FEROCIOUS FAVORITE

Traditional and fusion cooking styles, regional and international ingredients and a new awareness of healthy eating are all factors contributing to an exciting time for Chinese cuisine. Pauline D Loh explores the possibilities.

The hairtail is no beauty. This fish's sinuous body can grow more than a meter in length, and its huge wolflike head and jaws make it an efficient eating machine. It preys on krill, baby squid and other small fish, and it hunts at night in imposing schools.

This ribbon fish is pretty high up on the underwater food chain - but it reckoned without humans. Or, more precisely, the Chinese.