Wok-tossed slices of fresh bream, cut thin and velveted in egg-white and cornstarch, stir-fried with ginger and scallion over high heat until just opaque and impossibly tender. Jiujiang's ancient name — Xunyang — lends this dish its identity and its restraint: this is lake-fish cookery at its most direct, where the wok's heat is all the seasoning the flesh truly needs.
Local tradition traces the dish to the Eastern Han period, when the Eastern Wu general Zhou Yu garrisoned his troops at Chaisang — the ancient name for present-day Jiujiang. According to the legend, his household cook prepared a refined stir-fried fish-slice dish that became known as 'Prefectural Fish Slices' (都府鱼片) and later spread among the townspeople as 'Chaisang Fish Slices'. When the Tang dynasty renamed Chaisang 'Xunyang', the preparation took its current name and became celebrated across Jiangnan. The Zhou Yu attribution is local legend rather than documented history, but Xunyang Fish Slices has been recorded as a canonical Jiujiang specialty for centuries, anchored to the lake's exceptional freshwater bream.
Pale, barely-cooked bream slices slip across the chopstick, almost translucent at the thinnest edges. The flesh is mild, clean and faintly sweet — lake water in solid form — finished with the sharp warmth of fresh ginger and a slick of scallion-infused oil that brightens everything without competing.
Bream's short muscle fibres, sparse intramuscular connective tissue, and low fat content make the flesh naturally delicate. Velveting — coating the slices in a thin slurry of egg white and cornstarch before high-heat cooking — prevents the myosin proteins from over-contracting and toughening. The starch granules gelatinize on contact with the hot oil, forming an insulating layer that keeps the fish interior near 65–70 °C, the optimum zone for protein denaturation without moisture loss, which is what makes each slice so distinctly silky and yielding.
Variations
A poached variant (汆鱼片) slides the velveted slices directly into a clear ginger-and-wolfberry broth rather than the wok, maximising delicacy and avoiding any oil. Some cooks add wood-ear mushroom and bamboo shoots for textural contrast. In Poyang Lake fishing villages, silver carp or mandarin fish are used in the same way when bream is out of season.
On the Palate
Where Xunyang Fish Slices sits in the Chinese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
7 steps · 25 min
- 110 min
Scale, gut and fillet a 600 g bream; remove all pin bones with tweezers. Slice the fillets on a 30-degree bias into pieces roughly 5 cm × 3 cm × 3 mm.
- 215 min
Pat the slices dry; in a bowl combine them with 1 egg white, 1 tbsp cornstarch, 0.5 tsp salt and 1 tsp Shaoxing wine. Mix gently and refrigerate for 15 minutes to let the coating adhere.
Watch outChill the velveted slices so the egg-white-starch coat sets and clings — a slipping coat means the fish toughens the moment it hits the oil.
- 35 min
Julienne a 3 cm piece of fresh ginger into fine strips. Cut 3 scallion stalks into 4 cm sections. In a small bowl combine 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar and 1 tbsp light stock or water.
- 42 min
Heat a wok over the highest flame until wisps of smoke appear. Add 3 tbsp neutral oil and swirl to coat, then reduce to medium-high heat.
- 53 min
Spread the fish slices in the wok in a single layer; do not stir for 30 seconds, then turn each slice once and stir gently until just opaque, 1–2 minutes total.
Watch outLet the slices sit untouched 30 seconds before you nudge them — poke too early and the delicate flesh breaks apart.
- 61 min
Push the fish to one side; add ginger and scallion to the cleared space and fry for 20 seconds until fragrant.
- 71 min
Pour in the seasoning liquid, toss everything together quickly, drizzle with 1 tsp sesame oil and transfer to a plate immediately.
