Nanwan Lake Fish 南湾鱼
Nanwan Lake Fish is featured among the local specialties of Henan.
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Nanwan Lake Fish (南湾鱼) is fish from Nanwan Lake (南湾湖) in Xinyang (信阳), Henan, and the dish the city puts forward is clear-stewed Nanwan fish head (清炖南湾鱼头), made with bighead carp (鳙鱼) from the lake.
How it is made
The Xinyang Cuisine Industry Development Centre (信阳菜产业发展中心), writing on the Xinyang city government portal, says the dish uses selected bighead carp grown in Nanwan Lake, which it calls the first lake of the Central Plains (中原第一湖). The head is stewed clear (清炖), that is, simmered in liquid without soy sauce or a thick sauce.
Flavour and texture
The centre describes the flesh as fine, tender, rich and good to eat. The broth is pale white, and the centre compares it to jade nectar, with the fish head rising above the surface of the soup like coloured glass and black jade. It also states that the fish contains six to eight times as much selenium as ordinary fish.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.