Hezhe Talaha Grilled Fish 赫哲塔拉哈

Hezhe Talaha Grilled Fish (赫哲塔拉哈) is the charcoal-grilled fish of the Hezhen (赫哲族) people of Heilongjiang: slices of fish are seared briefly over a fierce fire, the scales are peeled away and the fish is dipped in sauce.

How it is made

CCTV-1's series Intangible Heritage in China (《非遗里的中国》), as carried by Guangming Online (光明网), describes the method. The fish slices go over a fierce charcoal fire, and once they are only about two-tenths cooked the scales curl up and lift away by themselves, which the programme calls "rolling up the bedding" (卷铺盖). The scales are then stripped off and the fish is dipped generously in a sauce and eaten.

Part of the whole-fish banquet

The same programme presents talaha as one dish in the Hezhen whole-fish banquet (赫哲族全鱼宴) of the area where three rivers meet (三江交汇). The banquet it lists has caviar, steamed white fish, talaha and tasiha (他斯哈), a stir-fried fish floss.

Raohe on the Ussuri

In Raohe County (饶河县) on the Ussuri River (乌苏里江), the Shuangyashan Daily (双鸭山日报) names talaha, glossed as grilled fish slices, among the local foods visitors can try, together with shengpao yuhua (生刨鱼花), raw fish slices, and Northeast black-bee honey. The paper calls Raohe the birthplace of "The Ussuri Boat Song" (《乌苏里船歌》) and the home of a Hezhen fishing-and-hunting culture carried on for a thousand years. Visitors can also watch Hezhen songs and dances and visit the county's Hezhen intangible cultural heritage centre, where birch-bark work and fish-skin craft are shown.