What it is
Fresh fish soup (鮮魚湯) is a clear broth with fresh fish in it, lightly seasoned. There is no fixed recipe. In Tainan the fish is often milkfish, and the head is one of the cuts diners can ask for. Sea bass soup (鱸魚湯) is another common version, flavoured with ginger and a little rice wine. Some shops add clams or vegetables.
Where it came from
Fish soup has long been treated as restorative food. Sea bass appears in the Ming-dynasty materia medica Bencao Gangmu (本草綱目) and remains a favourite in Chinese food therapy, and slow-simmered sea bass soup is a common way to build up strength. Milkfish soup is a speciality of the south, and Tainan alone raises about half of Taiwan's milkfish. Sea bass is widely farmed too. The Taipei Times reported in 2019 that Asian sea bass, or barramundi, made up 70 per cent of Taiwan's farmed sea bass.
How it is made
The broth is built on fish bones, sometimes with pork or chicken bones, onion or vegetables, and kept clear. Fresh fish, in slices or pieces, goes in close to serving. A common home method fries sea bass briefly with ginger and spring onion to take away any fishy smell, then adds a splash of rice wine. Chan Chi (詹記) in Tainan makes its stock from sea bass bones and vegetables, then adds clams and sliced fish.
How to eat it
Fish soup is usually one part of a meal. In the south it comes with braised pork rice or plain rice, perhaps with a plate of fried or braised fish. At png-toh-a (飯桌仔), old-style Tainan canteens, dishes are set out to choose from and cooked to order. At some shops the sea bass is dipped in wasabi soy sauce.
Around Taiwan
- Tainan
- Milkfish soup is a breakfast standby. Home-style canteens such as Chan Chi (詹記) keep a house fish soup of sea bass bones, clams and sliced fish.
- Kaohsiung
- At Bo Home Braised Pork Rice (柏弘肉燥), trading since 1969, plain sea bass soup with a faint rice-wine aroma is the suggested partner for a bowl of pork rice.
