Fish head
The head of the bighead carp (dai yu), a fish bred for its huge, gelatin-laden head, split open, washed and fried with ginger before boiling. It gives a milky, full-bodied broth with rich, silky cheek and collar meat. The set-piece of the office worker's 'brain-boosting' soup with chuen gung, bak ji and tin ma.
TCM properties
Nature · warming Flavour · sweet Meridians · spleen、stomach
Traditional food therapy
In Cantonese folk food therapy fish head is used to warm the stomach, replenish deficiency and dispel head-wind, and tradition serves it to those who overwork the mind.
Cautions: read first
- Drink it sparingly if you run hot and dry
- Take care if you have gout (purines in a concentrated fish soup)
- Watch out for the bones
Preparation
Split the bighead carp head, rinse it and pat it dry, then fry it with ginger until fragrant before boiling; the soup turns milky white.
Origin
Pond and reservoir farming in the Pearl River Delta and southern China (bighead carp). Bighead carp is not retailed in Australia. A snapper head from a fishmonger is the best of the stand-ins — often cheaper than buying the fish, with the most gelatin of anything at the counter — and a barramundi head does the same job. A salmon head is the cheapest but tints the broth
Availability in Australia
Easy to find
