Preparation Before Consumption
Sea Fish: Must be thoroughly cleaned before eating, removing all scales, gills, and internal organs. For scaleless fish, use a knife to scrape off the greasy and dirty parts on the skin, as these areas are often where contaminants in sea fish accumulate.
Shellfish: Before cooking, the shells should be washed clean with water, and then soaked in fresh water for 7 to 8 hours. This allows the shellfish to expel mud, sand, and other impurities from their bodies.
Shrimp and Crab: Clean and remove the shrimp line and other dirty parts. Alternatively, use the salt-curing method: soak in saturated saltwater for several hours, then air-dry. Before cooking, soak and wash in fresh water.
Fresh Jellyfish: Fresh jellyfish contains a lot of water, has a thick body, and also contains toxins. It needs to be salted and alum-cured three times to dehydrate the jellyfish three times, allowing the toxins to be expelled with the water. It can be consumed after this treatment. Alternatively, clean it, soak it in vinegar for 15 minutes, and then blanch it in hot water (for several minutes in boiling water at 100°C).
Dried Seafood: During the drying process, some carcinogens can easily be produced in seafood products. It is best to boil dried shrimp, shrimp skin, and fish fillets for 15 to 20 minutes before removing them for cooking. Discard the broth and do not drink it.
Best Practices
High-Temperature Cooking: Most bacteria are killed by heat. Therefore, when cooking seafood, it is generally safe to stir-fry over high heat for a few minutes. For seafood with hard shells, such as crabs and shellfish, they must be thoroughly cooked, usually by boiling or steaming for 30 minutes before they are safe to eat (heating temperature must be at least 100°C).
Eat with Ginger, Vinegar, and Garlic: Seafood has a cold nature, while ginger is hot. Eating them together can neutralize the cold nature and prevent physical discomfort. Raw garlic and vinegar themselves have good antibacterial effects, which also help kill some residual harmful bacteria in seafood.
Crispy Preparation: When fish is made into crispy fish, the bones and become soft and delicious. Eating the fish with its bones not only provides a rich flavor but also supplies various essential amino acids, vitamins A, B, D, and minerals. The calcium in fish bones, in particular, is unmatched by other foods.
Inappropriate Preparation Methods
Eating Raw: Raw seafood often contains bacteria and toxins, and eating it raw can easily cause food poisoning. Moreover, sea fish contain a relatively high amount of histidine, which can easily cause allergies when eaten fresh.
Smoking and Grilling: The temperature of smoking and grilling often fails to meet the requirements for killing bacteria in seafood. It only kills surface bacteria, while eggs and parasites may still remain in the center.
Hot Pot Blanching: To keep the ingredients tender, the blanching time in a hot pot is extremely short. In undercooked seafood, parasite eggs are not killed, leading to a high risk of infection after consumption.
Pickling: Pickling or marinating seafood with rice wine, soy sauce, or other seasonings does not have the function of killing bacteria in seafood. Even after 24 hours of pickling, some parasite eggs may still survive. Seafood prepared this way is almost equivalent to eating it raw, which is detrimental to health.