Dried yellow croaker is made of big yellow croaker. Taizhou boasts a lot of big yellow croakers with the annual output of about 10,000 tons before the 1960s. The white dried fish in Songmen Town, Wenling is described as “Songmen Dried Fish, the best of its kind in Zhejiang province”.

Dried yellow croaker [Photo/en.zjtz.gov.cn]

Songmen White dried fish is renowned for its white color. It boasts the 800-year history since the Song Dynasty (960-1279) as the traditional specialty in southeast coastal area. “In the Pacific Ocean stands the Songmen Island, on which grows pines. The island is open to small oceans, abundant in fish,   which can be cooked into tasty fish” was written in Taizhou Prefecture Annals during the Emperor Kangxi’s reign in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The fish with less chopped and less dried in the sun is called “Weak Dried Fish”, while being salted and dried fish is called “Salted and Dried Fish”. The dried fish made in dog days (the hottest period of the year) is the best in flavor.