source：https://www.zj.gov.cn/

Wenzhou Fish Ball is a famous local food in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. Belonging to Zhejiang cuisine, the dish is mainly made of fresh fish. The authentic Wenzhou Fish Ball has three characteristics: sufficient ingredients, toughness and fresh taste. In 1998, Wenzhou Fish Ball was rated as one of the “Famous Chinese Food”.

Wenzhou Fish Ball is a traditional famous food in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. As snack food commonly seen in water-town households, Wenzhou Fish Ball is different from fish balls in other regions. The soup is clear, slightly sour and hot. The fish balls are elastic and mostly irregularly long, which are translucent jade white.

Who was the first to name Fish Balls, which were not round at all?

After Wenzhou city wall was built more than 1,000 years ago, a group of senior officials came from the capital city on business to congratulate on the completion of the city wall. To entertain these officials, local government invited a famous chef to cook meals for them. The chef, after making many inquiries, learned these officials liked to eat fish with soup. At that time, the price of mackerel in Wenzhou was several times more expensive than yellow croaker and Miichthys miiui, which was of the best quality among all fish dishes. On the day of the banquet, the chef first removed the head and tail after washing the mackerel clean, cut the middle part of the fish into thick slices without removing fish bones or skin. Then he placed ginger, liquor, salt, pickled taste, and then added white starch before mixing them evenly. When the water in the pot was boiling, the chef put the fish slices into the boiling water one by one, and added rice vinegar after the fish slices floated to make slightly sour and hot fish soup. After eating the fish, everyone gave great praise for it. So they asked what the name of the dish was. The chef, thinking that the fish slice was in the shape of round slices, said it was called “fish ball”. The officials asked what kind of fish the dish was made of. The local official told them the name and origin of the fish. The fish was called mackerel, which grew in the sea. To catch this fish, strong boatman navigated the boat far into the deep sea. Only with great effort and good luck could he catch the fish. When he was unlucky, he came back empty handed, and sometimes capsized or even died when encountering strong winds and waves. The senior officials, after hearing these facts, felt greatly admired and said, “The fish is delicious but fishing is difficult.”

A few years later, an elderly official came to make a visit. The chef knew that he liked the dish very much. In order to make him happy, the chef slightly improved the cooking method. He removed the fish bones and cut them into pieces with a knife, so the shape of “fish balls” changed. At that time, the chef wanted to choose another name for the dish, but many people in the mansion said that the name “fish balls” had already be known among people and in the capital city. So it was better to use the original name. The improved boneless long-strip “fish balls” were more favored by people. So the cooking method became quite popular. More than one thousand years passed later, we still see many restaurant signboards carry the name “fish balls” on them. But few people know that the original “fish balls” were actually round slices.