What Is the ragworm? Get to know the ragworm in the rice fields
What is the ragworm? The ragworm is the common name for the clam worm (Tylorrhynchus heterochaetus), a species in the phylum Annelida, family Nereididae. It usually inhabits the shallows along the coast or in estuaries. In China it is mainly found in the three provinces of Zhejiang, Guangdong and Fujian. It is a delicious ingredient, and can also be used in traditional Chinese medicine, with effects of reducing swelling and boosting qi.
What are the edible values of the ragworm?
The ragworm is delicious and edible and counts as an insect food (according to a report by Australia's "Daily Telegraph" on May 14, 2013, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization stated in a report released local time on the 13th that there are more than 1,900 species of edible insects worldwide, and eating more insects is greatly beneficial to health). People in Guangdong call it "ragworm". The following is a related introduction:
The ragworm is rich in protein and vitamins. The ragworm is highly seasonal: the Xinhui ragworm only emerges each year on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar third, fourth and eighth months, during the spring tides. When the ragworm swarms appear, they float densely on the surface of the rivers and creeks, a rather spectacular sight. Farmers wait at the outlets of the rivers and creeks, seizing the opportunity to catch them. In the 1950s and 1960s, sometimes several hundred jin of ragworms could be caught in one go, and they would return fully loaded in farm boats. Since pesticides began to be applied to farmland, the ragworm has gradually decreased. Now, with stronger protection of the natural ecological environment, the ragworm in Xinhui has increased somewhat, but still not by much, and the price is high. In some places the ragworm is now farmed artificially. It is distributed in rice fields and mud at the junctions of saltwater and freshwater around the Pearl River Estuary, and only comes out to the mud surface when breeding.
The ragworm can be steamed or stewed, pan-fried or deep-fried, and it is either fragrant and crisp or delicately sweet, fragrant and smooth. Shenwan ragworm soup is made by simmering fresh ragworms together with sun-dried ragworms, capturing both their fragrance and their freshness.
Preparing the ragworm is even more complicated. It is said the procedure is as follows: first drizzle raw oil into the basin holding the ragworms, then add salt powder shortly after. Wherever the salt powder lands, the ragworms immediately burst their contents and die. After that, add eggs, Xinhui dried tangerine peel and preserved black olives, and steam them in a steamer. The steaming vessel must be a clay pot. Once steamed, let the ragworms cool slightly, then bake them together with the pot, and then a remarkable fragrance is given off.
When restaurants stir-fry fresh ragworms, they must be stir-fried until the contents burst, over low heat, taking half an hour, but this preserves the ragworm's fragrance in its original juices. Made into a fine dish, the ragworm is fresh-fragrant and delicious, tender, smooth and sweetly fragrant; it also has medicinal-diet effects such as nourishing yin and strengthening yang, fortifying the spleen, warming the body and dispelling dampness, with a unique flavor. There are many ways to cook the ragworm: as long as you add ginger, scallion, oil and salt, steaming, stir-frying, simmering or stewing will all make a delicious dish. It can also be salted into salted ragworm or sun-dried into dried ragworm, and it can also be pounded into ragworm paste.
What are the medicinal values of the ragworm?
"Supplementary Records of the Compendium of Materia Medica" writes: "The ragworm is abundant along the coasts of Fujian, Guangdong and Zhejiang. It is shaped like an earthworm. The people of Fujian eat it steamed with eggs, or make it into a paste to eat, and serve it to guests as a delicacy, saying that eating it tonifies the spleen and strengthens the stomach." In the Pearl River Delta, the ragworm has always been regarded as a fine dish on the table and is favored by many diners, but persuading old friends from other provinces to eat ragworm is still a bit difficult, and moreover some local old friends are not too fond of eating it either. The ragworm can be pan-fried, boiled, steamed or stewed. Among these, ragworm baked in a clay pot best shows its flavor. And steamed egg with ragworm, crispy fried ragworm, ragworm soup and so on are all full of flavor, leaving an endless aftertaste.
[Meridian tropism] Spleen; Stomach meridian
[Effects] Tonifies the spleen and stomach; benefits qi and blood; promotes water metabolism and reduces swelling
[Textual research] From "Supplementary Records of the Compendium of Materia Medica": The ragworm is abundant along the coasts of Fujian, Guangdong and Zhejiang, shaped like an earthworm. The people of Fujian eat it steamed with eggs, or make it into a paste to eat, and serve it to guests as a delicacy, saying that eating it tonifies the spleen and strengthens the stomach. According to "Guang Zhi", in summer with hot rain, worms are born from the steamy fermentation in the rice, or worms are born from rotting rice roots. The large ones are about the size of a chopstick, growing to a zhang in length, with a mouth at each segment. When alive they are green, and when cooked they turn red-yellow. Before Frost's Descent, when the rice ripens, the worms also ripen. On the first and second days and the fifteenth and sixteenth days, riding the spring tide, they come out in segments, floating on the fields, and are taken with nets. Upon contact with vinegar, a white liquid comes out by itself; strain it through white rice washing water, steam it into a paste, and it is sweet and delicious and beneficial to people.
[Indications] Weakness of the spleen and stomach; diarrhea; anemia; edema
[Usage and dosage] Oral administration: decocted in soup, 5-10 pieces.