What are sea urchins, and how much do they cost per jin?
Do you know what sea urchins are? Many people probably don't know. Judging by the name, they should live in the sea, so what exactly are sea urchins, and how much do they cost per jin?
1. What are sea urchins?
1. Sea urchins are animals. They are a class of invertebrates in the phylum Echinodermata, class Echinoidea, that live in shallow seawater, and they are close relatives of starfish and sea cucumbers. Their bodies are spherical, disc-shaped or heart-shaped, and their body colors include green, olive, brown, purple and black, with spines growing on their bodies.
2. Most sea urchins like to live on rocks, coral reefs and hard seabeds, and they move mainly by means of tube feet and spines. In China they are mainly distributed along the coast of the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea, in the northern part of the Liaodong Peninsula and the Shandong Peninsula, and southward to the shallow seas of Zhejiang and Fujian as well as the Zhoushan Archipelago and the Taiwan Strait.
3. Sea urchins have a fairly broad diet. They can be carnivorous, feeding on gastropods and other echinoderms, or herbivorous, feeding on various seaweeds. When food is abundant, they may move only 10 cm per day; when food is scarce, they can move 50 cm per day.
4. When eating sea urchins, people mainly eat their gonads, the yellow stuff inside. There are five pieces in total, and they are usually eaten raw with vinegar and mustard. They taste very delicious. They are a "stimulating food," but if you are not in an active disease stage and are not allergic to sea urchins yourself, you can eat them.
5. Sea urchins can not only be eaten fresh, but are also a valuable traditional Chinese medicine. The medicinal part is its calcareous shell, which has the effects of softening hardness and dispersing nodules, and resolving phlegm and reducing swelling. It is often used for scrofula and phlegm nodules, asthma, distending pain in the ribs and hypochondria, and stomach pain.
2. How much do sea urchins cost per jin?
1. The price of sea urchins is relatively high. Generally they cost several tens of yuan per jin, and better ones cost a bit more. The price also varies with place of origin, quality, sales region and supply and demand. If it is fresh wild purple sea urchin roe, the price is estimated at around 400 yuan per jin. If it is a sea urchin dish, such as steamed egg with sea urchin, seafood sushi, sea urchin congee, etc., the price is also different.
2. If you want to judge whether sea urchins are fresh and alive, first look at how much the spines all over the body move. The larger the movement, the better the freshness. Second, gently touch the tip of a screwdriver to the sea urchin's mouth and see whether it quickly contracts. If the mouth quickly contracts, it is very fresh and alive.
3. After buying sea urchins, handle them this way: use scissors to cut a circular opening starting from the mouth. At this time the inside of the sea urchin is full of liquid. Remove the liquid and the black parts (stomach and intestines), and rinse repeatedly with clean water. Once the yellow parts have all been washed clean, they can be served and eaten.
Summary: Sea urchins are a class of invertebrates in the phylum Echinodermata, class Echinoidea, that live in shallow seawater. They can be eaten fresh, and people mainly eat their gonads, usually raw with vinegar and mustard, and they taste very delicious. Their price is relatively high, and the specific price depends on the restaurant's listed price.