What
Sour soup fish is a fish dish of the Miao areas of Guizhou. Fish is cooked in a broth soured by fermentation and eaten with a dipping sauce. The broth comes in 2 kinds: white sour, fermented from rice-cooking water, and red sour, fermented from tomatoes and red chili. In Kaili it is a hotpot, made in 4 stages: the sour broth, preparing the fish, mixing the seasonings, and cooking.1,2,3
When
The consulted material does not record when the dish began. Accounts from 2025 and 2024 put the Kaili sour soup tradition at about 1,400 and 1,000 years old, respectively; both refer to the broth, not the fish dish. The claim that the dish is at least several hundred years old cites a 1998 article whose original text was not checked. A 2020 account traces the broth's base from wine lees to rice water to wild tomato. In 2021, the Kaili sour soup fish craft was listed as national intangible cultural heritage.1,2,3,4,5
Where
The Miao areas of the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture in Guizhou. The core area includes Kaili, Leishan, Taijiang and Jianhe, reaching 16 counties and cities of the prefecture.1
How
White sour is fermented from rice-cooking water. Red sour is made by fermenting small local tomatoes and red chili in a jar. Fermentation takes at least 1 month in a 2025 account, and several months to half a year in a 2024 account and heritage documentation. Fish is cooked through in the sour broth and dipped in a sauce. The craft has 4 stages: the sour broth, preparing the fish, mixing the seasonings, and cooking.1,3,6
Why
Salt was scarce in the mountains, so sourness became a way of seasoning in its place. Fish came from rice-and-fish paddies in the Miao country. The dish is served at weddings, at a baby's 1-month feast and for honored guests. A 2024 account also mentions the Chixin festival, when the new harvest is first eaten.1,2,3
Impact and influence
The Kaili sour soup fish craft was listed as national intangible cultural heritage in 2021, and Kaili red sour broth gained national geographical indication protection in 2013. Figures published in January 2025 put Qiandongnan's sour soup industry output in 2024 at about 2.5 billion yuan. A 2024 account notes that sour soup fish has been served in restaurants abroad since the late 1980s.1,3,4
The Tale of the Sour Rice-Water Jar
Legend has it that the Miao ancestors, living in salt-poor mountains, found that rice-cooking water left in a clay jar turned sour and tasted refreshing, and that drinking it every day left them feeling strong. They kept the method and in time refined it into white sour broth. A 2024 People's Daily Overseas Edition report tells this story.
Told in: Told in the Miao areas around Kaili and reported in the People's Daily Overseas Edition in October 2024. No old book that records the story was found.
The Tale of Sourness in Place of Salt
A folk tale says that after Chiyou was defeated, his descendants moved into salt-poor mountains and used sourness in place of salt, and that the base of the broth changed from wine lees to rice water and then to wild tomato. A 2020 People's Daily Overseas Edition report tells it as a tradition among the Miao and gives no document for it.
Told in: Told among the Miao of western Hunan and southeastern Guizhou, as reported in the People's Daily Overseas Edition in December 2020. It is an oral tradition, and no document was found.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
Kaili red sour broth ferments in a jar for a long time, so my simpler way at home is to buy a ready red sour base, add tomato, tofu and mushrooms, and cook the fish in the broth. The amounts and timings below are my own choices at home. Sour bases differ a lot in saltiness and sourness, so taste as you go.
Ingredients
- Fresh farmed fish (grass carp or carp) 1 fish, about 800 g, scaled and gutted at the fish counter
- Ready red sour base about 150 g; start with half and add to taste
- Tomato 1, cut into wedges
- Soft tofu 1 block, about 300 g, cut into pieces
- Mushrooms (enoki or shiitake) 100 g
- Ginger 5 slices, plus 3 slices for marinating the fish
- Garlic 3 cloves, crushed
- Scallion and cilantro 2 stalks each, cut in sections
- Cooking oil 2 tablespoons
- Salt about 5 g to marinate the fish, then more to taste at the end
- Water 1.2 L
- Lemon juice (optional; or litsea oil) a squeeze at the end
Steps
- Rinse the fish. Chop the head and bones apart and slice the flesh into fairly thick pieces. Marinate with 3 slices of ginger and 5 g of salt for 15 minutes.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pot, add the remaining ginger and the garlic, then the head and bones, and fry until lightly golden on both sides.
- Add half of the red sour base and stir for 2 to 3 minutes. Pour in the 1.2 L of water, bring to the boil, then simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes so the broth gets its flavor.
- Taste and add more base if it is not sour enough. Put in the tofu, mushrooms and tomato and cook for 3 minutes.
- Slide in the fish slices and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until the flesh is opaque white and flakes at a touch of the chopsticks. The head and bones have already cooked for ten minutes or more.
- Add salt to taste, scatter on the scallion and cilantro, add a few drops of lemon juice if you like a fresh note, and serve hot.
Tips
- Ready bases run from salty to sour, so I always start with half and add slowly. I would rather it start mild than add too much at once.
- Red sour broth is made by fermenting small tomatoes and red chili in a jar, for at least a month by a 2025 Xinhua report and for several months by the national intangible heritage list's entry, so at home I buy a ready one and skip that step.
Allergens: fish, soy
