Songhua Lake Fish Banquet 松花湖鱼宴

Songhua Lake Fish Banquet (松花湖鱼宴) is a multi-dish meal made from the freshwater fish of Songhua Lake (松花湖) in Jilin city (吉林市), Jilin province. The Jilin provincial gazetteer office lists it among the named banquets of Jilin cuisine (吉菜), credited to the Jilin City Commercial Technical School (吉林市商业技工学校). The Jilin city government promotes a "Songhua Lake whole-fish banquet" (松花湖全鱼宴) through its fish festivals.

Ingredients

The Jilin provincial government says Songhua Lake yields dozens of kinds of quality freshwater fish, among them the groups known as "three flowers, one island, five luo and eighteen zi" (三花一岛五罗十八子). The gazetteer office names the "three flowers and one island" as aohua (鳌花), bianhua (扁花), jihua (吉花) and whitefish (白鱼), and counts them among the best-known fish of Jilin province; the Jilin city government calls them the leading draw of the lake's spring "ice-break fish" (开江鱼). After a winter of dormancy, the provincial government says, these fish have firm, tender flesh with a rich flavour and a sweet aftertaste.

How it is made

When Jilin city ran a contest in 2022 to pick dishes for a "gold medal" whole-fish banquet, the rules asked for dishes made from Songhua River fish by any method, as cold dishes, hot dishes, stews or staples. Dishes cooked at the 2026 spring fish festival included fish braised in soybean paste, clear-stewed, steamed or red-braised, and firewood-stewed fish in a milky-white soup. The gazetteer also lists steamed Songhua River whitefish (清蒸松花江白鱼) among Jilin's famous dishes. In Jiaohe (蛟河), Qingling live fish (庆岭活鱼), whose cooking technique is on Jilin's provincial intangible heritage list, is stewed in a large wood-fired pot with mountain spring water, live Songhua Lake fish and a secret recipe.

How it is eaten

Fengman District (丰满区) has three fish belts along Songhua Lake and the Songhua River, as its district head described them at a 2022 Jilin city government press conference. They are fish restaurants around Fengman Street (丰满街) and Mengjia village (孟家村), fish-banquet lodges around Tangjiawaizi (唐家崴子) and Yaolingzi (腰岭子), and fish farming, angling and fish meals around Wangqi town (旺起镇). Each spring the city holds a Songhua Lake ice-break fish food season, held sixteen times before the 2026 edition, with the whole-fish banquet and an auction of the season's first fish among its events.