When the lobster moves its body, is it walking or swimming? Back then, France and Brazil did not hesitate to dispatch aircraft carriers and planes for this matter, as if they were preparing to start a war for the lobsters.

Welcome to: The President who talks about himself

The story begins with an international dispute 60 years ago.

Is the lobster moving his body? Should he walk or swim?

Back then, France and Brazil were willing to dispatch aircraft carriers and aircraft for this matter, as if they were preparing to start a war for lobsters.

Then, the International Court of Justice came out to mediate, and then the experts quarreled in the court for another two years.

finally came to a very bizarre conclusion - that is, lobsters neither walk nor swim, lobsters are a kind of food. Can you understand the logical confusing conclusion like

?

Anyway, no matter whether you understand or not, the two sides of the warring parties understood it and shook hands and made peace, and both accepted the ruling.

This is the magical lobster. It can use the taste buds to make the two heroes run aircraft carriers, and it can also use the taste buds to make the world peaceful.

Now, lobster is a common food language in the world. Don’t talk about peeled eggs, bean juice, , canned herring, lobster explains everything.

However, looking through ancient books, why didn’t the ancients eat lobsters?

Why did lobster suddenly become a global delicacy?

From crayfish to big flower dragon.

Today, let’s talk about the story behind this.

Lobster VS Broccoli

If you are a veteran lobster enthusiast, then you have about 25% chance of not eating broccoli.

Whether it is crayfish or big flower dragon, as long as it is cooked, red, fragrant and hard, it is considered a lobster.

You can even use a broccoli to test whether you are a true lobster lover.

Why do you say so?

Because 25% of people around the world have super taste buds, and super taste buds make you unable to accept the strange smell of broccoli.

But at the same time, super taste buds will also make you extremely sensitive to umami.

This umami flavor is not the second-hand feeling of MSG, mushrooms, and hen soup. The most intuitive description is the feeling of happiness from the tongue to the brain and then to the whole body after the lobster is in the mouth.

Human umami senses are described by scientists as a underlying language.

In the 1900s, there was a group of Japanese experts who specialized in umami (Kizumi Ikeda), who described this underlying language like this:

First, umami can guide the tongue to secrete saliva, bringing a furry feeling, irritating the throat, mouth and the back;

Second, umami can be not delicious by itself, but it will make a variety of foods mouthwatering, especially in terms of fragrance;

Third, unlike other flavors, umami can contain no sucrose and only bring a pleasant effect in a very narrow concentration range. The most suitable umami taste depends on the amount of salt;

Fourth, low-salt foods can maintain a satisfactory taste with an appropriate amount of umami.

It seems that the first article explains why you will drool when you only need to look at the picture of this lobster.

The second article explains why spicy crayfish are the king of midnight snacks.

Articles 3 and 4 explain why a plate of lobster sashimi and a bowl of shrimp brain white porridge can also make you happy.

This is the magical umami taste - the common emotion of all mankind.

In addition, a short story is added, that is, these Japanese experts later opened a MSG factory called - Amizu .

Amizu has been developing to this day, but has become an old monster that affects the global chip supply.

is not a career change, but it is still used to make MSG, but among the by-products of making MSG, there is something called ABF - Ajinomoto Buid-up Film, which is a necessary raw material for chip packaging ...

free amino acids

Experts usually use free amino acid indicators to judge the umami flavor of lobsters.

The higher the concentration of free amino acids in shrimp meat and shrimp shells, the purer the quality, which means that the fresher the lobster.

But there are about four types of free amino acids that have umami flavor ( aspartate , glutamic acid, arginine and alanine ). How to judge their quality?

First of all, glutamic acid and aspartic acid need to be excluded because this is the umami flavor of MSG, mushrooms and tomatoes and does not belong to lobsters.

Secondly, alanine is fresh and sweet, probably the feeling of eating steak and drinking milk, and it does not belong to lobster.

The most special thing in the lobster flavor, if you think about it carefully, is there a mysterious feeling that can make you excited?

This pleasure actually comes from arginine.

So how do you describe arginine?

For example, we know that glutamate is because it comes from cereals, and aspartic acid is from Asparagus genus plant. So what did the chemist who named arginine do?

is not too far off. This is the delicious principle of lobsters - free arginine is associated with astaxanthin , nucleotide and various other free amino acids, forming a wonderful umami experience.

The lobster variety with the highest concentration of free arginine will definitely break your imagination.

is the domineering Boston lobster ?

or expensive Aolong ?

or huge Chinese beautiful lobster ?

Actually, you are thinking too much. The one with the highest concentration of arginine is - the king of midnight snacks - crayfish.

is called Chrissia chrysanthemum, and its origin is Louisiana in the United States.

As for how it came to China. There is probably such a story behind

.

bullfrog VS crayfish

Time goes back to more than 100 years ago, the Japanese were fighting with Russians. At that time, the Japanese people were very poor and could not afford white rice.

Even international students came to China and saw someone enjoying a roast chicken on the streets of Changchun, it was amazing, because in Japan, there has never been such a luxury to use a whole chicken for barbecue since ancient times.

Even in today's ingredients, you can't eat whole roast chicken.

So, when international students wrote this letter to their students in China, the students did not believe it at all. They even doubted whether it was a bullfrog because, on the one hand, the Chinese call bullfrog a frog, and on the other hand, the whole bullfrog was cooked and similar to the whole chicken. Moreover, in the recipes of Japanese civilians, they could think of the most luxurious meat, which is the bullfrog.

At that time, the Japanese civilians believed that eating white rice every meal was a symbol of the samurai class, and if the rice ball could be paired with bullfrog meat, it would be a glorious family.

This is really not an exaggeration. For example, in the famous Zhengluwan incident, the senior Japanese officials at that time knew that eating too much white rice would cause beriberi disease, but they still had to distribute white rice to the soldiers.

This is because all Japanese soldiers at that time were born to civilians. If they were not able to eat white rice in the army, it would affect their sense of identity.

Similarly, in order to boost morale, the army also distributed the soldiers with luxury meat - bullfrog.

But we know that bullfrogs and frogs are all species that are easily eaten and extinct. For example, Chinese frogs ( tiger pattern frog ) were eaten into second-level protected animals as early as 1989. Now we often hear news that someone will be sentenced if he catches three frogs.

So, at that time, the Japanese experts also realized the crisis of bullfrog extinction, so they began to find a natural food for bullfrogs so that they could reproduce in large quantities.

searched and selected crayfish from Louisiana, USA.

Sure enough, crayfish were introduced to Japan, and bullfrogs had a bumper harvest every year.

Then in the 1930s, bullfrogs, crayfish and white rice came to China with the Japanese soldiers.

This is the fundamental reason why crayfish have a bad reputation in China. These urban legends are not groundless.

Because wild crayfish and the farmed crayfish we eat are completely different concepts. Wild crayfish are still invasive organisms that the state has focused on invasive organisms.

For example, such a story happened in Yunnan.

crayfish invasion?

In May 2019, a hot search on Weibo rushed to the top.

crayfish actually made the list of invasive species, and foodie netizens volunteered to fight.

What's going on?

It turns out that this was the Yunnan Province listed crayfish as a Class II severely invasive species in 2019 ("Yunnan Province List of Invasive Species" (2019 Edition)").

has five levels in total, and Level II is already very serious. The report

pointed out that in the past two years, environmental protection departments at all levels have invested a lot of manpower and material resources to control crayfish, with an annual killing volume of 100,000 tons.

invasion history can be traced back to 2000. At that time, villagers in Puning, Kunming introduced crayfish farming from Wuhan. As a result, they encountered heavy rains and crayfish fled and entered Dianchi .

Then, crayfish quickly became a bully and an ecological killer in Dianchi Lake, resulting in a large-scale reduction in the original species.

By 2006, it had spread throughout Dianchi Lake, and the ecological damage was irreversible.

Some local residents even said that in the past 20 years, the pollution of Dianchi Lake has become more and more serious, one of the main reasons is the invasion of crayfish.

In 2006, a villager from , Yuanyang County, bought crayfish and came back to breed them, but accidentally let the crayfish escape into the terraces.

then spread rapidly, and soon spread to 6 towns and 35 natural villages around, causing nearly 30,000 acres of terraced fields to be destroyed.

and Yunyang belongs to Honghe Prefecture . Yunyang terraces are also a typical representative of Honghe terraces. At that time, Honghe terraces were applying for World Cultural Heritage . As a result, the crayfish invasion caused the collapse of Yuanyang terraces, and the losses were immeasurable.

So, can these wild crayfish really not be solved by eating them?

. Let’s share a 2014 news survey.

2014·A certain lobster street

At that time, crayfish had already left Hubei and Jiangsu, and people across the country were chasing them at night markets.

However, some reporters found that the prices of various crayfish on the market are very different, including 5 yuan, 8 yuan, 10 yuan, and 12 yuan. The reporter repeatedly observed and found that the colors of the two crayfish were significantly different from each other, and there was no big difference between the two crayfish at the middle price.

merchants explained that the price difference is mainly the size.

But the reporter still found that crayfish with lower prices generally have blackening their abdomen.

continues to investigate the reasons for the blackening of the abdomen, and the reporter got three statements.

First, if you haven’t washed it clean, just brush it carefully;

Second, if you like to eat carrion and mud, wild goods will turn black;

Third, it is caused by pollution in the growth environment.

reporters conducted experiments on these three statements. It is obvious that no matter how long it takes to brush, the abdomen of crayfish cannot be white.

Then he used carrion and fresh meat for experiments, and found that crayfish will instinctively avoid carrion.

continues to investigate the third statement. First, a wholesaler revealed that cheap crayfish are raised in black water, and then it was confirmed by experts that blackening of the abdomen is indeed caused by environmental pollution.

and further ask about the causes of environmental pollution. It turns out that this is because farmers use a major feature of wild crayfish.

That is, they have very strong adaptability and have almost no requirements for water quality. Even in black ditches and stinky ponds, crayfish can grow whizz.

Therefore, in order to pursue benefits, farmers farm in high-density farming in the pond, distributing a large amount of feed to allow the crayfish to eat and grow rapidly. This leads to the crayfish's excrement being very open and pollute the entire pond, and a large amount of excrement is deposited into the silt at the bottom of the pond. The crayfish crawling in this silt for a long time will cause the abdomen to turn black.

This crayfish is not safe to eat. The

incident was exposed, and the industry of crayfish farming became increasingly standardized.

market has developed to the present day, not only will this black-bellied lobster be rejected by the market, but even wild crayfish have been rejected together.

Because, we don’t know what kind of sewage and black mud have been eaten by wild crayfish before they were caught.

Wild crayfish have no standards, big, small, unknown production environment, unknown quality of shrimp meat. Even if they are fished up, they can only eat them by themselves and cannot enter the current large-scale market.

At the same time, why should crayfish with black cheeks not be eaten? In fact, this is the principle.

In addition, there is also urban legend that foreigners had long excluded crayfish from the recipe because of the Huff disease in 1924.

In fact, the residents of Louisiana, USA, taste no more reserved than us.

and Swedes, when they were just independent 500 years ago (1523), the country was poor, and the government encouraged the people to eat crayfish that are common in the river.

Then, it was out of control. Until today, in August every year, before the fishing ban, they still had a grand lobster festival , with traditional small pointed hats and savoring the free arginine, which was so joyful.

Real lobster

What we commonly call lobster is mainly divided into three categories: langoustine , tangerine and lobster.

Real lobsters of course refer to species from the family Lobster family. They generally live in the ocean. From the appearance, lobsters do not have large tongs.

These two large pliers are called chevrons by biologists.

Therefore, the large tong shrimp living in the sea is called the Langousidae family, while those living in fresh water are called the Metachobae family and Cychobae family (Cychobae family).

crayfish belongs to the family Cypress family, and Cypress is actually a sentence Northeast dialect , because once there was a native variety - Cypress critter growing in the rivers in the northeast.

Crayfish is very similar to crayfish. It looks like a smaller and darker crayfish, but in fact, the biggest difference between it and crayfish is that it has very high requirements for water quality.

Water quality is slightly contaminated, and the cicada will disappear.

Then, on one side is crayfish invading and on the other side is environmental pollution. Until now, crayfish in China is very rare.

There is also a variety on the market that looks like crayfish. It has a light blue body and is very large in size. They are actually Australian freshwater lobster, a variety of the family Crayfish family. It has been widely cultivated in China.

After cooking, it is almost no different from crayfish, but in fact, if you are used to crayfish and suddenly have a meal of crayfish, you will be amazed.

Because, their taste is closer to real lobsters.

As for the taste of real lobsters, compared with crayfish, it is probably the feeling of adding nucleotides to arginine.

Arginine is the pleasure of eating crayfish, and nucleotides are probably the feeling that can make you smell the sea breeze and the distance in your mind.

This kind of Australian freshwater lobster is more difficult to raise because its habits are closer to real lobsters. They are very cruel and will kill each other in the pond, and even their mother eats their shrimp eggs directly.

Therefore, farmers generally use this plastic tube to allow them to avoid similar attacks, and even seedlings have small plastic grids to protect them.

As for the legendary story of real lobsters, before we share it, we must first rule out the most real fake lobster.

The most real fake lobster

Speaking of real lobsters, many people will think of this kind of big lobsters with two big tongs big lobster .

Even emoji lobsters look like this-.

In fact, it can be said to be the most real fake lobster, commonly known as Boston lobster, abbreviated as Boron, scientific name is American charlatan lobster , belonging to the family Langoustine family.

and the so-called European blue dragon are also this kind of sea crayfish.

But in fact, the taste of the Langoustine family is really not used to the Chinese. The free amino acids are low, the arginine is pitifully low, and even alanine and glutamate do not meet the standards.

For example, in many wedding banquets now, in order to show their style, there will always be a domineering bot dragon on each table.

But in the end, if you observe carefully, you often have a table of dishes, and the most left is Bolong.

If you change to a real lobster, even if you try a plate of crayfish, there will be no more left.

This is the embarrassment of Bolong. Apart from being good-looking, it is really not delicious.

Of course, the people of Boston do not think so.

This is their pride, and Bolong is an outstanding representative of the entire lobster industry now.

But in fact, as the saying goes, people don’t know the goods, but they know the goods. Even today, Bolong is only about one-third of the price of real lobsters.

100 years ago, Boron was used as feed by the people of Boston. Even the agreement to hire sailors said that workers should not be allowed to eat lobsters more than twice a week.

How did that wave dragon successfully counterattack?

Behind this, it is related to the story of real lobsters. Let’s first ask a question, when did lobsters become popular?

Did the ancients eat lobsters?

6-meter-long big lobster

Do you believe there are 6-meter-long big lobsters in this world?

No one has seen it, and even unproven bragging posts, they only dare to blow to 1.2 meters long.

However, there was a very serious exegetic book in ancient China, which means an encyclopedia. It is called "Er Ya", which is a Confucian classic.

Result "Er Ya" says that when shrimp grows up, it is called hào. The largest one is two or three feet long, and it must be several feet long.

《Erya·Shiyu》金白, prawn. The size of shrimp is two or three zhang long, and it must be several feet long. If such people are called 材

, it is completely messed up. If calculated according to the Han Dynasty standards, one foot is equal to 23.1 cm, then its lobster whiskers are one or two meters long, while ten feet are one or two meters long, which means that the body is five or six meters long...

Don’t say that, this data is not made up, it is in line with the current ratio of lobster whiskers to body.

So, have you ever seen a 6-meter-long lobster in ancient China?

probably has seen it, otherwise the 34-centimeter shrimp would not be called a lobster, a dragon, which is a god in the hearts of ancient Chinese people.

Continue to read ancient books, we found that the lobsters of in the Tang Dynasty must be used as hairpins. This is not surprising. The big lobsters today can barely do it.

"Self-Prince's Day" The big shrimp is one foot long, and the beard can be used as a hairpin

Turned to the Han Dynasty, and found that lobster whiskers can also be used as a cane...

" Hanwu Cave Ming Ji " Ma Dan tried to fold shrimp whiskers to make a cane

Continue to turn forward. Under the annotation of "Er Ya", the record of shrimp whisker curtains was found, that is, curtains made of soft parts of shrimp whiskers...

Legend, this kind of curtain must be made of two or three feet of horns.

"Fen Gan Yu's Talk" The curtain name is shrimp whiskers. The pine is a big shrimp in the sea, two or three zhang long. When swimming, it is erected. The marrow is several feet long and can be used as a curtain. Therefore, it is too exaggerated to think that the name is

. Did there really be such a big lobster in ancient China?

Biologists do not 100% deny it because lobsters are actually an immortal creature. They have an telomerase in their body, which can repair telomeres on the chromosomes. Originally, every time a cell divides, the telomeres will be shorter. When the telomeres disappear, the cells will no longer divide. Therefore, the number of times is used to divide cells × the cycle of cell division, which is the theoretical lifespan of this organism.

This biological concept is called Hayflick limit. We have talked about it many times before.

The limit of the number of divisions of human cells is 40~60 times, so the theoretical life span of humans is 120~150 years.

. Lobsters have infinite cell division times, so their theoretical life span is also immortal.

Why does the lobster die?

In fact, lobsters grow up every year. The process of growing up requires molting, and it consumes a lot of physical energy when molting. Many huge lobsters are exhausted by themselves when molting.

But what is the limit of this exhaustion?

Biologists actually don’t know, so we cannot rule out that there were lobsters that lived for thousands of years in ancient times, growing as long as five or six meters...

is a bit far-reaching. In short, looking at ancient books, we will find that ancient people did not eat lobsters, but regarded lobsters as seafood decorations such as tortoiseshell and coral.

This may be because the ancient preservation technology was limited, and inland people could not eat fresh lobsters.

Therefore, lobsters and even the entire seafood category were just delicacies for the residents of the seaside in ancient times.

It was not until the Qing Dynasty that we saw the great talented man Yuan Mei . In his recipe book, he mentioned that there was no seafood in ancient Ba Zhen, but everyone loves it today, so I reluctantly make it difficult to record one or two...

"Suiyuan Food List·Yuan Mei" There is no saying about seafood in ancient Ba Zhen. Now that the secular world prefers it, I have to follow the crowd.

Yuan Mei wrote " Suiyuan Food List " in the 1780s.

At this time, logistics and preservation technologies around the world were slowly developing. Then, in the 1950s, refrigerators were popularized, and more and more people tasted the taste of real lobsters, so we followed the story of the lobster war at the beginning.

1962· International Court of the Hague

This year, Brazilian marine biology scientist (Paul da Silva) stated in the International Court of Justice, saying that if Brazil accepts France's argument and admits that lobsters are jumping and swimming on the seabed and should be regarded as fish, then we must also believe that Australian kangaroo should be regarded as birds when jumping and marching, and does not belong to Australia.

This is the climax of the debate on whether lobsters swim or walk. Brazil believes that they are walking, so it should be counted as part of the continental shelf like shells and oysters, which belongs to Brazil.

, and France believes that lobsters are swimming and belong to fish. Fish does not belong to the continental shelf, so they do not belong to Brazil, and France has the right to fish.

At that time, Brazil was also a military power. If it had aircraft carriers, it pulled out all the aircraft carriers just to fight for this matter. In the end, France gave in.

Do you still remember the cod war that broke out between the UK and Iceland in the 1960s? We've shared it before.

Finally, the old overlord - Britain retreated. These two wars about cod and lobster are actually key battles for developing countries to compete for the 200 nautical mile economic exclusive zone in the 1960s.

Today we can still eat lobsters and seafood from all over the world, and companies have to thank this hard-won 200 nautical miles economic exclusive zone.

Brazil and France compete for lobsters, which actually reflects a problem behind this, that is, the Europeans and Americans finally ate real lobsters, and they quickly abandoned the traditional Boston lobsters and various sea cloves.

For example, in English vocabulary, lobster and Lobster actually refer to sea crayfish, and there is no real lobster in their vocabulary.

and today's United States and Canada, the only place where there is a territorial dispute is a tiny island called Macchias seal island, because lobsters are produced here...

Then, after the 1960s, lobsters and borons occupied the world's food highlands along with European and American culture and globalization.

Then, American businessmen played a little trick.

That is, they took advantage of the trend of lobster culture and the lack of vocabulary in their own language, so they deliberately or unintentionally equated the boblock with lobster, and then convinced consumers around the world with their domineering appearance and cheap price - lobster is boblock with two big pliers.

Actually, this is another story of selling glass into crystal. Sometimes I have to admire the cleverness of the merchants.

But fortunately, China has had a lobster culture since ancient times, and we are not too miserable to be fooled.

The top lobster

The largest and best-looking in the world, and it is also the most delicious top lobster considered by ancient Chinese, called the Chinese Jinxiu Lobster.

is native to the Yellow Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea .

is really good-looking, and it is definitely not something that can be compared with those red and thorny Aolongs, red dragons and Japanese dragons.

Jinxiu Lobster is very valuable. In 2017, Fujian Ningde TV reported that an old fisherman from Fuding County went to sea and accidentally caught a 1.4-meter-long Chinese Jinxiu Lobster. Someone offered 1 million yuan to buy it on the spot.

But the old fishermen considered that someone caught a 1-meter-long one a few years ago and sold it for 600,000 yuan. It was a bit of a loss for this one to sell for 1 million yuan.

So, I kept it in the fish tank and continued to make the price.

Unexpectedly, after 4 days, the lobster actually died...

The daughter of the old fisherman later told reporters that after the lobster died, the father was in a very bad mood. He didn't speak, couldn't even eat, and couldn't sleep well.

When the reporter interviewed, he only saw frozen lobsters in the freezer. It is said that the day before his death, someone bid 350,000, but it showed that as long as he lived.

In 2016, someone also caught a 60-centimeter-long lobster in Rizhao, Shandong. The price soared from 80,000 to 200,000 yuan. In the end, it was sold for 260,000 yuan.

It is said that this lobster is the horn in "Er Ya", a big prawn that can transform into a dragon, and eat it to prolong life.

But unfortunately, in May 2021, the Chinese Jinxiu Lobster was listed as National Second-Class Protected Animal . Now take a bite and sentence it to five years.

Last November, another fisherman in Shishishi accidentally caught a 40-centimeter-long lobster. He immediately reported the case after he got ashore. Finally, the law enforcement brigade drove the fishing boat and took the fishermen and lobsters to the outside seas to release them.

But if you see Jinxiu lobster in the market, don’t be afraid, don’t panic and call the police.

Because now, the Jinxiu lobster that has been artificially cultivated is not considered protected animals, and can be eaten, but it is not illegal.

In addition to Jinxiu lobster, there are also real lobsters on the market now, Aolong, which is New Ao Rock Lobster, which looks like a rock;

American Red Dragon, which is California thorn lobster, authentic lobster family-lobster genus with thorns on the legs;

Little Green Dragon, which is a corrugated lobster, native to Southeast Asia and the South China Sea, is also the authentic lobster family-lobster genus, known as the younger brother of Jinxiu lobster, because Jinxiu lobster is called Dahualong, and it is called Xiaoqinglong.

elephant lobster, this is a thorn lobster, native to Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean , it is a real lobster in the eyes of Europeans, so it is the Lobster family-the real lobster genus.

and Japanese lobster, which are relatively small and are also lobsters, and taste like Little Green Dragon.

There is also a box of sea-old food in the Japanese cuisine. This is Japanese ridge lobster, which is a genus of ridge lobster, and must be particularly thick.

This is the story of lobsters. From crayfish to big flower dragons, in fact, you love to eat them all because there are still very ancient memories of the sea left in your taste.

This memory will be awakened by the free arginine and nucleotides in the lobster's body, making you feel an indescribable happiness.

OK, that’s all for today’s story, thank you everyone.

Finally, the lady said, next week I will give you a large flower dragon with sufficient arginine.

(completed)