Henan-Style Big Yellow River Carp 豫式黄河大鲤鱼
Henan-Style Big Yellow River Carp is featured among the local specialties of Henan.
Henan-Style Big Yellow River Carp (豫式黄河大鲤鱼) covers Henan's classic ways of cooking carp from the Yellow River. On 10 September 2018, at an event in Zhengzhou (郑州) that it co-organised with the Henan provincial commerce department, the China Cuisine Association (中国烹饪协会) published the "Chinese Cuisine" (中国菜) list of regional classic dishes. Henan-Style Yellow River Carp stands first on it among Henan's ten traditional classic dishes, in three versions: sweet-and-sour soft-slipped (糖醋软熘), red-braised (红烧) and clear-steamed (清蒸).
Ingredients
The dish depends on the fish itself. Dahe Daily (大河报) describes Yellow River carp as mellow and pure in flavour, with tender, fatty flesh, pale-red mouth and fins and golden scales on both flanks, which earned it the name "golden Yellow River carp". The same report says the Yellow River fish tastes sweet, while carp from Hangzhou's West Lake has a stronger muddy taste.
Where it comes from
Dahe Daily notes that carp has long been honoured in China as the "chief of fish" (诸鱼之长), that the Northern Song ranked it a "top flavour" (食品上味), and that the anecdote collection Qing Bai Lei Chao (清稗类钞) calls the Yellow River carp of Henan a delicacy. The same report credits a famous sweet-and-sour soft-slipped carp (糖醋软熘鲤鱼) with making Kaifeng (开封) and the wider Central Plains known for this "top flavour".
The paper also tells how, when residents of the Song capital Bianjing (汴京) followed the court to Hangzhou (杭州), the dish was adapted to southern tastes: grass carp replaced the carp, poaching replaced frying, and less sugar and some ginger went in, which in time produced West Lake vinegar fish (西湖醋鱼). In 2018 Dahe Daily named Yellow River carp as a calling card of Kaifeng's Youyixin restaurant (又一新饭店), Ah Wu Yellow River Carp (阿五黄河大鲤鱼) and Zhengzhou's Yufengyuan (裕丰源).
How it is eaten
The form most people in Henan know, according to Dahe Daily, is carp with baked noodles (鲤鱼焙面), a Kaifeng dish. The carp is scored, deep-fried or set in shape, then cooked in a sweet-and-sour sauce and served with very fine deep-fried dragon-whisker noodles (龙须面), which are crisp and are dipped in the sauce. The book Rumeng Lu (如梦录) records that the noodles were first simply boiled and later baked, hence the name "baked noodles". The finished dish pairs a date-red, soft and tender fish with light, crunchy noodles.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.