Longnan Pounded Fish

Longnan Pounded Fish

　　Tourism Product Name: Longnan Pounded Fish

　　Pounded Fish is one of the traditional famous dishes of the Hakka walled-house people. It boasts excellent color, aroma, taste, and appearance, and is known to have refreshing, brain-invigorating, eyesight-improving, diuretic, and sleep-promoting effects. It is a nutritious and delicious food product, historically regarded as one of the premium dishes at folk banquets. There is a saying among the locals in Longnan: “One who doesn’t know how to pound fish isn’t considered a great chef.” The traditional recipe for Pounded Fish was developed during the Qing Dynasty’s Daoguang era by the chef of Liu HuaiGu (Magistrate of Chaoyang County, Chaozhou, Guangdong), a local official and gentry figure. It was later passed down to Longnan. During the Guangxu era, Xu Shouheng, a native of Longnan who served as an official in the capital, hosted a banquet for numerous officials and specially asked his family chef to prepare Pounded Fish. Surprisingly, the officials were highly fond of the dish, praising it immensely. For a time, Longnan Pounded Fish became famous throughout the capital. The main ingredients of Pounded Fish are fresh fish and potato starch. During preparation, the fish is cleaned, scaled, gutted, and deboned, then formed into fish cakes and ground with coarse potato starch into thin sheets. When cooking, the sheets are first stirred in boiling water until cooked, then removed, cooled in water, and cut into strips. They are then added to a boiling broth, and upon serving, sprinkled with shredded meat, fragrant flowers, and other seasonings to create a delicious dish.