Luoding Wrinkled Fried Fish Puffs 罗定皱纱鱼腐

How it is made

Southern Daily's account starts with fresh mud carp from the local river (泷江). The fish is boned and skinned by hand, and the back meat is chopped into a fine mince. Egg white, local cassava starch and salt are added in set proportions, and the mixture is slapped and stirred over and over until the paste is thick and smooth. The cook then squeezes the paste into balls out of the gap between thumb and forefinger, puts them into cold oil and fries them slowly with the heat kept under control. The Luoding city government describes a spoon being used to drop the paste into the oil, with the balls fried until golden.

Once out of the pan, the puffs shrink naturally as they cool and their skin wrinkles into fine creases. The Luoding government likens that skin to a cicada's wing for thinness and to light gauze for translucency, which is where the name zhousha (皱纱), "creased gauze", comes from.

Flavour and texture

The outer skin is fragrant and crisp with a slight chew, while the inside is tender and soft enough to melt in the mouth. The natural sweetness of the mud carp comes through with the flavours of egg and oil. Southern Daily sums it up as tasting fish without seeing fish: the flavour fills the mouth, but no bone or spine can be found.

Where it comes from

Southern Daily gives the fish puffs more than seven hundred years of history. They are a national geographical-indication protected product, and their making technique is on Guangdong's provincial intangible cultural heritage list. The name yufu (鱼腐) sounds like yufu (愈富), "ever richer", and the round golden shape stands for family reunion, so around Luoding the puffs are an essential banquet dish at traditional festivals, weddings, the birth of a child, moving into a new house and birthday celebrations. Today they are eaten freshly fried, simmered in soup, or cooked in hotpot.

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