Huizhou food on the table

At a Jixi restaurant on the fifth day of Lunar New Year, a server carried stinky mandarin fish to a full dining room. The scene, reported by People's Daily, puts the dish where it belongs: at the centre of a meal, not in a novelty challenge. Its aroma comes from natural fermentation, according to chef Zhang Guangshun, who has cooked Huizhou dishes for nearly three decades. The story's details are his account, recorded by the reporter.

The report explains the practical problem behind the dish: mountainous Huizhou was not a mandarin-fish producing region, so fish had to travel inland from riverside areas such as Anqing and Chizhou. Before reliable refrigeration, traders salted the fish to preserve it in transit. The article presents this as the remembered origin of the technique, not as a separately documented date or single inventor. Transport and preservation are the sturdy facts at the heart of the story.

The method described by Zhang begins by cleaning the fish, then coating it with cooked salt and pepper. The fish is layered in a wooden tub, weighted down, and turned more than once so the cure stays even. Temperature and humidity alter the timing; Zhang says an experienced cook judges the process by smell and color. The article gives different curing times by season, a reminder that fermentation depends on conditions rather than a fixed clock.

For Zhang's preparation, pork cubes are fried until they release their fat; ginger and garlic follow, then the fish is seared and simmered with seasonings and stock. He adds local bamboo shoots and cooks the dish over heat for fifteen to twenty minutes. The finished plate carries several stages of work: river transport, salting, repeated turning, and a final braise. At the table, the unusual aroma is only the first part of the experience.