Oil-Steeped Fish 油浸鱼
Oil-Steeped Fish is featured among the local specialties of Jiangxi.
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Oil-Steeped Fish (油浸鱼) is a Nanchang (南昌) dish of whole fish fried golden, heaped with chopped chillies and dried radish, and finished with chilli oil. The magazine Dangdai Jiangxi (当代江西) calls it a celebrated fish dish and says Nanchang's chilli lovers, younger people above all, are especially fond of it.
How it is made
The fish is first fried in the wok until both sides turn golden. Its body is then covered edge to edge with chopped chillies and dried radish. Dangdai Jiangxi stresses that the cooking is a test of heat control: the chillies must keep their fresh, sharp bite while the whole fish stays full of flavour. Once plated, it gets a final pour of chilli oil and a scatter of chopped spring onion, and the result is strongly aromatic and hot.
Where it comes from
Almost everyone in Nanchang loves fish, Dangdai Jiangxi writes: an old Nanchang saying holds that there is no banquet without fish, and eating fish at the New Year carries a wish for good fortune. Ordinary households steam their fish, while the small restaurants of the city's old lanes offer oil-steeped fish among their house dishes. In 2026 the Nanchang Daily quoted the owner of a Nanchang restaurant specialising in Jiangxi stir-fries naming it, with tiger-skin chicken feet, among the traditional classics that keep customers coming back, and a 2023 Nanchang Evening News report listed classic oil-steeped fish among the Nanchang specialities served at a snail restaurant in the city.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.