Squirrel Mandarin Fish
“Crispy, golden mandarin fish, artfully scored and dressed with a sweet and tangy sauce, garnished with pine nuts.”
The bite
A whole mandarin fish, deboned but for the head and tail, scored into a deep diamond grid that fans open into furred 'fur' once it hits the oil. Sweet-sour tomato sauce gets ladled on at the table — it sizzles audibly, which is the point. Pine nuts on top. The scoring should curl, not flatten; if the bristles lie down, the knife went too shallow.
Where it comes from
A Suzhou banquet dish from the late Qing, mid-19th century, attached by legend to the Songhelou restaurant (founded 1757) on Taijian Lane. The story goes that a customer wanted to eat a temple-pond carp without sin, so the cook reshaped the fish into a 'squirrel' — myth or not, the dish was set down in writing in the 1860s as a Suzhou specialty serving Qing officials touring Jiangnan.
What makes it work
Two technical moves carry it: the knife and the sauce timing. Cuts go through the flesh down to but not through the skin, on a 45° bias so each square peels back when fried — get that wrong and you have a fillet, not a squirrel. The sauce must be poured boiling onto the just-fried fish so the crust hisses and stays crisp; pre-saucing collapses everything within a minute.
On the Palate
What goes into it
Proteins
Vegetables
Grains & Staples
Sauces & Condiments
How it's made
- 1
Score the fish flesh into a crosshatch pattern without cutting through the skin.
- 2
Coat in cornstarch and deep-fry until golden and crispy.
- 3
Prepare a sauce with vinegar, sugar, and tomato sauce, simmering until thickened.
- 4
Pour the sauce over the fried fish.
- 5
Sprinkle with pine nuts and serve immediately.
