Mud carp
The mud carp, a small Pearl River Delta pond fish beloved for its sweet flesh and notorious for its forest of fine bones, soup use demands a muslin fish bag. Fried fragrant and simmered hard, it produces a sweet, milky broth for the classic dampness-clearing soup with kudzu and rice beans. The bones alone are sometimes used as the base. Not sold fresh in Australia: the recipe’s own swap to pork bones is the steady answer, a pan-fried silver perch in a bag keeps the fish flavour, and ready-made Hong Kong style fish paste covers the fish balls.
TCM properties
Nature · neutral Flavour · sweet Meridians · spleen、stomach
Traditional food therapy
In Cantonese food therapy mud carp is used to strengthen the spleen and dispel dampness, anchoring the region's signature dampness-clearing soups.
Cautions: read first
- Extremely bony, so a fish soup bag is essential
- Take care if you have gout
Preparation
Clean it, fry it until fragrant and boil it in a soup bag; some people fry the mud carp bones on their own and simmer them for the base.
Origin
The Pearl River Delta in Guangdong (a pond fish found only in southern China). No Australian mud carp fishery, so nothing is sold fresh; frozen imported dace comes and goes at Chinese grocers. Hong Kong recipes already offer pork bones instead, which is the steady swap. For the fish flavour, pan-fry a whole silver perch or bream and bag it. For the fish balls, buy Hong Kong style fish paste and beat it hard in one direction for ten minutes, because the bounce comes from the beating rather than from the fish
Availability in Australia
Easy to find
