Fried dace with salted black beans
Fried dace with salted black beans is a canned food of Chinese origin. Cirrhinus molitorella is a fish from the Pearl River in China. ‘Dace’ is a trade name of Cirrhinus molitorella while ‘salted black beans’ refers to fermented black soybeans known as “dau si” in Cantonese. Fried dace with salted black beans is made by combining dace with salted black beans and preserving it in oil afterwards.
History
Fried dace with salted black beans originated in Guangzhou in China. Before the industrialisation of China began in the 1950s, many Chinese from the Pearl River Delta region needed to go to Southeast Asia for work. They would fry the dace, preserve it with salted black beans and bring it with them because they were not used to eating foreign food. This tradition gradually transformed into a canned food business. The first canned fried dace with salted black beans was produced by Guangzhou Guangmaoxiang Canned Food Factory in China in 1893. This factory was evolved from “广奇香罐头厂”, which was registered in 1912 in Hong Kong.Around the 1960s, most people in Hong Kong did not have a good living environment or family circumstances. They had low incomes and low purchasing power. Due to its low price, long shelf life, and its strong taste, which allows it to be served with rice alone, canned fried dace with salted black beans became a very common food for meals. Sometimes, it would be cooked at home, which added warmth and nostalgic value to this dish. Fried dace with salted black beans was a collective memory for many people in Hong Kong.
Ingredients and taste
There are seven essential ingredients in the canned product; fresh dace, salted black beans, vegetable oil, sugar, soybean sauce, salt and spices. It is very salty, with a slight burnt smoky taste from the black beans. The dace, preserved in vegetable oil, has a chewy texture with soft, edible, bones inside. It tastes well-seasoned with black beans and flavored with savory spices.Preparation and serving
Fried dace with salted black beans can be eaten cold straight out of the can or heated before being served. Other classic ways are eating with stir fried green vegetables, noodles or plain white rice.Marketing
Style of packaging
The packaging of canned fried dace with salted black beans is an oval-shaped tin can.Target customers
Fried dace with salted black beans has always been popular among the lower and middle-income groups. In the 1990s, low-income households had to limit their expenditure on food. They could still afford to buy fried dace with salted black beans.Furthermore, middle-income households would also use it during emergencies.
Thus, fried dace with salted black beans has been a common dish among lower and middle-class people, and is still considered as popular on an occasional basis. Even though people can afford to buy more nutritious food instead of menial canned foods after the economic boom in the 1970s, people from different financial backgrounds will also consume this kind of canned food due to its convenience and cheap prices.