Dongshan Seafood 东山海鲜
Dongshan Seafood is featured among the local specialties of Fujian.
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Dongshan Seafood (东山海鲜) is the catch of Dongshan County (东山县) in Zhangzhou, Fujian; a Fujian Daily report from one of its fishing villages describes a table of steamed, blanched, salt-baked and braised seafood with two local snacks alongside.
What goes on the table
A Fujian Daily report from Aojiao village (澳角村) in Chencheng town (陈城镇) lists the seafood a village guesthouse owner picked for a Spring Festival eve dinner: steamed leopard coral grouper (清蒸东星斑), blanched live Dongshan squid (白灼东山活小管), salt-baked scad (盐焗巴浪鱼), large abalone steamed with garlic and glass noodles, and big black tiger prawns braised in oil. Every item was live seafood.
Once the grouper goes on to cook, its flesh turns white and tender. Alongside it, a soup of dried cuttlefish and pork ribs simmers slowly in a clay pot, the mellow aroma of the dried cuttlefish mixing with the savoury rib stock as the broth grows richer.
The snacks that go with it
The same report treats two Dongshan snacks as indispensable at such a meal: oyster omelette (海蛎煎) and five-spice rolls (五香卷), both named as the county's own traditional snacks. When the full table arrives, the sweetness of the fresh seafood sits against the mellow aroma of the snacks.
Where it comes from
Aojiao is a fishing village on the East China Sea shore. The guesthouse owner in the report was born there and, after army service, has sold seafood in the village ever since. More than ten years ago he began taking orders online and couriering Aojiao seafood to buyers all over China, and early in 2025 he opened a guesthouse on the village wharf. The dinner in the report was cooked there for guests from other parts of China who had booked to spend the holiday in Aojiao.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-23. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.