Until the end of 2019, the price of wild stone clam was only a little over 1,000 yuan per pound.
From the end of 2019 to now, in just two years, the price of this fish has almost tripled.
Wild stone clam fish is loved by foodies and is also the favorite fish of many fishing enthusiasts.
It is said that wild stone clams are very fierce and powerful when they are at the bottom of the water, making them very fun to fish for.
Of course, for Xiang Yang, who is not a fishing enthusiast, wild stone clams are just a delicacy. When Xiang Yang was a child, there were many wild stone clams and the price was very cheap. Xiang Yang liked to eat this kind of fish very much. It has a fresh and delicate taste, few bones, is full of golden fat, and tastes extremely smooth.
When Xiang Yang was a child, he was worried that the price of stone clams would go up, because as soon as the price went up, when Xiang Yang's father caught stone clams again, he would have nothing to eat and would have to take them to the town to sell.
As a result, Xiang Yang's childhood worries came true. Since Xiang Yang went to high school, he has never eaten stone clam fish again.
It is said that at that time, someone discovered that stone clams are rich in various amino acids needed by the human body, and that wild stone clams have less fat content, and most of it is unsaturated fatty acids. Compared with the meat of land animals such as pigs, cattle, and sheep, the saturated fatty acids contained in them are more easily absorbed by the human body. Coupled with its delicious taste, it soon became a luxury food.
Chen Qingsheng grabbed a golden clam fish and said, "Captain, are you sure this fish is wild? The more I look at it, the more I think it's a farmed fish. Look, the color looks like it was bred."
Xiang Yang shook his head and said, "You can't tell whether a stone clam is wild or not just by looking at whether it looks good or not. You have to look at its body shape first. The body of a wild stone clam is long and oval, with an arc-shaped dorsal margin, a flat distance between the two eyes, and obvious notches on the preoperculum and interoperculum. The body is covered with medium-sized ctenoid scales, with multiple rows of scales on the cheeks and gill covers, and fine scales on the dorsal fin rays and the base of the anal fin."
"Then look at its lateral line. Look at the one in your hand. The scales above the lateral line are arranged obliquely toward the dorsal edge, while the scales below are parallel to the body axis. The dorsal fin rays and fin spines are continuous without obvious notches. The anal fin base is short and opposite to the dorsal fin rays. The pectoral fins are long, with the ends reaching above the starting point of the anal fin. The caudal fin is concave. This is definitely a wild stone clam fish."
"But the color is wrong. The body color of wild stone clam fish is mostly purple-brown, and there should be a small white spot above the dorsal line and a blue diagonal band on the tip of the snout. I don't have either of these." Chen Qingsheng said hesitantly.
"You don't have to worry about its body color. The reason why most wild groupers are purple-brown is that most groupers like to hide in corals. Its body color grows according to the surrounding environment. It is its protective color. Different environments create different body colors. This is normal." Xiang Yang said.
The stone clam fish has the ability of mimicry and will show different body colors under different lighting conditions.
Under different conditions, the same stone clam fish sometimes looks orange-red and sometimes bright yellow. This is a very normal phenomenon.
"Brother Yang, how expensive is this fish? There are only a few of them, and you are still fussing about it." Fang Youqun, who was standing by, was speechless when he saw Xiang Yang and Chen Qingsheng still discussing whether the fish were wild or not after such a long time.
Xiang Yang glanced at Fang Youqun and said, "If this fish is released, then its selling price should be around 200 yuan per catty. But if it is wild, and the purchase price of this color of stone clam fish is less than 2,000 yuan, I will not sell it at all."
"What? The purchase price is two thousand?" Fang Youqun immediately jumped up like a cat whose tail was stepped on.
"Yes, there is actually not much profit to be made from top-quality seafood such as stone clams and bluefin tuna if they are sold to hotels, because the production volume of these top-quality seafood is so small, and most of them are used for publicity," said Xiang Yang.
In the catering industry, there is a famous slogan for stone clam fish: beautiful in life, delicious in death.
In Hong Kong, there is a way of eating stone clam that is famous both at home and abroad, called "one fish, four ways of eating".
When many top-quality seafood are delivered to hotels, the hotel owners have a habit of keeping the fish and not eating them.
But the stone clam fish doesn't.
Killing a living stone clam is like burning the piano and cooking the crane.
Cooking stone clam into delicious food when it is at its healthiest is the highest tribute to stone clam.
A fresh stone clam can be made into a sumptuous seafood feast.
The so-called "one fish, four ways of eating" is to make the meat of the stone clam fish into sashimi. The snow-white fish meat is sliced and spread on crushed ice, and then matched with chopped green onion, shallot slices, cucumber shreds, lemon, white vinegar, light soy sauce, mustard, etc. according to the Chaozhou sashimi eating method, so that customers can choose what they need. They can just dip it in mustard and light soy sauce, or simply eat it directly without dipping it in anything.
You can also prepare the ingredients, put them on the fish fillets, and swallow them in one bite.
No matter how you eat it, you can feel the sweetness and tenderness of the stone clam meat.
The skin of stone clam can be made into cold fish skin. Cut the skin of stone clam into long strips, blanch it in water, and put it in ice water to tighten it. It will taste chewy and flexible.
Fish bones are marinated in a thin paste and fried. They are golden red in color, crispy and delicious, without any thorns, and are not easy to get stuck when eaten. They are a good companion for drinking.
After frying the fish head in oil, pour it into boiling mineral water, add tofu and cabbage and stew it into a milky white tofu soup. Add some pepper. The fish soup smells fragrant and tastes smooth and rich.
One fish can be cooked in four ways with almost no waste. After removing the fish head, the remaining fish soup can be added with water, meatballs, and cabbage and continued to cook to make a hangover soup.
Of the four ways of eating stone clam fish, Xiang Yang still remembers the taste of the other three ways, except for eating it as sashimi.
"Brother Yang, let's return the same way we came, then drag a net back, and then drag another net here." Fang Youqun said loudly.
Knowing the price of stone clams, Fang Youqun now looks at these golden stone clams as if they were golden gold, and even squints his eyes.
Xiang Yang smiled and said, "The stone clam is actually a type of snapper. Although this fish is rare, it is relatively common in the tropical and subtropical waters in southern my country. It is a very important economic fish in our country. Get your diving equipment ready. Let's go down to the seabed and see if we can find some more stone clam."
"Ah? Not casting the net anymore, but going down to catch them?" Fang Youqun asked in surprise.
Xiang Yang nodded, "It's too difficult to catch it. This fish likes to hide in the corals. It's hard to catch it without a ground net. It's better to catch it quickly."