Beer-Braised Fish

Beer-braised fish is the most representative dish of Yangshuo: the fish is cooked together with beer and seasoned with chilli and other spices so the flesh turns tender and fragrant with no trace of fishiness. Every local household makes it, the choice of fish is exacting, and a whole Li River fish such as the few-boned nongshui fish is braised with skin and bone on so the flavour soaks right through.

Beer-braised fish arose along the Li River at Yangshuo, fusing the local fishing tradition with rustic river-food cooking. West Street, long called a global village, came to be lined with beer-fish restaurants, turning a homely river-fish dish into the calling card of Yangshuo cuisine and spreading it across Guangxi and beyond as tourism took off.

A whole fish with skin and bone on is braised with beer, chilli, ginger, garlic and tomato and brought to the table glossy red; diners lift the tender flesh and dip it in the sauce, pairing it with a bowl of rice or rice noodles in the most authentic way, the headline dish of a West Street supper or a Li River boat feast.

The malty fragrance of beer that lifts and freshens the fish, the tender few-boned flesh of the Li River catch, and the glossy red sauce are what set Yangshuo beer-fish apart from ordinary braised fish.