Zhǐbāo yī zhī, suànxiāng pū bí; dǎokāi yī shùn, rèqì míngyǎn. — One paper parcel, garlic fragrance in the face; open it in one moment, and the steam blinds.
Paper-wrapped fish (纸包鱼, Zhǐbāoyú) is the county’s second fish register and the gentler one: the fish and its seasonings are sealed in paper and cooked through on the table’s heat, arriving at the table as a parcel that is opened at the chair. The classic Wushan register is garlic (蒜香) rather than chilli — the parcel traps the aroma, so the first thing that reaches you is the steam, and the sauce inside is a concentrated garlic broth rather than a red oil.
Cooking in paper is steaming and braising in one: the sealed parcel keeps the fish’s own moisture in circulation, so the flesh cooks in its own juice plus the seasonings, and nothing escapes. It is the inverse of the grilled fish’s open-fire theatre — where the grill is about char and reduction, the parcel is about retention, and the garlic register is chosen precisely because it survives sealing: a fragrance that fills the paper rather than scorching in it.
The parcel’s opening is the table’s event — have the camera ready and the rice ordered, because the garlic broth is a rice sauce and locals use it as one. The fish inside is flaky rather than charred; if you want the Wushan char, order the grilled fish instead, and if you want the garlic, this is the one.
flowcloud would say that the county cooks its fish twice — once over the fire for the char, once in the paper for the garlic — and that a county with two fish methods is a county that has thought about fish.
Where to find it: the fish shops along the Ningjiang Road food street — Yijiaguanzi and Li’s Xiàfàn keep the paper version beside the grilled fish, and the Xinyifang flagship at 210 Gaotang Street runs the garlic register; ask which shops have the paper version. All checked October 2026.
Words and Names
纸包鱼 zhǐbāoyú — paper-wrapped fish · 蒜香 suànxiāng — garlic fragrance, the local register · 蒸 zhēng — steaming, what the parcel actually does · 巴蜀烤鱼传统 bāshǔ kǎoyú chuántǒng — the Sichuan-Chongqing grilled-fish tradition of which both registers are part