Xiang Yang smiled. Li Chao was in the catering business, so it was great for him to know about this kind of crab. After all, this kind of crab could not be eaten. Why did Li Chao want to know about it
"Chen Qingsheng, come with me."
Xiang Yang took Chen Qingsheng to the stern of the boat. Although the embroidered crab would not cause poisoning if it pinched a person, the toxin of the crab is generally neurotoxic and can directly act on the victim's nervous system. Therefore, as long as the toxin enters the human blood, it will be very dangerous.
So when the fishing net came down, Xiang Yang was not confident in letting ordinary crew members deal with these embroidered crabs.
Xiang Yang untied the fishing net himself.
Chen Qingsheng, who was standing nearby, immediately brought a few people to lift the edge of the fishing net to prevent crabs from crawling out from inside.
Fang Youqun pulled the edge of the fishing net with both hands, but looked inside the net. He said regretfully, "Wow, this crab is very beautiful. It makes me very appetizing at first glance, but I can't eat it."
Xiang Yang glanced at him and said, "If you want to eat crabs, I'll treat you to hairy crabs later. You should think of other things to eat these embroidered crabs."
"The hairy crabs of this season are too yin-filled and are no longer suitable for eating." Song Guoning walked over with his hands behind his back. "There are many things to pay attention to when eating crabs."
Xiang Yang smiled. He was different from these particular people. He just ate whenever he could.
But since we are guests, Xiang Yang smiled and said, "Mr. Song is an expert in this area, why don't you tell us about it?"
Song Guoning smiled and said: "The tradition of eating crabs has a long history in our country."
"Yes, people have been eating hairy crabs since the Ming Dynasty. I've seen it on TV. The first person to eat crabs was Shen Wansan, the richest man in the Ming Dynasty. Shen Wansan made a fortune selling hairy crabs." Fang Youqun shouted.
"Fang Youqun, shut up and don't disrupt Mr. Song's train of thought." Chen Qingsheng shouted.
"My train of thought is not so easily disrupted." Song Guoning said with a smile: "It's just that what this little brother said is wrong. Shen Wansan is not the first person to try something new."
"Not Shen Wansan? Then who is it?" Fang Youqun asked.
Song Guoning looked at Xiang Yang and said with a smile: "Boss Xiang, do you know this problem?"
Xiang Yang shook his head. "As for who was the first to eat crabs, even historians who specialize in this field may not be able to tell for sure. But I know that the earliest record of eating crabs is in the Book of Rites of Zhou."
"The Book of Zhou" records a food called "Xie Xu", which is the earliest record of edible crabs in the world.
"You are right. The earliest record of edible crabs comes from the Book of Zhou. This shows that our ancestors already regarded crabs as a kind of food more than 2,000 years ago," Song Guoning praised.
"But the Zhou Li is too old after all, and it only records the word 'Xie Xu'. Whether this so-called Xie Xu is actually a crab is still to be verified." Xiang Yang smiled and said: "As far as I know, the first document that clearly recorded that crabs can be eaten and clearly stated how to cook crabs was delayed to the Northern Wei Dynasty."
The Northern Wei Dynasty's "Qimin Yaoshu" describes in detail the "Zangxie method" of pickled crabs. This way of eating crabs has continued to this day. At the end of the last century, when ordinary workers only earned a few dozen yuan a month, a dish of Tibetan crab in the Swan Hotel in the super first-tier city of Yangcheng cost as much as 1,028 yuan. This dish fascinated countless people at the time.
Li Chao said proudly, "You are talking about Tibetan crabs, right? The chef in my hotel can cook this dish. If you want to eat it, I will treat you."
"Let's wait until the Binhai Hotel opens." Xiang Yang said with a smile.
"You have to taste it well. Although Qi Min Yao Shu was written during the Northern Wei Dynasty, it was during the Wei and Jin Dynasties that eating crabs became a leisurely cultural enjoyment. The current custom of tasting crabs during the Mid-Autumn Festival was inherited from the Northern Wei Dynasty." Zhou Lili said with a smile.
"Is it really like this?" Fang Youqun muttered, "How come what I know is not like this?"
Li Chao thought Fang Youqun was very interesting. He asked with a smile, "So what do you know?"
Fang Youqun glanced at Xiang Yang and saw Xiang Yang nod, indicating that he could say whatever he wanted. He immediately said, "I saw on TV that it was the richest man in the Ming Dynasty, Shen Wansan, who was the first to eat crabs. He thought crabs were delicious, and then everyone started eating crabs. The TV also said that in the Ming Dynasty, crabs were used to scare ghosts and gods. Someone picked up a dried crab and used it as a magic weapon to drive away evil spirits. If someone in a family was sick, they would borrow the crab and hang it on the door to drive away evil spirits."
Xiang Yang rolled his eyes. "That was not the Ming Dynasty, but the Northern Song Dynasty. Although I have never seen Shen Wansan, the richest man in the Ming Dynasty, I know that the incident you mentioned was recorded in the Dream Pool Essays of the Northern Song Dynasty. It should have been copied into the play by the screenwriter of Shen Wansan, the richest man in the Ming Dynasty. This is an artistic processing to highlight the power of Shen Wansan."
Xiang Yang reached directly into the fishing net and grabbed a crab with an embroidered back and a back shell width of more than ten centimeters.
Chen Qingsheng quickly shouted: "Brother Yang, wear gloves."
"No need." Xiang Yang played with the embroidered crab. "I dare to catch killer crabs. If I can be hurt by an embroidered crab, then I should really go back to embroidering."
Chen Qingsheng also caught a crab from the fishing net. He asked Xiang Yang, "Captain, what should we do with this embroidered crab?"
Whenever Xiang Yang and his team caught crabs, they would usually keep them in a live water tank, or tie the crab's body tightly with ropes and then keep it in a water tank.
The reason why they need to be kept is that crabs can only be eaten alive. Dead crabs are poisonous. When a crab is dying or dead, the histamine in the crab shell will decompose to produce histamine, which is a toxic substance. As the time since the crab died increases, the histamine in the crab's body will increase. Even if this toxin is heated, a lot of it will remain.
However, the embroidered-ridged crab is a poisonous crab, so Chen Qingsheng didn't know how to deal with it.
He was not sure what Xiang Yang was going to do with these crabs.
Xiang Yang threw a cooked crab into the water tank and said, "What else can we do with it? Of course we have to keep it alive. Hurry up and free up a few more water tanks. This batch of crabs can only be kept in water tanks and cannot be placed in live water tanks."
"Brother Yang, these crabs can't be eaten, why do you keep them? You can't sell them for money." Fang Youqun complained.
"What do you know?" Xiang Yang said with a smile, "Who said crabs can only be sold for money? Ask these bosses and see how many are willing to buy these crabs."
Fang Youqun immediately looked at Li Chao, "Boss Li, you work in a hotel, you definitely don't want these, right?"