 billion crayfish industry created by the Chinese, nearly 300 billion are eaten through food and beverages. The reason behind this number is that it can always be eaten in new ways, and even opened a lobster version of “New Oriental”, specializing in research. How to make crayfish delicious.
The braised crayfish in Qianjiang, Hubei, is more spicy and heavy in Hubei flavor than the thirteen incense from Jiangsu.
Qianjiang shrimp needs to go through the rituals of cutting shrimp head, removing shrimp claws, picking shrimp line, and opening shrimp back, which is more convenient and practical.
The young hero in front of her is Ding Daqin, a graduate of Qianjiang Lobster Academy’s crayfish major this year. She has attracted the attention of the society from the moment she stepped into the school. She has been on CCTV three sets and CCTV two sets, and probably the Chinese are also very popular. I wonder how I got a profession.
At present, there are only more than 300 students with college education, but the number of people trained in skills has reached more than 9,600. With the efforts of these respectable postgraduates, Qianjiang has launched 118 lobster-themed dishes, breaking the “basic” of Shanghai’s big world. Nice World Records”, note not “Guinness World Records”.
Crayfish and Local Economic Revitalization
The best cooking requires the best ingredients, and green prawns are the current goal of crayfish farming.
The pure bottomless pond is a paradise for crayfish to grow. The pieces of aquatic plants are artificially planted on the bottom of the water. They are not only towering trees in the water, increasing the capacity of the water body, but also a big house for crayfish. They can molt and grow happily and undisturbed.
Every day, there is a designated person to feed, and the shrimp eaten here can even taste the feeling of Jiwei shrimp.
In 2019, the total output of crayfish farming in China reached 2.08 million tons, with an output value of about 71 billion yuan. Hubei Province, represented by Qianjiang, accounted for about half of the country.
It’s not just the Chinese who are feeding so many lobsters. When the crayfish is still in its hometown, Louisiana, the United States is honestly boiled into thick soup, the Chinese have already cooked shrimp, shrimp tails, whole shrimps and strips. Seasoned shrimp with Chinese flavors are sold all over the world.
In 2019, China fed and sold about 1.1 billion yuan of crayfish to the United States, the European Union, Japan, Southeast Asia and many other countries and regions. The annual output value of the crayfish processing industry, including import and export, was about 44 billion yuan. The primary, secondary and tertiary industries have made the most of the value of crayfish.
From a feared invasive species to a valuable cash crop, the localization of crayfish relies on the infinite creativity inspired by food and wealth.
It is not only consumers who want to get rich, we should see the revitalization of local economy by crayfish.
Xuyi has cultivated a cultural brand worth 25 billion yuan from a county in northern Jiangsu without industry. The comprehensive output value of crayfish in Qianjiang, an inland city of the Communist Party of China, exceeded 28 billion yuan, driving more than 200,000 jobs.
In addition to these two places, 23 provinces across the country, including Anhui, Hunan, and Jiangxi, have begun to cultivate crayfish according to local conditions, attracting more migrant workers to return home through industrial poverty alleviation.
Crayfish probably didn’t think that his shrimp production had undergone such a big change in the distant Asian continent, and its legend will continue to be serialized.