介绍:
【特别感谢热心听友“张惠云”帮忙听写本篇文稿】
HeYang: They glisten, boiled bright red, heaps and heaps of whole crawfish spread across a dinner table. Yeah, you see that a lot in outdoor restaurants on a hot summer night.
Chinese people love simply eating crawfish, or 小龙虾. Nothing compares with washing down the delicacy with a glass of ice cold beer.
Guys why is it that crawfish is so popular for Chinese people for midnight snack.
YuYang: OK before our mouth got watering, I like to say something about the history. Very brief history. Well the crawfish was introduced from Japan to China around 1930. Because crawfish is quite a resilient species and lacks natural enemies, the number of crawfish increased rapidly. And it’s widely seen in provinces and cities in middle and lower Yangtze River. At first, it might be bred as a type of feeds for other species, and later it became so famous at people’s dinner table. Especially at midnight snack table right now. And in 1980s, some farmers collected crawfish near a farm in Qianjiang, Hubei Province, and braised crawfish by the sidewalk. You guys guess what happened?
HY: What happened?
YY: The smell is so good. The smell attracted many passers-by, and the dish became popular locally, and was introduced to Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei at the beginning of 1990s. So I think due to its low cost, good taste and sufficient supply, the dish soon gained popularity in China. And it’s so popular now. You can see it everywhere.
Ryan: you know you said something about the smell and how that attract people. As I said I live right next to Guijie so I can totally sympathize and say yes, that smell does drive you crazy and gets all your worked up and hungry and I always see tons of people eating this and are really loving it. It’s kind of like got a social context. Like summer night beer, these things with friends and what not. And walking down the street because I mean frequently go to Dongzhimen or Sanlitun or whatnot for my gym and groceries. But you know going through the street I often see so many people doing this. I was thinking like wow this must be a very specific thing in Beijing, Beijing must be doing this big. But as I understand there are some places in Jiangsu, Xuyi county, and they eat about 30 tons of crawfish within one night. With 30,000 people of course during international crawfish festival every year. 30 tons of crawfish within one night. Those people love this stuff.
HY: Yes that’s a lot. And I used to think that this is one of those fads that happened in Beijing but actually it’s not just here, is all over the country, is it?
YY: yes, it’s all over the country. Such as there Hubei, the crawfish output of Hubei took up nearly 60% of the total output in China in 2012. And in 2014 alone, people in Hubei spent over 25 billion Yuan, that’s around 4 billion USD in eating crawfish alone. So we can see Hubei people really love crawfish a lot.
HY: Alright, so correct me if I’m wrong. I have to admit ever since I am doing this show I’m so ignorant. I’m Chinese but I know not that much about my country and our country is just vast and with a rich history. But crawfish used to be considered as kind of a cheap thing and also the environment as it is naturally grown can be a little bit dirty sometimes, like sewage, drains, like wet corners of not very clean water areas. But how come it has transformed itself and became so popular as you guys are talking about it.
YY: oh yes, as you said, crawfish has a strong adaptability to environment. It can live in highly polluted regions. So therefore, no wonder many people are worrying about the safety of eating crawfish because of its high contents of heavy metals. But the recent scientific study shows heavy metals gathers in its gill and its guts. It’s not in the whole body; it’s just parts of body. And the part we eat doesn’t contain that much heavy metal.
HY: You’re so technical, now I know everything about it. Why is it so popular? Why are people just digging in and getting their hands all oily and dirty.
Ryan: Specifically I can only take a guess as the outsider in this group. But you know seafood is often expensive, delicious seafood. I mean, if you’re thinking like the crawfish is close a cousin. A lobster is 70 USD just for a tail in a lot restaurant in US. But here you see that seafood that isn’t expensive that you can have plenty of, that’s like an informal thing. It’s amount like a hotdog or something like that, you eat with your hands, and it’s delicious. You know, I think for so many reasons it’s delicious, it’s cheap, it’s something you can get your hands dirty with your friends. And you know, you don’t have to have the dinner manners of the queen when you are eating, but you can just let loose with your friends and have some beer and have some crawfish.
YY: Oh yeah there is a joking way to describe this, why crawfish becomes the most popular midnight snack? Because when you eat it, your fingers become too oily to play your mobile phone, so you can only focus on chatting and communicating with your friends.
Ryan: then it should be very good for dates. Coz I know some people go on dates and when date’s going sour, maybe this other girl or guy is like on their phone. But if you take them to crawfish folks they can’t do it, so you got them cornered.
HY: oh my goodness, that could work either way Ryan. If you’re taking your date out for the very first time, I think probably eating in a more dignified way would be more suitable. Because I mean come on…it's the first time. Let's not show our true colors just yet. Let’s try to be civil and maybe this is the best idea for a third date or forth one when you’ve kind of known each other a little bit. And wanna see your true personality and all that. Let’s get our hands dirty and oily and see what we really are.
Ryan: so if I have a Beijing friend, the guy friend is like: yeah I'm going out with this girl and I'm going out Guijie this night. Oh I got so you guys must have gone a couple of dates already because you're going on Guijie, recorded HY, it's like the third date kind of material.
YY: yes, because you have to fight so hard to get the shell off the Maxiao. And girls might not like that at the first date. Right, HY?
HY: yeah, I think that's a very good point and if the guy offers to help me out to de-shell the thing, he is a keeper. That's what I would say.
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