Pan-Fried Fish in Batter

Pan-Fried Fish in Batter

　　Pan-Fried Fish in Batter, also known as Yuanbao Pan-Fried Fish, is a famous local dish from Lanshan District. It gets its name from its flat shape, boneless texture, and the way it lies flat. In 1986, it won the Shandong Province Famous Dishes Award. The dish originated in the early 1930s. At that time, Gai Jingyi, an uncle of Gao Jun—a renowned chef from Linyi and also a master chef himself—once visited the Gao family and spoke about the taste and cooking techniques of the boneless fish from the Kong Family Mansion. Gao Jun paid close attention. Later, using the locally sourced, delicious-tasting Yishui Golden Carp, and drawing on the cooking methods of the Kong Family Mansion’s boneless fish, he conducted multiple culinary experiments and eventually created this famous dish—Pan-Fried Fish in Batter.

　　　　There are two keys to making a great Pan-Fried Fish in Batter: first, selecting quality ingredients—only the freshest fish available, about one kilogram per serving; second, mastering the heat when cooking the deboned fish in the pan. Only in this way can you create this exceptional dish, which is golden in color, flat and round in shape, sweet and fragrant in flavor, and tender and soft in texture.

　　　　Pan-Fried Fish in Batter is widely praised for its delicious taste. During the Liberation War period, Comrade Chen Yi would sometimes dine at the “Taifeng” restaurant to enjoy Gao Jun’s Pan-Fried Fish in Batter and spoke highly of it. In 1983, Tao Dun, Chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, after tasting this famous dish, commended Linyi’s Pan-Fried Fish in Batter as living up to its reputation, saying, “Pan-Fried Fish in Batter is a hidden talent, like a fine steed hidden beneath a salt cart.”