Ba Fish Liver Soup 鲃肺汤
Ba Fish Liver Soup is featured among the local specialties of Jiangsu.
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Ba Fish Liver Soup (鲃肺汤) is a traditional dish of Suzhou-style cooking (苏帮菜), made from the liver and the tender flank meat of the Taihu ba fish (太湖鲃鱼), which is also called the bubble fish (泡泡鱼).
Ingredients
Besides the fish liver and flank meat, the pot takes a rich stock, Shaoxing wine, ground pepper, ham, shiitake mushrooms, sliced bamboo shoots and pea shoots. The mouthfeel of Ba Fish Liver Soup is fresh and tender. It is traditionally a seasonal dish of summer and autumn.
Where it comes from
The soup is tied to the Shijia restaurant (石家饭店) in Mudu (木渎), in Suzhou's Wuzhong District (吴中区). The restaurant was founded in 1790, in the 55th year of the Qianlong reign, by Shi Han (石汉) under the name Xushunlou (叙顺楼), and it counts Ba Fish Liver Soup among the ten famous dishes of its house style, known as Shi cuisine (石菜).
In 1927 Yu Youren (于右任) wrote a poem in praise of the restaurant's version. In 1999 the soup was named a famous Jiangsu dish, and it was included in the collection Famous Chinese Recipes (中华名菜谱).
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Duck-blood vermicelli soup 鸭血粉丝汤 →
Both are Jiangsu soups built on offal: duck blood in one, the liver of the Taihu ba fish in this Suzhou soup.
Questions before you order
Which parts of the fish go into Ba Fish Liver Soup?
The liver and the tender meat from both sides of the Taihu ba fish, the bubble fish.