Hongze Lake Whitebait

Hongze Lake Whitebait

　　Hongze Lake whitebait, also known as silver strip fish, ice fish, or glass fish, is a premium aquatic product. Its flesh is at its plumpest and most delicious during spring and summer. With a shape like a jade hairpin and a color resembling ivory, the fish has cartilaginous bones, no scales, and tender, delicious meat. It is traditionally consumed whole (with innards, head, and fins left intact), and this whole-food consumption is now recognized by international nutrition societies as a natural "longevity food." Hongze Lake whitebait is rich in nutrients, containing protein, fat, iron, riboflavin, calcium, phosphorus, and various other elements, along with carbohydrates, multiple vitamins, and minerals. Renowned as the king of river delicacies, it boasts extremely high nutritional value and offers benefits such as nourishing kidney yang, enriching yin and moisturizing dryness, invigorating blood and dispelling deficiency, and benefiting spleen and lungs. It is a top-grade tonic, often praised as the "soft white gold of the water" and the "queen of fish." As early as the Kangxi era of the Qing Dynasty, Hongze Lake whitebait was listed as a "tribute."

　　 Hongze Lake whitebait is also commonly called "cucumber fish." Legend has it that during the conflict between the Song and Jin dynasties, Mu Guiying once led troops to be stationed by Hongze Lake. Not only was Mu Guiying accomplished in both literary and martial arts, but she was also skilled in beauty and health preservation. In battle, she wore a red battle robe, but in daily life, she dressed plainly and often drank cucumber juice as tea, ate tender cucumbers as fruit, and used cucumber slices for skincare. Because Mu Guiying loved cucumbers, her maids and attendants also grew fond of eating cucumbers and using them for beauty, so much so that the entire army developed a love for cucumbers and revered them. Due to the large consumption of cucumbers, many cucumber stems and peels were discarded around the military camp and fell into the lake. The whitebait in the lake swarmed to suck the cucumber juice. Strangely enough, over time, the whitebait from this area came to have a cucumber flavor. While the idea that the fish absorbed the juice and thus developed the taste is just a legend, it is true that "cucumber fish" does indeed have a cucumber-like flavor.

　　 Hongze Lake whitebait mostly lives in the middle and lower layers of the lake’s waters, often hiding among aquatic plants. As a carnivorous fish, it primarily feeds on small fish and shrimp. Hongze Lake whitebait can be caught all year round. It is boneless, transparent, and turns white when cooked. Small ones are as thin as toothpicks, while larger ones can be as thick as a pinky finger.

　　 Hongze Lake whitebait comes in fresh and dried forms, and there are many ways to prepare it. It can be stir-fried, deep-fried, steamed, or made into soups. The most representative dishes are stir-fried whitebait with eggs and whitebait soup. For dried Hongze Lake whitebait, popular dishes include dry-fried whitebait, steamed eggplant with dried whitebait, and stir-fried green peppers with whitebait.