Chibi Steamed Fish Cake 赤壁鱼糕
Chibi Steamed Fish Cake is featured among the local specialties of Hubei.
Chibi Steamed Fish Cake (赤壁鱼糕) is a steamed cake of finely scraped freshwater fish from Chibi (赤壁), a city in Xianning (咸宁), Hubei. Hubei Daily calls fish cake Chibi's food calling card, and a 2014 report by the Hubei Provincial Fisheries Bureau (湖北省水产局) notes that many Chibi households make it by the traditional method.
How it is made
Xianning Daily describes how fish cake is made in Xianning. A whole piece of fish is scraped with the knife in one direction, which gives soft, fine flesh. This is mixed with pork fat, mashed tofu and seasonings, spread flat on a cloth in a steamer and steamed for a little over ten minutes. Once cooked, the top is brushed with egg yolk, so the finished cake is milky white with a golden surface. The fish paste has to go into the steamer quickly once it is made, and the heat has to be judged with care.
A Chibi hotel recipe published by Hubei Daily differs in its details. It starts from a black carp of about 2 kilograms and 100 grams of fatty pork. The flesh is scraped off with a spoon, rinsed of blood and chopped to a paste, which is stirred in one direction with egg white, the chopped fat and finally starch. The mixture is steamed for 30 minutes, brushed with egg yolk and steamed for 5 minutes more.
One Chibi maker described in the bureau's report, the Gongsao (龚嫂) brand, uses wild grass carp from the Yangtze, Huanggai Lake (黄盖湖) and Lushui Lake (陆水千岛湖).
How it is eaten
Fish cake can be steamed, boiled, pan-fried or stir-fried. It also goes into hotpot: after two or three minutes the slices float up, bending without breaking, and bite soft and smooth after soaking up the broth. In Xianning it is a family dish that carries the wish "年年有余，步步高升" (abundance every year, rising step by step); Hubei Daily points out that gao (糕, cake) sounds like gao (高, high).
Where it comes from
Chibi is linked to the Three Kingdoms period, and several legends attach to its fish cake. The best known, told by Hubei Daily and the fisheries bureau report, is set during the Battle of Chibi. In the bureau report's telling, the Wu and Wei armies faced each other at Chibi and the wounded general Zhou Yu (周瑜) could hardly eat, so Xiao Qiao (小乔) finely ground fish from the Chibi stretch of the Yangtze into a jade-white dish that melted in the mouth. The same report says Lu Su (鲁肃) brought the method when he founded the city of Puqi (蒲圻), today's Chibi.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.