After my recent post on innovative products based on Chinese vinegar designed by young food technologists, I am posting a similar blog about a contest for new fish-based foods. The contest has been organised by the National Engineering Research Centre of Seafood (Dalian, Liaoning). The assignment was again to create snacks, or in Chinese terms: leisure food.

First prize

Xianyousuoshu

Fish meat wrapped in a mixture of mashed potatoes and minced shrimps and a little cheese. The name needs a some explanation. It is a pun on the Chinese expression xinyousuoshu, literally: ‘all hearts belong to someone’, meaning all people have someone they love. In the product name, xin ‘heart’ has been replaced by ‘xian’ fresh, umami, and shu ‘belonging’ to shu ‘potato’ (same sound, different character). So, the literal name translates in English like ‘umami belongs to potatoes’. If this product will ever make it to the shelves of overseas supermarkets, the producer will probably have to think of more palatable brand name.

Second prize

Millefeuille of squid

This is more or less literally what the name says: layers of dough with pieces of squid in-between.

Niyoubing

There we go again, a pun as a product name that poses a challenge for the translator. The name literally means something like: ‘you squid biscuit’. However, pronounced with different tones, you get an expressing meaning: ‘you are talking nonsense’. Great. The product is indeed a biscuit with squid flavour. According to the description it is both sweet and savoury.

Zunyushao

The name promises ‘baked trout’. According to the inventor, this product is based on an existing Japanese snack using sea bream. It also contains matsutake mushrooms and a again a little cheese to add a milky flavour.

Third prize

Fisherman’s Whorf cookies

These are cookies with a fishy layer, but the description fails to mention the raw materials.

Home Bei

Home is written in Latin letters. The character bei refers to (shan)bei ‘scallops’. These are scallop flavoured potato crackers.

Yumizhixiang

The literal meaning of this name is ‘flavour of fish paste’, however zhi ‘of’ has been replaced with a homophone meaning ‘cheese’. The snacks are produced by steaming fish paste coated with cheese.

Haixian Yuanwuqu

This ‘seafood round dance’ uses rounds of squid, egg, scallops and crab meat as raw materials. According to the inventor, it this product should have a huge potential market. Who will give him an opportunity to test it out?

Fine trumpets

In Chinese, laba ‘trumpet’ can also be used for objects with a wide mouth, hence the funny name for tartlets like these. The inspiration has come from a sweet Cantonese dim sum called ‘egg tart’, but uses whelk protein in the filling. It is positioned as a health snack by its inventor.

As with the vinegar-based products, the novel foods presented in this post give a valuable insight in the minds of young Chinese food technologists currently graduating and looking for jobs in the industry. I like these contests, so will post all of them, as they appear in the Chinese media.

Peter Peverelli is active in and with China since 1975 and regularly travels to the remotest corners of that vast nation.