Nowadays, people eat sea cucumbers when they have a disagreement...

The reason why I put up the high-energy warning picture is because today's species look very, very, very illegal! This is really not my fault, you must listen to my explanation...

Actually, when I was asked to write this article, I was reluctant to do so. I was afraid that a pure and innocent person like me would be tainted even if I took a look at it! But when I thought that today's protagonist was very delicious, I let it go. My appetite overcame my reason. Even if my reputation was ruined, I had to force everyone to recommend this "dirty but delicious" seafood.

A one-meter-long kiss? No kidding!

Urechis unicinctus is a marine benthic organism belonging to the phylum Urechiae, order Anaplasma, family Urechidae, and genus Urechiae. When it comes to other species in this phylum, everyone is confused, so Urechis unicinctus is the biggest name. Its body is generally long and cylindrical, with huge honey protrusions (blushing) in some parts. The body length is about 10~30cm, with a tender pink flesh color, and the body surface is covered with equal-sized granular papillae. The snout is short and spoon-shaped, and does not have any "extremely elastic, can stretch more than one meter, and can sweep thousands of troops". Urechis unicinctus is distributed in China, Japan and South Korea. In China, it is mainly distributed in the intertidal zone or subtidal muddy bottom along the coast of the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea. The production is relatively large in Penglai and Yantai, Shandong Province.

The most unforgettable thing in the seafood pool is the single-ringed stingray丨@缠结的猫G

The monocyclic worms living on mudflats have excellent sand-diving capabilities and are good at digging holes. Their burrows are U-shaped, with chimney-shaped entrances and can be up to half a meter deep. If it weren't for experienced fishermen, it would be difficult for ordinary people to dig them! In addition, the monocyclic worms will encounter sulfides in the mud during their burrowing life. These substances are highly toxic to aerobic organisms, but the monocyclic worms have a strong tolerance and oxidation detoxification ability for a certain concentration of sulfides. They can "detoxify" sulfides and generate non-toxic thiosulfates. The monocyclic worms are so powerful, but they can't escape the fate of overfishing and environmental degradation. The result of the ensuing misfortunes is the decline of natural resources and rising prices.

The head of the single-ringed spiny worm in its burrowing life is a little cute丨theinertia.com

The male insect parasitizes the female insect? It's a case of mistaken identity!

So where do the thorns of the single-ringed stingray come from? A closer look reveals that there are thorns on both the head and tail of the single-ringed stingray. There is a pair of bristles behind the mouth, and a circle of 9 to 13 brown-yellow bristles around the anus at the tail, arranged in a single ring and bent outward. Haha, it looks like the product of a failed photon hair removal procedure that encountered the Putian system.

This picture clearly shows the tail bristles of the single-ringed stingray丨blog.sina.com.cn/songzhibin

In addition, you may be misled by some previous "popular science articles". Many articles will say: the monocygnus you can see are girls, and the boys are extremely small. The whole phylum is highly dimorphic, and the males are particularly small and parasitize the females. Nonono, this is wrong. The ones that cannot see the groom are just species of the Bonelliidae family. In other words, the male and female monocygnus look similar , there is no sexual dimorphism, and it is not that the male parasitizes the female (the boys did not grow up eating free rice)!

Bonellia viridis, with a forked snout over a meter long, the male is less than 1cm long and lives in the body cavity and kidney duct of the female丨flickr

Can you eat it in the southeast coast? You got the wrong sausage!

I grew up in a southern coastal city and have eaten a lot of seafood in my life. But when I saw this for the first time, I was shocked by the bad taste of the Creator: such delicate and flexible flesh-colored skin, wrapped in strong and elastic muscles, as if you can feel its vigorous and powerful rhythm at any time. If you pinch it with your hands and apply light force, juice will actually splash out...

A plate of magical single-ringed stingray丨wiki

With such a dirty body, don't blame others for calling it what it is. In China, the single-ringed stingray is cryptically called "sea intestines", and some places call it "sea chickens". But foreigners don't care so much, they are vividly called "Chinese Penis Fish" (you know), but they are not only distributed in China, but also in Korea and Japan, and they are not fish! So only the middle word is extremely accurate (I blushed and almost couldn't write anymore).

I know you can understand~丨image.slidesharecdn.com

At this point, some friends from Fujian and Guangdong may ask, "Oh, this is sea intestines? We have them all along the coast and can often eat them." No, no, what you see are most likely Sipunculus nudus or Phascolosoma arcuatum, generally called sandworms or sand intestines (the latter is the raw material of sea cucumber jelly), both of which belong to the phylum Sipuncula. To the naked eye, Sipunculus nudus has grid-like grooves on its body surface, while Phascolosoma arcuatum has nipple-like protrusions, and Sipunculus nudus does not have bristles.

Single-ringed stingray: You are making me dirty. Sipunculus: Same here. Picture of Sipunculus 丨 baidu.com

It's so dirty, why not eat it? That's a big loss!

Although it is very dirty, sea intestines are really delicious. However, before eating, you still need to process it first. Use scissors to "circumcise" the part with bristles at the head and tail. At this time, be careful that the sticky reddish-brown liquid in its body cavity may splash out. Next, lift up one end of its flesh and pinch it, straighten the sea intestines from top to bottom, and squeeze out various digestive tracts, kidney tubes, etc. in the body. After processing in this way, what is left is a tube of muscle, which is also the most commonly eaten part of sea intestines. Recent studies have shown that the fresh discarded internal organs of the monocypripedium are high in various nutrients, especially protein, and have great development and utilization value.

The head and tail of the sea urchin have been removed and the internal organs have been taken out丨blog.sina.com.cn/songzhibin

After the beginning of spring, the single-ringed spiny worms are the most plump. At this time, almost every household in Yantai, Shandong, will cook a home-cooked dish - fried sea intestine with leeks. It is said that there is a saying in Yantai: Long-term surplus wealth. The "long" here refers to the sea intestine, and the "long" refers to the leeks. The method is relatively simple. The cooked sea intestine is blanched in boiling water for a few seconds and quickly picked up. After being rinsed with cold water, it is cut into segments of similar lengths together with the leeks. Then, soy sauce, salt, water starch, and sesame oil are used to make a sauce. Heat the oil in a pan, add the leeks and stir-fry until soft, then add the sea intestine segments and stir-fry, pour in the sauce and stir-fry until they are ready. The sea intestine is soft, flexible and smooth, and the leeks are salty and delicious. It can be called a classic Shandong cuisine! Although the methods of this dish are different, one thing everyone knows is that if the sea intestine is cooked for a long time, the meat will easily become old. If the action is slow and the time is long, the sea intestine will become as hard to chew as rubber, so it is still a test of cooking skills.

A plate of fried sea cucumber with leeks and a bottle of ice-cold Laoshan beer. What else can you ask for in life?

In addition, another very famous home-cooked dish is dumplings stuffed with sea intestines. First, beat the eggs and fry them into soybean-sized pieces. Then, cut the fresh sea intestines, pork and leeks into small pieces of about 1 cm, mix them with the egg pieces to make dumpling fillings, and then add appropriate amounts of salt, MSG and sesame oil according to personal taste, and stir well. After the filling is ready, you can wrap it into dumplings and cook it in a pot. Since the surface of fresh sea intestines is slippery, it is very troublesome to cut them into pieces. What should I do? Here, Duosuijun teaches you a little trick. Put the sea intestines together in strips, cover them with plastic wrap and freeze them for 2 to 3 hours, then take them out. Remove the plastic wrap, and the stacked sea intestines will be moderately soft and hard, so it is very convenient to cut them into pieces.

Dumplings stuffed with sea cucumber丨See watermark

In addition to these two more common ways of eating, there are also grilled sea intestines, fried sea intestines, spicy sea intestines, etc. Although sea intestines are now the main dish and are very popular, you should know that in the past, sea intestines were air-dried and ground into powder to be used as MSG to flavor other dishes. It is said that this "humiliation" has a history of nearly a thousand years. But why does sea intestine taste so delicious? This is because it is rich in a variety of flavor amino acids, among which glutamic acid has the highest content, so it is not surprising that it tastes so delicious. According to legend, in the era without MSG, Shandong cuisine was able to take the lead among the eight major cuisines, more or less thanks to the sea intestine powder that is so delicious that it makes people's tongues fall off.

Shandong cuisine classic - sea intestines in sauce丨blog.sina.com.cn

It's not just the Chinese people who like to eat Echinops monocynatus, Koreans love it too. Sea intestines are called Gaebul in Korea, and the production is not high, so the price is several times higher than in China. They eat sea intestines much more vigorously than Chinese people. Those who have watched "My Love from the Star" know that sea intestine sashimi is the dish that your goddess Cheon Song Yi loves so much. Fresh sea intestines are washed and cooked, and there is no need to cut them into sections. Just pick them up and dip them in soy sauce and mustard. The taste is better than goose intestines!

Your goddess丨yangshujidi.com

Image: english.cri.cn

Foreigners' love for Echinops monocygnus does not only focus on the various strange ways of eating it. For example, there is a set of "sea intestine" emoticons on the popular social software LINE, how cute.

Author: Attack of the flesh

This article comes from GuokrNature (ID: GuokrNature)