Wenzhou Fish Balls 温州鱼丸

Wenzhou Fish Balls (温州鱼丸) are a Wenzhou (温州) snack of hand-worked fish paste poached in seasoned boiling water and served in its own broth. Locals call them yuwan (鱼丸) or yuyuan (鱼圆), words that sound the same in the local dialect. Unlike round fish balls elsewhere, they come in irregular strips and turn a translucent jade-white when cooked. In 1998 Wenzhou Fish Balls were named a 'China famous snack' (中华名小吃).

How it is made

The main ingredient is miiuy croaker (鮸鱼). The flesh is boned, cut into thin strips and scraped with a knife into a fine paste, then steeped briefly with wine and salt. Chinese Wikipedia adds white starch; ginger shreds and chopped spring onion are mixed in, and the paste is kneaded by hand until it is very springy. To cook it, the cook squeezes the paste between the fingers into strips that drop straight into seasoned boiling water; they are done when they turn translucent and float.

How it is eaten

The fish balls are ladled into a bowl with the cooking broth and finished with rice vinegar, chopped spring onion and pepper. A Hangzhou Net writer found them tender and fresh, slightly sour and slightly hot, with a bouncy chew. They are eaten as a soup on their own and often with noodles (鱼丸面) or with dried rice noodles (鱼丸粉干). At Ahong Fish Balls (阿红鱼丸), in a lane off Renmin Middle Road (人民中路) in Wenzhou's urban area, a shop holding the Wenzhou municipal intangible cultural heritage title, the fish-ball soup is described as fresh, sour and spicy.