"What are you thinking about? Mouse groupers are solitary fish. They rarely gather together except to feed their offspring." Xu Fang obviously knew a lot about the habits of mouse groupers. Seeing everyone's eager looks, he immediately spoke up.
"I only know that mouse spots are very valuable." Xiang Hui said faintly.
Xiang Yang explained with a smile, "It's just a small puddle less than a foot deep. There are no fish in it." Xiang Yang knew that if he didn't say this, Xiang Hui would never give up.
"Alas!" Xiang Hui sighed after hearing this, "Rat spot is becoming less and less common nowadays. It's not like when I was a kid. I was picky about eating them even if I caught them."
After hearing Xiang Hui's words, everyone felt heavy-hearted.
That's overfishing.
The price of high-quality goods such as rat grouper has been rising every year. Two years ago, it was only 800 to 900 yuan per catty. Last year, no one was interested in it when it was less than 1,000 yuan per catty. This year, the price has even soared to 1,200 yuan, but it is still out of stock.
The more the price goes up, the more fishermen catch. The more they catch, the fewer fish there are. The fewer fish there are, the higher the price goes. The higher the price goes, the more fishermen catch. This creates a vicious cycle.
"So we can't always stay in one area of the sea and fish. If we want sustainable development, we have to go out and open up deeper fishing grounds farther away." Xiang Yang couldn't help but sigh again.
"Yes, we follow the captain to the big fish grounds to catch big fish, fish that are bigger than the boat." Xiang Chen said with a smile.
Xiang Yang rolled his eyes and ignored it.
A fish bigger than the boat, you want to hunt whales
Xiang Yang was unwilling to pay attention to it, but he didn't expect that the other crew members would actually agree with him and started to praise him.
In the end, even Xu Fang couldn't help but say, "The captain is indeed the most powerful captain I have ever seen. He caught a pufferfish on his first trip to the sea, and he even found rare seafood such as mouse grouper when he went fishing."
Xiang Yang was so frightened by the disgusting words of a group of grown men that he fled in panic.
After returning home, Xiang Yang first settled the rat.
Xiang Yang himself would definitely not be willing to eat such a big ratfish, but he could reward himself with a few crabs.
The crabs Xiang Yang caught today were not all swimming crabs. There were also two horse-faced crabs weighing more than three taels.
Horse-faced crab is actually its scientific name. The residents on the coast have called this crab that because it looks like a horse face. In fact, its real name should be Chinese tiger-headed crab.
The Chinese tiger crab has a peculiar appearance and bright colors. Its cephalothorax is round with granular protrusions. The front and middle parts are dark purple round spots. The forehead is narrow, and the middle part is larger and protruding, with the length slightly greater than the width. At first glance, it looks like a horse face.
The meat of this kind of crab is much more than that of ordinary swimming crabs, but the price is not much more expensive than swimming crabs. The market price of three taels of tiger crabs is about one hundred yuan per catty, and if recycled, it is only about fifty or sixty yuan per catty.
The main reason is that the gills of the Chinese tiger crab are relatively large, which causes the crab meat inside the crab shell to have a strong fishy smell.
Some people who often eat seafood are very picky. When they eat seafood, they don't add a lot of seasonings to remove the fishy smell like most people do. They like to savor the original flavor of the seafood. This is the main reason why tiger crabs are big and meaty but their prices have never gone up.
Another point is that the claws of tiger crabs are smaller than those of normal swimming crabs. Those who love to eat crab claws are not very fond of tiger crabs. If it were not for the rapid economic development of our country in recent years, more and more people would eat seafood and be less particular about it than before, the price of tiger crabs would only be lower.
But Xiang Yang loves to eat tiger crabs, because Xiang Yang grew up by the sea and doesn't care about the so-called original flavor of seafood. After using ginger to remove the fishy smell, the full crab meat inside the tiger crab is smooth and delicious, which can be called the best delicacy in the world.
First, use a brush to clean the tiger crab.
Use ginger, oyster sauce, egg white and other ingredients to make a simple soup, then put the tiger crab into the soup and steam it. Within five minutes, the unique aroma of the crab will fill the whole house.
The tiger crabs are now ready to eat.
Xiang Yang first broke off the bright red tiger crab shell and removed the gills on both sides. He then used a knife to pick out the crab's heart and threw it away. Finally, he cut the whole tiger crab in half from the middle and dipped the remaining crab meat in the soup.
As soon as he took a bite, his tongue was filled with freshness and it was so delicious that Xiang Yang narrowed his eyes.
In fact, this is very normal. Except for the unpleasant fishy smell, everything else about the tiger crab is good. It is fragrant, fresh and sweet, and is a seafood that is popular among many ordinary consumers.
I heard that some top chefs in some big hotels can remove the fishy smell of tiger crabs without destroying their original flavor. Of course, Xiang Yang had only heard about it and didn't know if it was true.
After eating two tiger crabs, Xiang Yang burped with satisfaction, took out his cell phone to contact Boss Li to ask if he would buy the grouper.
"Hey, Brother Xiang! What good things have you thought of for your brother Chao this time?" The batch of puffer fish that was delivered to Boss Li's hotel was almost booked before it was put on sale, and Boss Li's reputation had spread throughout the circle.
Boss Li's phone has been nearly broken by calls these past two days. If he wants to order a table of wild puffer fish, even if he has money, he may not be able to do so. He also needs a certain amount of face.
Boss Li on the other end of the phone sounded very happy and spoke in a daze.
"Mr. Li, does your hotel accept rat spots?" Xiang Yang asked.
"Rat spots?" Boss Li's voice instantly rose several decibels. "I'll take it, of course I'll take it. How many kilograms do you have?"
Xiang Yang: “…”
After hearing Xiang Yang say that he only caught one rat, Boss Li was immediately disappointed, and his voice became weak.
But when he heard Xiang Yang say that the spotted rat was half a meter long and weighed nearly 20 kilograms, Boss Li became excited again, "Take good care of it, brother Xiang, you must help me take good care of that spotted rat. Tonight, no, I'll send someone to you now, you must help me take good care of this spotted rat."
Xiang Yang glanced at the rat spotted swimming slowly in the large wooden tub and said, "Don't worry, it's alive and well!"
"That's good, that's good." Boss Li heaved a sigh of relief when he heard Xiang Yang say that. "Brother, I'll give you 1,500 yuan per pound for this rat grouper, just like I did for the pufferfish. If you come across such a top-quality one in the future, you must keep it for me."
"Aren't rat groupers sold for only around twelve thousand yuan per pound in the market? Mr. Li, are you charging fifteen hundred yuan?" Xiang Yang asked doubtfully.
"I won't even look at crabs weighing 2 taels. How can crabs weighing 3 taels be priced the same as crabs weighing 4 taels?" Boss Li said with a smile. "The grouper crabs on the market are usually between 3 and 6 kilograms. Once grouper crabs weigh more than 6 kilograms, they can adapt to the deep sea of 40 meters and become more difficult to catch. Of course, the price will have to be raised."