Cantonese salted fish
Cantonese Salted Fish (simplified Chinese: 广东咸鱼; traditional Chinese: 廣東鹹魚; piyin: Guǎngdōngxiányú; also known as "Salted-fish, Chinese style") is a traditional Chinese food originated from the Guangdong province. It is a fish preserved or cured with salt, and a staple diet in Southern China. It historically earned the nickname of the "poor man's food", as its extreme saltiness way is useful in adding variety to the simpler rice-based dinners. More recently it has become a popular cuisine in its own right.
History
Beginning near the 15th century, China struggled with economic problems in the lower classes. Even relatively advanced cities like Guangdong and Hong Kong had large populations without access to any kind of food preservation. More recently, this meant being without any sort of refrigeration. To overcome the rotting of room temperature meat, a number of methods became popular, such as canning and salting. The coastal Guangdong province includes fishes as a major food source, and the fishing industry was the most productive source. Thus food preservation efforts with focused foremost on fish, and the eventual convergence of these techniques gave eventual rise to the dish.
Varieties
A wide range of fishes can be prepared as Cantonese salted fish. The most common ones are mayau (馬友) and Ilisha elongata (鰽白). Other types of fishes, such as Pseudosciaena crocea (黃花魚)和 Bahaba taipingensis (白花魚) are also some possible kinds of fish that can be produced as salted fish nowadays.[2]
Apart from different types of fish, Cantonese salted fishes can be divided into two styles: méi xiāng (梅香) and shí ròu(實肉). For méi xiāng (梅香) salted fish, fishes with thicker bodies like jiaoyu (鮫魚)、mayau (馬友)are preferred. It takes 7–8 days for méi xiāng (梅香) salted fish to ferment, then season with salt and dry in the sun. And they are usually chopped tiny and used as a topping.
Furthermore, shí ròu(實肉) salted fish do not need fermentation, they are prepared by seasoning followed by direct drying by the sun. Fishes with thinner bodies such as Ilisha elongata (鰽白) are usually used to prepare shí ròu(實肉) salted fish. Unlike méi xiāng (梅香) salted fish, they can be served directly by frying or steaming.
Methods
The presence of common salt, sodium chloride, helps to preserve salted fish, through inhibition of bacterial growth. When the solution of salt, or brine, is more concentrated—specifically, has a lower water potential—than the fluid of the fish tissue, osmosis will occur. Water molecules will pass from the fish tissue (higher water potential) into the brine (lower water potential) until the water molecules in these two solutions are evenly distributed. This is known as a hypertonic environment. Most bacteria cannot survive in such an environment, as their cells shrink and normal biological function cannot continue, eventually terminating in lysis. This lends the antiseptic properties, and hence preservational power, of salt.
In Tai O,[5] a vertical marination method (插鹽) is the most popular way to prepare Cantonese salted fish. In this method, fishes like Ilisha elongata (鰽白) and mayau (馬友) will first be gutted then washed. Then the cleaned fishes are inserted vertically and up side down to a heap of salt. Under gravity, the juice of the fish can flow out from the mouth of the salted fish. Through this method, the salted fish can be kept as dry as possible.
Uses
Steam Meat Patty with Salted Fish
(Traditional Chinese: 鹹魚蒸肉餅) This is a very popular dish among local restaurants and some chain restaurants. It is also an extremely common home made dish. [6]
Chicken and Salted Fish Fried Rice
(Traditional Chinese: 鹹魚雞粒炒飯) As its name implies, this dish is fried rice with chicken and salted fish. Most cha chaan tengs have this dish and it is popular among local people. [7]
Salted Fish Bun
(Traditional Chinese: 鹹魚大包) Salted fish bun is a favourite dish of the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. It is a kind of bun filled with sliced pork and salted fish. [8]
Salted Fish Head with Beancurd Soup
(Traditional Chinese: 鹹魚頭豆腐湯) The ingredients of this soup include ginger, salted fish, and beancurd. [9]
Culture
Slang
Salted fish symbolises dead bodies in Cantonese slang. ‘Xian yu fan sheng’ is slang meaning that something that is saved or revived when it seems that it is dying or has little chance to survive. ‘Shi de xian yu, di de ke’ is slang which means that "those who eat salted fish must put up with the thirst". This is a popular slang to tell people that they have to bear the consequences of their actions.
Song
A famous song named ‘Without the Two of Us’ by Hong Kong popular singer George Lam, has a line of lyrics related to salted fish. The line is ‘Even salted fish and cabbage taste really good’. This illustrates that salted fish is a symbolic dish of the poor population, and it symbolizes a simple and humble life.
Movie
The Hong Kong comedy movie, Shaolin Soccer (Traditional Chinese: 少林足球) references salted fish in the line, "If we don’t have any dreams in life, we will look like a salted fish". This line became popular in Hong Kong, and has even been mistaken as an old Chinese saying and cited on the public examinations.
Scientific Research
In scientific research, salted fish has been considered possible risk factor in nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC). In 1967, Ho presented evidence that the Tankas (boat people), who consume Cantonese salted fish in their daily diet, had twice the incidence of NPC compared with the land-dwelling Cantonese in Hong Kong. Since salted fish is traditionally eaten with rice, part of a staple diet for children and the poor segment of Southern China, these are the populations that are at highest risk of NPC. Further research has since shown that, broadly, the residents of Southern China are more at risk than other countries, supporting the theory that the food has a link to NPC.[10][11]
References
- ↑ chinesesaltedfish 'Chinese Salted Fish'
- ↑ 香港食物規格資料庫魚乾類 '香港食物規格資料庫－魚乾類'
- ↑ saltedfishSalted fish'Salted fish'
- ↑ nzd 'Fish Handling, Preservation & Processing in the Tropics: Part 2 (NRI)'
- ↑ 鹹魚鹹魚'鹹魚'
- ↑ foodno1 '鹹魚蒸肉餅'
- ↑ 鹹魚雞粒炒飯 '鹹魚雞粒炒飯'
- ↑ stheadline '創新清宮宴 香脆惹味鹹魚包'
- ↑ openrice 'Salted fish head with beancurd soup'
- ↑ sciencedirect 'Salted Fish & Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma'
- ↑ chinesesaltedfish” 'Chinese-style Salted Fish'