If you grew up in a Cantonese family, the fried Dace with salted black beans may have been a firm point of the pantry. For us, it was always ready when we needed a quick and tasty dish to complete our family dinner.
This humble canned fish traveled from the tables of the working class to Guangzhou to be present in New York TimesBringing its distinctive Umami flavor and its rubbery consistency towards palates appreciated all over the world. We share with you everything you need to know about this preserved food nostalgic Chinese that will always make us reach another bowl of rice!
What is Fried Dace?
The fried Dace is made with a small freshwater fish found in the Pearl river in southern China. Its scientific name is Cirrhinus Molitorella and its common name is the Dace or the mud carp. While there are several variants, the most common is seasoned with fermented black soy seeds.
The Chinese name appears right on the can: 豆豉鲮鱼 in Chinese. “Dòuchǐ líng yú” is pronounced in mandarin or “dao see liang yee” in Cantonese.
To prepare the fried Dace, the fresh fish is clean and fried until it is crunchy. So it is in box of soy oil, savory blacks fermented soy seeds and various spices, creating strong and salted of umami.
The plot is somehow gummy, similar to shots. Like sardines or anchovies, the bones are soft enough to eat and are added to that chewing.
It has a distinctly compelling quality both in taste and consistency.
Originally from Guangzhou, China, Fried Dace was traditionally considered a food class food. It was inexpensive, had a long duration of conservation and was quite packaged to stretch a meal for a family with a lot of rice.
Used as an emergency food or every time the table needed an extra dish, many people, in particular those with Cantonese roots, have affectionate memories.
I remember how my father, the stepfather and the mother (all of Guangzhou and Hong Kong) have always been assured that there was a can on our pantry shelf. We often ate it with simple rice leave or sometimes with white rice, and it has always been a welcome addition to the table. As I grew up, I introduced it to non -Chinese friends who liked it very much: some even put it in the sandwiches for lunch!
Fried Dace is available in an oval -shaped can and is available in any Chinese grocery store and many online retailers. In these days, you can find different varieties: simple fried dace without savory soy, spicy doces with or without fermented black beans, fried dace with cagliata sticks of beans or even fried doces with olive vegetables – another of our favorite ingredients! Some of these varieties are more difficult to find, so if you identify them, take one to try.
Fried Dace has become famous
Fried Dace was what I would call a “low profile food” that existed for many years under the radar. But with the recent dissemination of information on Chinese cuisine (from the wok of life and other sources!), He gained fame.
You know that something has “rendered” when it appears in a best list of the New York Times, in this case, the list of the New York Times / Wirecutter Best fish in box.
Although the title of the article mentions the fish, it covers various fish products from all over the world. Representing China is this classic Dace with salted black beans. Here’s what they had to say:
“… We recommend it because it is really delicious. It is heavily salty and somewhat sweet, with a routine umami flavor from the addition of salted black beans. The plot is more dry than most of the fish that we have tested and sticky gummy: multiple tastings described it as shots. “
Where can I buy the fried Dace?
Fried Dace is available in an oval -shaped can and is available in any Chinese grocery store. Our family buys and has fun for years since I was a child. The brand that I remember the purchase of my family was Eagle Coin, with that iconic red and yellow label.
In these days, you can also find the Pearl River Bridge brand (also with a red and yellow label, although with slightly different color tones) in the shops, probably more often than the Eagle Coin brand that I had as a child. If you do not have Chinese food stores nearby, you can order it from Asian foods online as SayweeeBut surely you shop as prices and quantities vary.
How do you eat fried Dace?
Fried Dace is quite versatile. There are several ways to enjoy them, depending on the regional variations and your preferences.
Serve suggestions:
- Rice: Fried Dace is excellent with steam rice. I prepared an entire meal from one can and fresh rice. Put the fish over the rice, together with the savory soy seeds and season the soy oil on everything. Judy has a recipe for a fried rice rice rice that is crazyly tasty.
- In leave (rice porridge): Fried dace is often used as a conden congenice condiment. A typical meal in simple leave in our house could include one or more of the following: fried dace with savory black beans, curd of fermented white beans, roasted peanuts with wok, salty fish (homi yee) and any surpluses from the refrigerator.
- In fritters: You can cut it and add it to fried fried with vegetables, tofu or meat. The consistency of the fish and the salty flavor work particularly well with the Chinese leafy vegetables, giving them a further layer of flavor.
- With noodles: Serve it with noodles, fried in a pan or in a broth -based soup. If you are trying to add a little Umami to the noodles, look for that fried dace can!
- Immediately out of the can: You can also eat it simply as a snack alone. You can serve it with scrambled eggs, above the vegetables or simply out of the can on a plate.
In my personal experience, we ate fried with leave, or simply when we needed something more on the dining table. It is wonderfully combined with rice, or as the Chinese say, it is “fan hen xia” (很下饭). This Chinese expression literally translates into “a lot of rice”.
In essence, this means that something is so delicious that it makes you eat more rice! The expression describes so tasty and/or salty dishes or condiments that you want to continue to eat them with more rice than you normally do.
So, if something on the table is particularly salty or salty, someone could say that it is “fan hen xia”, which means it is the perfect game to have fun with a bowl or two (or three!) Of simple rice.
Fried Dace recipes:
