The popularity of the Internet can hardly hide the limitations of the development of the pickling market

Raw pickling - a popular way to eat this summer, almost replaces the crayfish
in the major restaurants in the summer.
Since the beginning of summer, more and more restaurants selling raw pickled seafood, in addition to Wenzhou and Chaoshan restaurants, restaurants dealing in small seafood, barbecue and food stalls have also sold this raw food
.
Under the publicity of some food bloggers, raw pickling has received more and more attention, and many netizens called it "delicious poison" after trying, believing that its meat is tender, melts in the mouth, and the taste of ordinary dishes is very different, making people want to eat more and more addictively
.
However, experts also remind that raw pickling has hidden dangers in food safety, and food safety is the red line of catering consumption, and if this problem cannot be solved, it is difficult for the category to go further
.

Raw pickling to seize the New World

Raw pickling is a type of food
that is eaten raw after marinating raw after several hours of marinating with shrimp, crab, blood clams, clams, and flower nails as the main ingredients, supplemented by garlic, coriander, chili, soy sauce, white wine and other seasonings.
Raw pickling is similar to fish sang, in the eyes of Chaoshan locals, raw pickling retains the most original flavor
of seafood to the greatest extent.

As a popular way to eat seafood this summer, raw pickling has almost replaced the crayfish
in major restaurants in previous summers.
Search for raw pickles on the takeaway platform, in addition to a few classic dishes, you will also see marine fish fillets, king clams, cuttlefish, elephant mussels and even lobster, with different names, in addition to pickling, there are also choking, drunk, sauce, fishing juice, etc.
, which undoubtedly opens up a new continent
for food lovers who like raw and cold.

However, perhaps because the way of eating is too raw, for a long time, in other areas outside Chaoshan Province, stores selling raw pickles were not common
.

However, since the beginning of this year, with the popularity of raw pickles on the Internet, this status quo is being broken
.
In addition to the well-known Wenzhou and Chaoshan restaurants, some seafood shops, private restaurants, side stove shops, and creative vegetable shops have also launched raw pickled dishes
.
In a private restaurant, many consumers came to the store's signature "Chaoshan Drunken Paste Crab", and there were often long queues
in the store.
"This year's raw pickling sales are particularly good, the response from customers is also good, and the recognition of raw pickling is very high
.
" The owner of a private restaurant said that a good raw pickle is the key to
the freshness of the ingredients, preparation methods, sanitary conditions, and sauces.

In Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan and other Pearl River Delta cities close to the Chaoshan area, there are more related stores
.
On the whole, most of the stores are in the form of single stores, and there are fewer
chain operations.
Shantou Internet celebrity brand "Ruijiao Grandma" has 4 stores, Guangzhou's "Pickling God Raw Pickling Research Institute" has 5 stores, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang "Qingjiam Small Restaurant, Raw Pickling and Drunk, Ningbo Xiaoxian" has 7 stores
.
In addition to this, no other brand
with a certain number of stores has been found.

Both online and offline blossom

On the Internet, the debate about pickling has been going on for years, and this summer has been particularly heated, showing an almost polarized trend, with those who don't like pickling feeling fishy and worried about parasites, while those who like it crave the sweetness
of pickling.

Although eating raw seafood does not conform to the daily eating habits of most Chinese, raw pickled crabs
appeared as early as the Song Dynasty.
Gao Xisun of the Song Dynasty was born on the seashore, and in "Crab Strategy", he called crabs that can be eaten raw crabs, pickled for several hours called "wine crab raw", and cut the mixture and can be eaten directly called "hand-washing crabs"
.
Fu Qiu recorded in the "Crab Spectrum" that after the end of the cup, you can eat, the purpose is "hand washing crab", which refers to the production process of crabs, only need to wash your hands
.

Raw pickling was originally popular in the north, according to the "Tokyo Menghualu" record, in the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, Kaifeng, people flocked to taste a raw crab, "half shell containing yellow Yi wine, two chela snow persuaded to add food" is Su Shi's poem, written is this dish
.
This is an ancient way of eating, and now with the migration of the population and the change of taste, it is mainly spread in the Chaoshan area and Ningbo, Wenzhou and other places in Zhejiang
.

Raw pickles became popular on the Internet and became the new traffic password
of food bloggers this summer.
On the online social platform, there are countless videos about raw pickling, including raw pickling tutorials, visiting restaurants to eat, seafood sales, etc.
, eating videos make people swallow saliva across the screen, seafood crystal clear meat, with dipping sauce, looks as delicious as jelly, causing netizens in front of the screen to be eager to try, many netizens left messages saying that they "want to try it very much"
.
Searching for the keyword "raw pickling" on an online platform, there are more than 50 videos with more than one million views
.
One of the videos of the store visit was viewed 2.
989 million times and received 131,000 likes
.

Some netizens said that among the 10 food bloggers on the Internet, 9 are tasting raw pickles, and 1 is making homemade raw pickles
.
Many bloggers even deliberately run to Chaoshan in order to eat a table of authentic raw pickles
.

In addition to walking infrared on major video platforms, raw pickling has also frequently appeared on hot searches
.
According to statistics, since the beginning of this year, raw pickling-related topics have appeared on hot searches a total of 12 times, of which the topic of "why raw pickling suddenly exploded" has been read 160 million times, and "the correct way to open Chaoshan raw pickling" has ranked 24th on
the hot search list.
It is worth noting that 5 of these 12 hot searches are related to
the risks of eating raw pickles.

When raw pickling becomes the traffic password, the popularity of online has given birth to the development of offline raw pickling shops, and the grass planting effect has continued to ferment.

A large number of netizens who repeatedly jumped between eating and not eating finally overcame psychological barriers and took the first step of "clocking in", making the sales of online and offline raw pickled products gratifying, and a number of raw pickled offline stores began to appear
.

Key issues remain to be resolved

Online explosion, offline flowering, raw marinating can become another explosive product after the beef hot pot in Chaoshan Province? Experts say that some of the pain points that exist naturally in raw pickling may shackle its further development
.

First of all, Chaoshan fresh is more difficult to copy, raw pickling pays attention to fresh, one is fresh in the ingredients, the other is fresh in the season, as the local proverb - "one fresh, two fat, three at that time"
.
Even in today's advanced transportation and transportation and advanced cold chain preservation technology, many of the Chaoshan characteristic umami still cannot go out unchanged
.

Even in recent years, out of Chaoshan beef hot pot, discerning diners will always feel that the taste is not as good as the local taste of Chaoshan Province, let alone dishes like raw pickling that require delicate seasoning and fresh ingredients
.

Second, the taste is niche, difficult to promote, a cuisine to be widely spread and developed, taste and ingredients often have a certain degree of universality
.
Niche tastes and ingredients mean a niche customer base, and the market is naturally limited
.

Although Chaoshan pickles have become popular all over the country with the help of short videos, its taste and practice are not acceptable to most people, leaving aside the psychology of curiosity and check-in, in the long run, its audience will not be too much
.

This can also be seen from the reaction of netizens when tasting, many people have a certain "fear" of raw pickling, and call out psychological discomfort
when opening the bloody clam.

Finally, there is the hidden danger of food safety, which is a roadblock, and the practice of pickling in Chaoshan makes it still have hidden hidden dangers
of food safety.

Xu Guifa, professor of nutrition at Shandong University, believes that raw pickled seafood cannot completely eliminate some unsafe factors
.
Seafood is easily contaminated by bacteria, especially halophilic bacteria, seafood is caught, if the temperature is relatively high, or left for too long, this halophilic bacteria will multiply very quickly, which is easy to cause diarrhea, abdominal pain, vomiting
.

"Boiling and steaming can 'kill' bacteria more thoroughly and avoid food poisoning
.
In the process of raw pickling of seafood, usually put wine and other seasonings, may play a part of the disinfection and sterilization effect, but often not thorough enough, its sterilization effect will be affected
by the type, dosage, ratio and production process of various seasonings.
Once there is a suitable environment, bacteria can still multiply, causing adverse reactions or food poisoning
.
Xu Guifa introduced that some people may be particularly sensitive to raw seafood, similar to allergic reactions, and gastrointestinal dysfunction will also occur, and it is not recommended to eat raw pickled seafood food
regularly and in large quantities.

(Wang Jiayi, comprehensive arrangement)

China Food News (November 01, 2022 Version 06)

(Editor: Wang Jiayi)