Lao Guang Loves Eating Dried Mice, Tonifying Kidney and Nourishing Beauty. Over a Hundred Doctors Say It's Best Not to Eat

The habit of eating mice in Lao Guang is well-known, and there have always been sayings of "the price of dried pig meat with mice" and "one mouse tops three chickens". Every winter, especially after the beginning of winter, is the peak season for catching mice. In the Machong area, many people not only capture mice to eat, but also process them into dried cured meat, which is sold in the market at a high price of 60 yuan per kilogram, and the business is quite prosperous. The on-site processing of mice on the local street is even more common. As for whether it is safe to consume rodents, the response provided by the relevant department is ambiguous, only stating that "we will pay attention to the safety issues of this type of food based on citizen complaints".

Local mice have been contaminated

Yesterday morning, under the leadership of Mr. Mo, a villager from Ma Er Village in Machong Town, Nandu reporters came to a banana field. On a banana tree full of bananas, several bananas have been eaten by voles, and some mouse holes have also been found in the nearby fields. A mature vegetable field is surrounded by "electric cats". Mr. Mo said that dead voles generally do not eat and will be buried deep on site for treatment.

Because there are more and more houses and factories around now, and every year the government eliminates the 'four pests' by putting rat poison in farmland. The food eaten by mice is very miscellaneous, and they eat leftover food in garbage piles, so no one dares to eat the mice caught locally. "He said that only the mice in mountainous areas and farmland in Guangzhou Zengcheng, Huizhou Longmen, Boluo, and other areas are not contaminated. He revealed that the mice processed in the Machong area are mostly captured by locals themselves or wholesale from others for processing and sales. They are rarely caught locally, and even if caught locally, they are only eaten in the wild.

At present, there is a species called Huangge, which is the most expensive. Its size is relatively small, costing 160 yuan per kilogram, and making dried mice costs 300-340 yuan per kilogram. "He said that this type of mouse has almost been arrested and extinct." Currently, most of the mice sold and processed in the market are white eyebrow mice and large cabinet mice. "He said that rat dealers usually wholesale it back for 20 yuan/kilogram, sell it to local people for 40 yuan/kilogram, and make more than twice the profit, And processing it into dried mice is more than that, it's quite profitable

Processing on the street into a market

Afterwards, the reporter followed the clues provided by Mr. Mo to Xinji Village. Two mouse processing dens were found by a river near the village market. Three or four middle-aged men and women were silently squatting on the ground, bowing their heads and pulling out the mouse's fur.

The reporter saw hundreds of live mice bouncing around in several iron cages next to them. A man put on gloves, carefully opened the iron cage, reached out to pick up the tail of a mouse, and grabbed it out. Subsequently, the man skillfully threw the mouse into a hot iron pot of boiling water next to him and quickly covered it with a lid. The mouse struggled vigorously in the hot pot for a few times before becoming motionless. After a while, the man lifted the scalded mouse out of the pot and handed it to the women to shed their fur. The women used their hands to pull out the mouse's fur and wash the fur residue from the mouse's body. After using a knife to open the stomach and remove the internal organs, they washed them with water again and placed them in a large basin. They soaked them overnight with salt. The next day, when the salt was completely soaked in the mouse's flesh, they tied the mouse's tail with a rope and tied it to a bamboo pole stand by the roadside for exposure to sunlight.

Coincidentally. There are also two mouse processing dens in the Machong Market and on the roadside of Gumei in Ma Er Village. According to the owners of these dens, mice are wild animals captured from farmland or mountains in Zengcheng, Guangzhou, not domestic mice. Generally sold to dried meat stalls and restaurants in various markets, "the wholesale price of dried mice is 50 yuan/kg, and the wholesale price of live mice is 40 yuan/kg. If wholesale in large quantities, the price can be relatively cheaper

60 yuan/kg more expensive than cured meat

Subsequently, the reporter came to the Machong market and hung a string of processed dried mouse hair and cured meat for sale at two dry stalls. The mouse's limbs are stretched out, its tail is curled up, its eyes are still clearly visible, and its body length is about tens of centimeters. The reporter saw that cured meat and sausages are priced at 50 yuan/kg, while dried mice are priced at 60 yuan/kg. According to the owner, these dried mice are mainly sold to neighbors or some restaurants in need. She introduced that many local people like to buy and eat, and business is very good. The reporter asked her about the characteristics of mountain mice and field mice, and she said, "Anyway, these mice are not house mice. If they were house mice, I wouldn't dare to sell them!" But when the reporter asked her to produce a quarantine certificate, she failed to provide and confirm their source.

According to locals, most of the cooking methods for eating dried mice are accompanied by pork, winter bamboo shoots, garlic, ginger, and water wine, stir fried and eaten with rich nutrients. Especially for those who love drinking, they consider it a top quality wine pairing. Especially in winter, more and more people eat rat meat in hotpot restaurants and restaurants. The reporter conducted an undercover investigation of 9 restaurants and restaurants in Machong Town. Except for 2 restaurants that did not sell, the owners of 7 restaurants all said they sold rat meat.

At around 6 pm yesterday evening, a restaurant on Gumei Road near the Machong Market was fully booked. The owner revealed that the small mouse meat pot here can be sold for 50 to 60 yuan, while the large one can be sold for 70 to 80 yuan or even hundreds of yuan. He said, "Usually, there is very little inventory of mice in the store, and if there are many customers, they need to make a phone appointment in advance and place an order with the mouse vendors, otherwise they will run out of stock

(Intern Editor: Liu Jinhao)