[Photo provided to China Daily]

Try making these dishes at home, including a recipe from Nathan Brown, executive chef of The Ritz-Carlton Beijing Financial Street, for one of the most popular carp-based Chinese dishes - Sweet and Sour Carp Fish from his Chinese Qi restaurant:

Sweet and Sour Carp

Ingredients:

Carp 750g, sugar 200g, soy sauce 10g, cooking wine 10g, light soup 300g, peanut oil 1500g, (for deep-frying), shallot 2g, ginger 2g, vinegar 120g, garlic 3g, salt 3g, potato starch 100g.

Cooking instructions:

1. Clean the carp, remove the scales, insides and cheeks. Cut the fish and lift the tail, which opens up the belly section, and then marinade the meat in cooking wine. Add salt.

2. Combine light soup, soy sauce, cooking wine, vinegar, sugar, salt, potato starch together into mixed sauce for use later.

3. Dust the fish with potato starch to coat the areas that have been cut. Put the fish in a pre-heated deep-fry oil (70 percent) until crisp and move it around so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the wok. Fry for three minutes. Then stir-fry until the color becomes golden brown.

4. To make the sauce, put green onions, ginger and garlic in the pan. Saut, and when you can smell the aroma of those ingredients, add the mixed sauce. Wait a few seconds and then add some of the hot oil. Fry the sauce until it's ready to use. Evenly coat the whole fish in the sauce.