Longmen Yellow Catfish

Longmen Yellow Catfish

　　Just hearing the name "Yellow Catfish" feels familiar, doesn’t it? I have happy memories associated with yellow catfish. As a child, every summer, I often caught them in the river. They weren’t very big, but they were quite nimble. Carefully lifting a rock, their tails would flick, and “whoosh”—they’d dart away.

I’d long heard that cooking yellow catfish resulted in an extraordinarily delicious taste and an exceptional broth. Now, the specially appointed head chef at Sifangju Express Hotel has ingeniously combined the uniquely healthy stone-cooked technique with yellow catfish, making it even more eagerly anticipated.

Just look at the steaming broth bubbling away in the stone pot, filling the air with its aroma. The fish meat is white, delicate, tender, and the bones are tiny—so small you can swallow them whole. Who would’ve thought such an unassuming little fish could be this tender, this smooth, this flavorful? And when the spicy sourness of the pickled chilies blends into the tender, delicious fish, it makes you gasp slightly from the heat—while the rich umami seeps bit by bit into your very core.

The spicy, numbing, and tingling sensation, paired with the hot broth, is incredibly appetizing. I ate seven or eight in one go, feeling completely refreshed afterward. Then I scooped up a spoonful of the non-spicy clear broth and slowly savored the non-spicy yellow catfish—suddenly, a wonderful, floating sensation washed over me.