Why is 鱼香肉丝 called "fish-fragrant pork"?

所谓"鱼香",其实不是真的鲜鱼香,是因为川味糖醋鱼里要用一种泡辣椒做作料,那种泡辣椒和糖醋酒作用的结果,产生了一种独特的甜酸味,由于这道菜太开胃了,以后的厨子把这样的作料和烹饪方法推广到别的菜,最著名便是"鱼香肉丝",于是乎,顺理成章便把川式糖醋鱼的鱼香转移到作料的香味,再转嫁到肉丝的烹调上,尽管肉丝里并没有鱼.

So-called "fish fragrance" (鱼香) is actually not from real live fish. In Sichuanese sweet-and-sour fish, one ingredient is a kind of preserved hot pepper (泡辣椒). That kind of pepper plus a sugar/vinegar sauce combine to give a very special sweet-and-sour flavor that spread to other dishes due to its popularity, the most famous inheritor being "fish-fragrant pork". So in order to communicate that the sauce from the sweet-and-sour fish recipe was being used to cook the pork in a similar fashion, the name was carried over even though there is no fish in the pork dish.

So there ya go. (See also: What is 盖浇饭?)