Pomfret Rice Noodle Soup 鲳鱼米粉

Pomfret Rice Noodle Soup (鲳鱼米粉) is a Taiwanese dish of fried pieces of white pomfret simmered with rice noodles in a fish-bone stock. Its Chinese name simply joins the fish and the noodles. In southern Taiwan, pomfret and mullet rice noodle soups more often use thin rice noodles than the thick kind.

How it is made

Xinmedia (欣傳媒) sets out the method in its series on Taiwanese cuisine. A whole white pomfret is cut into pieces, dusted with sweet-potato starch and deep-fried; garlic and dried flounder (扁魚) are also fried. The fish bones are boiled with large stock bones into a stock. Garlic and green garlic are fried in a little oil, the stock is added, and when it boils the fried fish, the flounder crisps and the garlic go in, and the fish stock is combined with the rice noodles. More careful cooks add fried egg crisps (蛋酥) and shacha sauce (沙茶醬). The ingredient list also includes fried shallots and spring onion or green garlic.

Flavour and texture

Frying the fish before simmering it leaves the flesh tender. The stock takes flavour from the dried flounder, shacha, fried garlic and shallots, and the noodles soak it up and stay springy. Xinmedia notes that few snack shops or seafood restaurants serve it and that white pomfret is expensive, so it is found mainly at a small number of Taiwanese-cuisine restaurants and seafood houses.

How it is eaten

White pomfret is a New Year fish in Taiwan. The name of the fish, chang (鯧), sounds like chang (昌), 'flourishing', which makes it a first choice for New Year dishes, and it is either pan-fried or cooked in a rice noodle soup. Because white pomfret cannot be farmed and catches keep falling, EBC News reports that its price rises every New Year, and some shoppers use golden or black pomfret instead.