A fish that spoils as soon as it leaves the water and does not need scaling, its status rivals the Three Delicacies of the Yangtze yet few have tasted it

I believe many people know the deliciousness of the Three Delicacies of the Yangtze, which are pufferfish, hilsa herring and hairtail, and people praise the Three Delicacies of the Yangtze endlessly, but did you know? There is a kind of fish whose taste and texture is not inferior to the Three Delicacies of the Yangtze at all, and its status is certainly not inferior to the Three Delicacies of the Yangtze either. It is a very precious Yangtze fish today, it lives in the upper reaches of the Yangtze, and not many people have eaten it. Today I will introduce this fish to everyone.

It is the Yangtze copper fish, and the deliciousness of the Yangtze copper fish is a delicacy comparable to the Three Delicacies of the Yangtze. The Yangtze copper fish is slender, with a conical head, and it is rather small. The body color of the Yangtze copper fish is brass-colored, so people call it the Yangtze copper fish. The Yangtze copper fish has few bones and plenty of meat, and the flesh of the fish is very tender, and it is also rich in fat and protein etc., and its nutritional value is very high. The Yangtze copper fish also counts as a top-grade ingredient, and it is very much loved by people. Only in restaurants near the Yangtze is the Yangtze copper fish available, and the Yangtze copper fish appears as a high-end dish, so naturally its price is not low.

Another characteristic of the Yangtze copper fish is that it begins to rot as soon as it leaves the water, and its flesh falls apart very easily, so it also has the nickname bean-dreg fish. When handling it, the scales generally cannot be scraped off, otherwise it falls apart. After being cooked, the fish is very tender and soft, and it tastes very fresh and tender when eaten. This is a way of eating the Yangtze copper fish that is different from other fish. The common ways to prepare the Yangtze copper fish are dry-braising and steaming. Steamed Yangtze copper fish preserves the fish's fresh fragrance and umami to the greatest extent. Although the method is simple, the taste when eaten is very good, and moreover the scales on the outside are also edible, so it really has a distinctive taste when eaten.

This fish previously had a very high yield, but due to people's over-harvesting of the Yangtze copper fish, plus changes in the natural environment, in recent years the number of Yangtze copper fish has become very, very few. Moreover, the Yangtze copper fish has never achieved artificial breeding, because it has relatively high requirements for water quality and the breeding environment, and added to the fact that it is rather fragile itself, currently they are mainly wild. The number of Yangtze copper fish is really very small now. I really hope artificial breeding can be achieved as soon as possible, so that afterward we can eat the Yangtze copper fish again.

Besides the Yangtze copper fish, in our country's Yellow River there is also a kind of fish called the Yellow River copper fish, which is also called "pigeon fish" locally, but it is said that it has not been caught for nearly 20 years. Friends, have you ever eaten it?