Xinyi luoma lake whitebait

Luoma lake whitebait is a specialty of luoma lake, xinyi city, Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province. Luoma lake whitebait, white and transparent as jade, shaped like silver bars, is tender and delicious, and has the reputation of "silver in water" and "ginseng in water". Luoma lake is bordered by Longhai Railway in the north, Maling Mountain in the east, and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in the west and south. With a water area of 375 square kilometers, it is one of the four major freshwater lakes in Jiangsu Province. The lake area is a typical aquatic grass lake with abundant natural bait. There are many fish in the lake, among which several whitebait are the most famous. There were four species of whitebait in luoma lake, and now the dominant species are big whitebait and young new whitebait. The whitebait is the one with high economic value and the most promising development prospect. Because it gives off the green fragrance of cucumber during spawning period, local fishermen also call it yellow melon fish. These whitebait belong to teleost, salmon and whitebait in biological classification. The big whitebait has a flat, triangular head, a row of fine teeth on the maxilla, a slender and transparent figure, and a row of black spots on both sides of the abdomen. It mainly feeds on plankton, such as rotifers, arthropods, green algae and cryptoalgae. The spawning season of luoma lake whitebait is from the end of December to the beginning of the new year in the solar calendar, and it is an annual small fish that spawns in winter. When the eggs are laid, they reach sexual maturity in that year and die after laying eggs. The spawning period of Neosalanx oligodentatus is in mid-April. Whitebait has strong reproductive ability, likes rainy weather, and grows rapidly from June to July. At this time, the body length of whitebait is generally about five centimeters. When the big whitebait grows to more than seven centimeters, it reaches the standard of earning foreign exchange by export, and its price is more than ten times higher than that of ordinary fish, so it is called "silver in water". Luoma lake whitebait is rich in nutrients. According to scientific tests, the content of protein in whitebait is 86.8% and the fat is 6.95%. In whitebait protein, the amino acid composition is very ideal, the amino acid content of whitebait is 48.73%, and that of Taihu whitebait is 48.29%. Moreover, because the whitebait bone is soft and spineless, it can be eaten as a whole, so it is convenient to eat without disembowelling. Japanese people like to eat whitebait. In order to protect its nutrients, they often eat it cold and raw after sanitary treatment. People in Taiwan Province cook porridge with whitebait and feed it to newly weaned babies. Whitebait is also rich in various trace elements necessary for human body, so it was listed as a tribute in ancient China, and it was also praised as "ginseng in water" by modern food experts.
Reprinted with attribution： https://cnlocality.com/(Chinese Specialty Products)