Abstract

In popular Hangzhou folklore, Sister Song’s Fish Broth and West Lake
Fish in Vinegar Sauce are two dishes with very similar origins, both of
which were firstly cooked by a sister-in-law for their brother-in-law, and
then passed down to others. However, there are significant differences
between what nowadays is available in the way of Sister Song’s Fish
Broth and West Lake Fish in Vinegar Sauce, both in terms of style and
ingredients.
This paper has delved into some historical documents to clarify the
real relationship between Sister Song’s Fish Broth and West Lake Fish in
Vinegar Sauce, and to clarify the relationship between the two. It turns out
that Sister Song’s Fish Broth first appeared in the Northern Song Dynasty,
flourished in the Southern Song Dynasty, and then was refined in the Qing
Dynasty. This later became the prototype of West Lake Fish in Vinegar Sauce, which means the current recipe for West Lake Fish in Vinegar
Sauce was in fact something that evolved from the older Sister Song’s Fish
Broth, while the current Sister Song’s Fish Broth is actually one of the
new Hangzhou recipes created in the 1950s, originally known as
Crab-flavor Soup, which has nothing to do with the Sister Song’s Fish
Broth of history.
Unlike ordinary dishes, Sister Song’s Fish Broth and West Lake Fish
in Vinegar Sauce appear frequently in literary works, the former was
mostly recorded in the Ducheng Ji Sheng, Meng Liang Records, Old
Stories of Wulin and other Song-dynasty notebooks, while in the poems of
the Qing Dynasty, they were mainly used as food images, and sometimes
used as a symbol critical of the emperors’ extravagance. The latter recipe
occasionally appears in the novels of the Qing Dynasty, and is connected
with many modern Chinese celebrities. As a symbol of local delicacies,
Sister Song’s Fish Broth appears with the highest frequency, with its
imagery manifested in many literary works, often with other connotations
emanating from within.
Keywords: Sister Song’s Fish Broth, West Lake Fish in Vinegar Sauce,
Hangzhou dishes