Description
A night market specialty boasting fluffy flesh. Freshwater 'Wu Guo Yu (Tilapia)' is stuffed with garlic/scallions, covered in a thick salt layer, and slow-grilled over charcoal.
Restaurants serving Salt-grilled Tilapia
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On this site you can check dictionary details and, later, places to buy or eat related items.
The Recipe section below is a general reference, not a recipe from the listed shops.
Recipe
Ingredients
- Wu Guo Yu(Whole Tilapia)
- Coarse salt(massive)
- Garlic
- Scallions
- Ginger
Instructions
- [Authentic Recipe]
- [Fish Prep] Prepare a whole 'Wu Guo Yu (Tilapia: aka Taiwan Bream)', Taiwan's most common farmed fish. Gut and gill, but [ABSOLUTELY keep scales] (makes peeling the salt armor easy).
- Stuff the belly to the limit with whole smashed garlic, scallions, sliced ginger, massive white pepper.
- [Salt Armor (Salt Bake)] Mix coarse salt with a little egg white (or water) to dampen. Smear this salt thickly (~1cm) seamlessly over the scale-on fish surface (make a fish-shaped salt mass).
- Grill slowly on a charcoal net for 30-
- mins until cooked through.
- [How to Eat] When served, crack the rock-hard salt shell with chopsticks, peel the skin off cleanly along with the scales. Eat the pure white, juicy meat inside with Taiwan's special pepper salt or lemon.
Learn more Spice, substitutes, tips
Key spices
Aroma of steam-baked garlic and white pepper
Substitutes at Japanese supermarkets
Whole roasted Sea Bream or Grunt
Pairing
Cold Taiwan Beer or White Rice
Trivia
[For Everyone] A signature menu at Taiwanese night markets and suburban Re Chao. 'Wu Guo Yu' often has a muddy image, but slow steam-baking in salt and pounding aroma from the belly with massive garlic transforms it into an amazingly fluffy, sweet supreme white fish. Cracking the salt shell is fun.
Eating tips & etiquette
[Unique Eating] After eating the top meat, absolutely never flip the fish (Taiwanese fishermen's superstition). Remove the central bone 'pop' with chopsticks to eat the bottom meat—the connoisseur's manners!
Allergen
Seafood