Barbel (Bayu in pinyin) is a special local product of Zhouzhuang. It is so named because its size is like a palm (Bazhang in pinyin) (Bayu and Bazhang have the homophone Ba in Chinese). Because Barbel grow up eating other small fish, it is very expensive. Instead of being sold in large quantities like most fish, Barbel are sold individually.

The process of cooking Barbel is quite unusual. In folklore, there is a saying, “One Barbel, two cooking styles”. One style is boiling its gills separately into soup; the other is braising its flesh in soy sauce.