Taihu Lake Three Whites 太湖三白

The three whites

The whitefish has fine bones and fine scales and flashes silver. It feeds on small fish and shrimp. Its flesh is tender, with fat under the scales; it is likened to reeves shad (鲥鱼) and counted among the lake's prized fish. The gazetteer Wujun Zhi (吴郡志) records Lake Tai whitefish sent as tribute to Luoyang under the Sui.

The icefish is a little over two cun (寸) long, shaped like a jade hairpin and translucent, with no scales and no bones to speak of; it became a tribute item in the Kangxi reign of the Qing. The white shrimp has a thin shell and tender meat, and unlike other shrimp it stays white when cooked, as the Qing record Taihu Beikao (太湖备考) notes. The icefish season runs from May to June, which is also when the shrimp carry roe and are at their best.

How it is cooked

All three die soon after leaving the water, so cooks put freshness first, and the best place to cook them is by the lake or on a boat. Most are simply steamed or blanched. Whitefish is steamed or red-braised, and fishermen also salt it briefly and sun-dry it. Icefish goes into scrambled egg or a soup with water shield (莼菜). White shrimp is quick-fried in oil, boiled in salted water or eaten live, and dried and peeled shrimp becomes 'hu kaiyang' (湖开洋).

In Wuxi

Wuxi's boat banquets are built on the three whites, with dishes such as stir-fried white shrimp meat, salt-water shrimp, crisp-fried icefish, icefish broth, icefish wontons, whitefish with fluffy egg white, and grilled or steamed whitefish. Jiangnan Evening News reports that records give the dish group more than 2,500 years of history, and that a legend about the boat banquet of King Helü (阖闾) in the Spring and Autumn period is sometimes read as referring to icefish. In the Republican-era gazetteer of Wu County (吴县), the lake's 'three treasures' were icefish, white shrimp and meiji fish (梅鲚鱼); whitefish has since taken the meiji's place.