Seafood and Fish

Seafood is always abundant in China. Bordered on the east and south by an extensive coastline, veined with four gigantic rivers, dotted with lakes, and covered with a network of canals from the eastern province of Kiangsu all the way to the northern city of Tientsin, China is generously supplied with an enormous variety of fish and shellfish all year round. And this bounty is treated with great gastronomic reverence—for instance, the Chinese will bathe a fish in hot liquid so that its natural juices slowly gather beneath the skin or salt-whip shrimp into a clear, crisp delicacy. In this chapter you will also discover the marvelous gusto with which the Chinese eat shrimp with shells on and lobster cut up and richly sauced.