Crayfish are native to North America, and their main habitat is the Gulf Coast, especially the area near the mouth of the Mississippi River. It was introduced to Nanjing, China by the Japanese in 1927 and was initially used as feed and food.

In the late 1940s, Japan was defeated and a large number of Japanese soldiers and civilians hurriedly evacuated China, leaving some crayfish in the Yangtze River Basin and Northeast China. After decades of development, the crayfish family continues to grow. At present, crayfish is an important cultured species in my country's freshwater waters. The culture areas cover more than 20 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in Northeast, North, Northwest, East, Central, South and Southwest China, especially in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in Hubei, Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Sichuan and other places have large breeding areas, and they are also the leading products for exporting freshwater aquatic products in my country to earn foreign exchange.

From "crab assistant" to table tyrant

In the United States, the hometown of crayfish, people began to eat crayfish more than two hundred years ago. Crayfish is a southerner of the United States. An essential summer snack. In Sweden, the Crayfish Festival lasts for a month every August and is one of the three major traditional festivals in Sweden. Nanjing is not only the first place where crayfish landed, but also the first city in China to eat crayfish. It is said that in the 1960s, old Nanjing people began to eat crayfish. In counties and cities around Nanjing, such as Xuyi in Jiangsu and Bengbu in Anhui, people began to eat crayfish around the 1980s. Before that, crayfish dug holes everywhere in rice fields and dams, causing flooding.

Huang Bo, currently the general manager of the Shrimp Temptation Lobster City in Qianjiang City, Hubei Province, is from Bengbu, Anhui Province. According to his recollection, when the Huaihe River flooded in 1982, locals discovered a large number of crayfish, and they caught them and burned them with crabs and snails. At that time, crayfish had a nickname called "crab assistant", which was a substitute for crab. At that time, crabs cost 9 cents per catty, large crabs could be sold for 1.5 yuan, and crayfish only cost a few cents per catty. Generally, families wash the crayfish and add onions, ginger and salt before boiling it and eating it. If the conditions are better, star anise and Sichuan peppercorns are added. Huang Bo started cooking crayfish when he was a teenager. He took it to Bengbu Railway Station and packed 10 crayfish in each bag, which he could sell for a few cents.

At the same time, people in Xuyi, Jiangsu also began to cook crayfish. The seasonings ranged from the earliest boiled onion and ginger to the later five-spice and thirteen-spice, constantly improving the taste of lobster.

In 1995, Huang Bo came to Qianjiang, Hubei Province and found that there were many local lakes and crayfish could be seen everywhere, but the custom of eating crayfish had not yet formed. He opened a small restaurant selling crayfish near Jianghan Oilfield. He cooked crayfish using Anhui cooking methods. Most of his customers were from Anhui, Jiangsu and other places, but the locals didn't eat much. After getting to know them, Huang Bo discovered that Qianjiang people like to eat crayfish braised in sauce, and the spicy flavor is more popular. It was during this period that the "little plum" braised prawns made by local Li Daijun became famous and set off a red storm in Qianjiang City. Later, this cooking method spread to Wuhan, Xiantao, Tianmen, Jingzhou, Yichang and other large and medium-sized cities. City.

Due to the rapid development of the crayfish catering market, the demand for it is constantly rising, and it is difficult to rely solely on wild fishing