Three Whites of Taihu Lake refer to three kinds of seafood specialties of Taihu Lake in China, including whitebait, whitebait and white shrimp. These three kinds of seafood are called "Three Whites in Taihu Lake" because of their white color. The selection of ingredients for dishes made from Taihu Sanbai pays great attention to the freshness of ingredients, especially because it is easy to die when it comes out of the water, so it is most suitable for cooking Taihu Sanbai at the water's edge or on a boat. The methods of cooking dishes with Taihu Sanbai are mostly steamed and boiled, emphasizing the preservation of the original flavor of the ingredients.

Taihu white fish

1300 years ago, Taihu white fish was praised by the people as the first fish in Wuxi. White fish in Taihu Lake is one of the carnivorous economic fish with long and narrow body, thin bones and scales and flashing silver light. At present, it has not been cultivated, mainly relying on natural fishing. White fish, with tender meat and much fat under the scales, looks like shad and is a valuable fish in Taihu Lake.

neosalanx taihuensis

The whitebait in Taihu Lake is more than two inches long, slightly round in length, shaped like a Hosta, seemingly boneless and without intestines, delicate and transparent, and silvery in color, so it is called whitebait. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Taihu Lake was rich in whitebait. In the famous sentence of the Song Dynasty poet "After spring, whitebait frosted bass", whitebait and bass were listed as treasures in fish.

White shrimp in Taihu Lake

White shrimps in Taihu Lake have whiskers on their heads, claws on their chests, protruding eyes and forked tails. Most of them grow in the open shoals with lush aquatic plants and calm waters. Their feeding habits are mainly plant fragments, organic residues and weak invertebrate plankton. The growth period of white shrimp in Taihu Lake is generally about one year. There is no special flood season for white shrimp. Every year from May to the middle and late July, it is the peak season for white shrimp to lay eggs and catch fish. At this time, the shrimp belly is full of shrimp seeds, and fishermen call it "silkworm shrimp".