Sizzling stir-fried eel

What it is

Eel in sauce (鱔糊) is shredded freshwater eel cooked fast in a thick, sweet and salty sauce. The best-known version, 響油鱔糊 ('sounding oil eel'), takes its name from the hiss when hot oil hits it at serving time. In Taiwan it belongs to Jiangzhe restaurants, which cook the food of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. Some kitchens add yellow chives (韭黃).

Where it came from

The dish comes from the lower Yangtze. It counts as a traditional dish of both Wuxi cooking and Shanghai's local Benbang (本幫) style, and Jiangzhe kitchens in general put great weight on freshwater fish and eel (河鮮).

In Taiwan it is part of the Jiangzhe cooking that arrived with mainland migrants around 1949. Migrants from Jiangsu and Zhejiang were the largest group, and in the authoritarian era their food was the first choice when officials entertained. Most of greater Taipei's well-known early restaurants were Jiangzhe. The style later lost ground as cheap, fast Taiwanese stir-fry shops spread, but long-running Jiangzhe dining rooms in Taipei and Kaohsiung still serve eel.

How it is made

Small and medium eels are scalded and the flesh is cut into strips. The strips are stir-fried with ginger and spring onion, seasoned with Shaoxing wine, light and dark soy sauce, sugar and white pepper, then thickened with starch. Some cooks add Jinhua ham or winter bamboo shoots. Just before serving, very hot oil is poured over the top, often to wake up sesame oil already on the dish.

How to eat it

Eat it as soon as it reaches the table, while the oil is still hissing, as one of several shared dishes at a Jiangzhe meal. Menus may list it as 鱔糊, 響油鱔糊 or 韭黃炒鱔糊.