Nanfeng Fish Silk is the technical showpiece of Jiangxi's Fuzhou cuisine: fresh grass carp is scraped to a silky paste, worked with egg white and sweet potato starch until elastic, rolled into translucent sheets, blanched, then sliced into gossamer threads — and flash-stir-fried with chives, bean sprouts, and red pepper. The result looks like rice noodles but tastes purely of the freshest river fish.
Nanfeng Fish Silk originates in the Pineapple Township area bordering Guangchang County in Nanfeng, where it served as a household staple for several hundred years. In the traditional practice, farming families pounded small river fish in stone mortars during the agricultural off-season, mixed in sweet potato starch, flattened the paste into round cakes, dried them, and stored them in salted water — brought out to feed guests or during busy harvest seasons, sliced into threads and stir-fried with spicy seasonings. Professional chefs later refined the dish using live grass carp and the thin-sheet blanching technique that defines the modern version; it was subsequently collected in the Ganmei Culture Dictionary. In August 2020, the Fuzhou Municipal Culinary Association named it one of the 'Top Ten Famous Dishes of Fuzhou.' In May 2022, national CCTV food programming devoted nine minutes to its preparation.
The fish silk offers faint, pleasant resistance before dissolving — like silken tofu but with the clean sweetness of fresh river fish that no starch can replicate. Chive and red pepper keep the dish vivid and bright; bean sprouts add a cooling snap that offsets the richness of the fish protein.
The key to fish silk is the myosin-starch gel formed during preparation. When scraped grass carp flesh is beaten vigorously with egg white and sweet potato starch, the actomyosin proteins unfold under mechanical stress and cross-link into an elastic three-dimensional network — the same principle as surimi. Blanching at around 80°C sets this gel without drying it: proteins denature and starch granules gelatinize simultaneously, producing a smooth, translucent sheet. Sweet potato starch is preferred over corn starch because its larger granule size gelatinizes at a lower temperature and retains more bound water, yielding a silkier, less rubbery finished texture.
Variations
Cold Fish Silk (凉拌鱼丝): chilled fish silk tossed with sesame paste, vinegar, chili oil, and shredded cucumber — a refreshing summer cold dish. Fish Silk Soup (鱼丝汤): blanched fish silk simmered in clear pork-bone broth with scallion and white pepper — the original farmhouse preparation that inspired the stir-fried version.
On the Palate
Where Nanfeng Fish Silk sits in the Chinese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
7 steps · 40 min
- 110 min
Fillet the grass carp; using a spoon, scrape the white flesh from the skin, avoiding the dark lateral-line muscle; collect about 400g of clean white paste.
Watch outScrape only the clean white flesh and avoid the dark lateral-line muscle — that dark meat carries the muddy, fishy taste and greys the pale paste.
- 25 min
Beat the fish paste vigorously in one direction for 5 minutes, gradually adding scallion-ginger juice, egg white, salt, and Shaoxing wine; the paste should become glossy and pull away from the bowl cleanly.
Watch outBeat in one direction until the paste turns glossy and pulls cleanly from the bowl — that springy stage is the myosin gel setting; stop short and the silk won't hold together.
- 33 min
Sift in sweet potato starch; fold and knead until the paste is smooth and springs back when pressed, about 3 minutes.
- 45 min
Dust a board with dry starch; roll the paste into sheets about 2mm thick; portion into 20cm-wide sheets.
- 58 min
Bring a wide pot of water to 80°C (small bubbles, below a rolling boil); slide sheets in gently; poach 3-4 minutes until translucent and set; transfer immediately to cold water.
Watch outPoach at 80°C with small bubbles below a boil — a rolling boil tears the delicate sheet and dries it; pull into cold water the moment it turns translucent and set.
- 65 min
Drain cooled sheets; stack and cut into fine threads 2-3mm wide.
- 74 min
Heat wok over high heat; add oil; stir-fry garlic and ginger 10 seconds; add chives, red pepper, and bean sprouts; toss 1 minute; add fish silk, season with salt and soy sauce; stir-fry 1 minute; finish with sesame oil and plate.
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