Poyang Lake Fish Head 鄱阳湖鱼头

Poyang Lake Fish Head (鄱阳湖鱼头) is a dish of Jiujiang (九江), Jiangxi, made from the head of a fat-head fish from Poyang Lake (鄱阳湖). Jiujiang News Net (九江新闻网) lists it, as Pohu Pangyutou (鄱湖胖鱼头, 'Poyang Lake fat fish head'), among ten foods to try in Jiujiang.

How it is made

Jiujiang News Net notes that the fish head is cooked several ways. The most common is simmering: the head is cooked through with other ingredients, and both the broth and the fish are eaten. It is also red-braised, or stewed with pickled cabbage (酸菜).

Jiujiang's whole-fish banquet (全鱼宴), which China News Service says local cooks have made since the 1950s, includes a related fish-head dish, fish head stewed with tofu (鱼头炖豆腐). The cook takes the gelatin-rich head of a fat-head fish (胖头鱼), fries it golden, then puts it into boiling water with soft tofu and boils it hard over a high flame. As it rolls, the flavour and collagen of the head come out into the tofu, and the pot turns into a thick, milky-white soup. Restaurants in the city's Balihu New Area (八里湖新区) have also added a fish head casserole (鱼头煲).

Where it comes from

Jiujiang lies where the Yangtze meets Poyang Lake.

Nanchang Release (南昌发布), the Nanchang municipal government's news account, calls the Poyang Lake bighead carp head a traditional Jiujiang dish of the Xunyang (浔阳) branch of Gan (Jiangxi) cuisine, fresh and spicy with a slight sourness and rich, tender flesh.