Jingpo Lake Fish Banquet 镜泊湖鱼宴

Jingpo Lake Fish Banquet (镜泊湖鱼宴) is a meal of many dishes made from the wild fish of Jingpo Lake (镜泊湖), a freshwater lake in southeastern Heilongjiang with the city of Mudanjiang (牡丹江) to its north. The Heilongjiang provincial government calls the lake's whole-fish banquet (全鱼宴) and 'one fish, sixteen ways' (一鱼十六吃) an essential food experience for visitors, and Chinese Wikipedia lists the Jingpo Lake fish banquet among the classic banquets of Heilongjiang (Longjiang, 龙江) cooking.

Ingredients

The lake is known for the fish grouped as 'three hua, five luo and eighteen zi' (三花五罗十八子), and Heilongjiang Daily counts 56 fish species in its waters. Ten of them, including red-tail fish (红尾鱼), bighead carp (胖头鱼), silver carp, common carp, grass carp, aohua fish (鳌花鱼) and big white fish (大白鱼), carry national organic certification, and the red-tail and bighead carp hold national agricultural geographical-indication status. Heilongjiang Daily cites the archives of the Qing deputy lieutenant-general's office at Ningguta (宁古塔), which record that fish from Jingpo Lake were among the tribute fish sent every year from the 15th year of Kangxi (1676) to the 26th year of Guangxu (1900).

How it is made

For the winter of 2024–25 the Jingpo Lake Hotel (镜泊湖宾馆) developed a whole-fish banquet of more than 120 dishes. It uses the head, skin, backbone and flesh of the fish, which are pan-fried, stir-fried, steamed, deep-fried, roasted or stewed. The director of the lake's aquaculture farm says it cooks with live lake fish caught fresh each day. The dishes the director names include steamed big white fish, silver carp dressed with vinegar, bighead carp stewed in an iron pot, deep-fried red-tail fish, aohua fish served two ways (as sashimi and freshly stewed), and rice soaked in fish soup. The farm also works with several restaurants in Mudanjiang city that serve lake-fish dishes.

Flavour and texture

Jingpo is a cold lake, and China National Radio reports that its fish have a growing season of only about six months a year. Heilongjiang Daily adds that bighead and silver carp put on about 400 grams a year and that red-tail fish take four years to reach market size. The slow growth gives firm flesh, which the farm's director describes as springy, fresh, tender and rich without being greasy.