A Tour of China in Winter
Part 5
Fish Seen in Chinese Restaurants
By Howard Norfolk
Original to Aquarticles.com
During my tour of China I wanted to see the fish and aquarium scene, so I
visited public aquariums and aquarium shops wherever I went. But there was another place
where I saw live fish - in restaurants!
Many high end restaurants in China have a whole bank of aquariums where
live fish can be chosen by customers to be cooked for their meals.
Most of the fish are freshwater fish, which are still popular food items
in China. There are plenty of fishermen who make a living catching freshwater fish, and
they are produced on fish farms as well.
In Europe and North America freshwater fish are not so often used as food,
with the exception of farmed trout, catfish (in southern U.S.) and carp (in eastern
Europe). Freshwater fish used to be eaten more often, but the development of railways and
refrigeration meant that the more abundant sea fish could be transported efficiently. One
of my guides pointed out that Chinese people like their fish fresh, i.e. alive, before
they are cooked. Freshwater fish are easier to keep alive, and seem to be more popular
than sea fish even in a sea port such as Shanghai.
Personally I found these fish bony and generally tasteless, but then quite
honestly I found most Chinese food bland and similar in taste - the oils from the wok
cooking permeated everything. If I couldn't have seen what bite-sized chunk I was eating
it would sometimes have been hard to tell if I was eating meat or vegetable - let alone
what kind of meat or veg.!
I was always interested in the displays of live fish in restaurants, and
here are some that I came across:
Help wanted: My knowledge of the
fish of China is limited. If anyone can help identify the unidentified fish shown below,
or can add information or corrections, please email me at: comments@aquarticles.com
Our hotel in Beijing:
Our hotel restaurant had a rack of tanks of which any aquarist would
be proud.
Click on photos for enlargements, then
go 'BACK'
Diners could choose any of these fish to be cooked as part of their meal:
 
Beautiful grass carp.....a golden carp and a large goldfish
  
Perch family....trout....cichlids
Two species of crabs, the Portunid or swimming crab, and a smaller
species.
Prawns....spiny lobsters....flounders
I made a note of some of the prices, which were
marked on the tanks. All were priced per 500grams (a little over 1lb.) and the flounders
were $US15.71, large crabs $9.42, perch $8.22, trout $7.00, grass carp and cichlids $3.38,
small crabs $2.42.
Another Beijing restaurant
 
One evening we parked our car and walked along a brightly lit street
of restaurants. Neon lights are popular in China.
On the bar were some jars containing flying geckos soaking in
alcohol. The drinks are sold as tonics or aphrodisiacs.
Vegetable drinks were made too.
A restaurant in Xi'an:
A restaurant in Xi'an had a similar group of tanks.
 
Tench and American largemouth bass (US$8.22)....largemouth bass (an
introduced species).
 
Carp....grass carp
Crabs
Flounder ($10.64)....prawns....razor clams
Even a sturgeon
A street in Guilin:
 
In Guilin we came across a row of fish restaurants. They displayed
their stock in basins.
 
A carp had jumped out of its basin. We put it back in.
  
Unidentified....marbled gobies?....catfish
 
Weather loaches....eels
Mussels, and a live chicken in a cage
Further along the main street of Guilin a fancy fish restaurant had
large tanks on both sides of its front door.
Fish for sale included an albino iridescent shark, a catfish (Pangasius
hypophthalmus). Yes - this is at least how big those little 'iridescent sharks' we
see in pet stores will grow!
Our hotel in Shanghai:
More fishtanks.
Golden carp....golden carp with perch....unidentified
Crabs....prawns....scallops
 
Flatfish....spiny lobster
It is rather sad to think that all these beautiful
fish and creatures will have been eaten by now.
One more thing....
Beijing food stands:
Warning: If you found the above pictures
distressing, don't look at the following!
In Beijing one evening we walked past a row of shops that sold
snacks on sticks.
 
There was a huge variety of tasty items...
Including snakes
...and testicles (on the right)
...crickets
...various snacks
...and even baby nestling sparrows. (I assume one would just snack
on the breasts and leave the beaks).
Are you feeling hungry yet? There is a saying in
China that everything is edible "as long as its back points at the sky" - in
other words that is non-human (although cannibalism has occurred, and there are rumours
that aborted human fetuses are eaten for health reasons too). But in all fairness, our
guide in Beijing said that he, as a modern sophisticate, has never eaten the foods
pictured above. He and his family only eat our familiar common meats such as beef, pork,
lamb and chicken.
Life goes on:
To cheer you up, here are some fish that haven't been eaten yet!
 
Our hotel in Beijing had a goldfish tank in a hallway.
 
And in Shanghai, there was an arowana tank at the entrance to the
nightclub.
Go to the next in this series:
China Tour Part 6a: A Photographic Visit to
Ocean Park, Hong Kong
The whole Tour of China in Winter series:
Part 1a: Introduction, and the Tourist Sights
of Beijing (Tourist sights)
Part 1b: A Visit to the Beijing Aquarium
(Public aquarium)
Part 1c: An Arcade of Aquarium Shops in
Beijing (Aquarium shops)
Part 1d: The Beijing Museum of
Natural History (Tourist sights)
Part 2a: Xi'an and the Army of
Terracotta Warriors (Tourist sights)
Part 2b: An Aquarium Market in Xi'an
(Aquarium shops)
Part 3a: The Spectacular Scenery of Guilin
(Tourist sights)
Part 3b: A Visit to the Guilin Ocean
Aquarium (Public aquarium)
Part 4a: The Space-Age City of Shanghai (Tourist sights)
Part 4b: A Visit to the Shanghai Ocean
Aquarium (Public aquarium)
Part 4c: Jiangyin Road, a Street of Aquarium
Shops in Shanghai (Aquarium shops)
Part 5: Fish Seen in Chinese Restaurants (Native
fish)
Part 6a: A Photographic Visit to Ocean Park,
Hong Kong (Public aquarium)
Part 6b: The Goldfish Pagoda at Ocean Park,
Hong Kong (Public aquarium)
See also (after a previous visit to Hong Kong):
Tung Choi. The Amazing Aquarium Store Street in Hong
Kong (Aquarium shops)
Or, back to:
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