Yicheng Coiled Whole Eels 宜城盘鳝
Yicheng Coiled Whole Eels is featured among the local specialties of Hubei.
Photo adjustments
EXIF orientation normalized; resized without changing aspect ratio; converted to WebP. No subject edits.
Yicheng Coiled Whole Eels (宜城盘鳝) is a snack from Yicheng (宜城) in Xiangyang (襄阳), Hubei: small eels fried whole in sesame oil until they curl up in the pan. The Xiangyang city government describes the meat as tender and fresh, and the eels as fragrant and crisp.
How it is made
The dish uses "笔杆鳝" (pen-shaft eels), eels about as thick as the shaft of a writing brush that cannot be slit open and gutted with a knife. They go live into a hot iron wok, then the slime is removed and they are rinsed in clean water. Back in the wok with sesame oil, they are fried again and again over a low flame. When the eels turn from stiff to soft and curl up, the cook adds salt, Sichuan pepper (花椒), ginger, garlic, shreds of red chilli and a numbing-hot paste, and fries them flat and dry until golden brown and strongly fragrant, then serves them on a plate.
How it is eaten
The city government says eating them takes some nerve and some skill: on the plate each eel lies coiled with its pointed snout slightly raised. Hold the head firmly with chopsticks, bite through the backbone without letting go, tear the eel open with the chopsticks and eat that part. Then bite through at the throat, tear off the lower layer and eat it, and discard the head and the guts.
More dishes to compare
Explore related local specialties and compare their names, preparation notes and ordering guidance.
Yicheng Numbing-Spicy Braised Prawns 宜城大虾 →
Another Yicheng speciality on the Xiangyang city government's list: prawns stir-fried dry and braised numbing-hot, a summer night-stall dish.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.