Fish Balls 鱼丸

Fish Balls (鱼丸) in Fuzhou (福州) are balls of pounded fish paste wrapped around a pork filling, served in a clear soup. People in Fuzhou call them 'fish wrapped around meat' (鱼包肉), and the Minhou County government calls Fuzhou fish balls a culinary calling card of the old city.

How it is made

Yang Jiansong (杨坚松), a fish-ball maker in Xiangqian (祥谦) township of Minhou County (闽侯县), prefers sea eel (海鳗鱼) of about 1.5 to 2.5 kg, because its high gelatin content keeps the balls springy and stops them falling apart in the pot. He describes seven steps: killing the fish, taking the flesh, beating the paste, making the filling, shaping, setting the balls in boiling water and lifting them out. The outer layer is boned fish beaten with an equal amount of sweet potato starch; beating warms the paste, so ice is added throughout to hold it near zero degrees. The filling is chopped pork belly mixed with dark soy sauce, sugar, MSG, fried shallots and fried garlic. The maker takes a fistful of paste, sets a piece of filling in it, and squeezes the ball out between thumb and forefinger.

Flavour and texture

In Minhou the balls are finished with chopped spring onion, white pepper and white vinegar; they taste fresh with no fishy smell and are firm and springy to the bite. At Yonghe Fish Balls (永和鱼丸) the skin is thin, even and glossy white, and the cooked filling comes away from the skin in the mouth, a quality the Gulou (鼓楼) district government compares to the stone of a lychee.

Where it comes from

Yonghe Fish Balls was founded in 1927 by Liu Bisong (刘必松), who first sold fish balls from a shoulder pole in Sanfang Qixiang (三坊七巷), the old lane quarter of Fuzhou, before opening a shop there. It was named a China Time-honored Brand (中华老字号) in 2001, and its making technique became a Fujian provincial intangible heritage item in 2008. The shop also makes shark and eel fish balls, fish rolls and fish noodles.