Braised fish with hard body

When the last rains of the season gradually end, the Hau River's water is less red with alluvium, and the canals and streams here become the habitat of swarms of long-tailed fish.

The water surface was agitated as fish came up to eat the claws. The children cut bamboo to make fishing rods, immersing themselves in rustic pleasures. They threw the hook just enough to touch the water, pulling up a fish the size of a little finger, flat and slender, with sparkling silver scales wriggling in the sunlight. They threw the line, pulled the line, and fished continuously.

To have firm braised fish intestines, my mother cleaned the fish, marinated it with lots of sugar. Put the fish pot on the stove, add good fish sauce. When the fish sauce boils, add a spoonful of lard or cooking oil, remove from heat, and sprinkle ground pepper evenly on top. Just smelling the braised fish coming from the stove makes my stomach rumble.

Like many people in the Hau River, my mother loves fresh fried or batter-fried long tong fish. She marinates the fish with good fish sauce and then drops it into a pan of boiling oil. Fresh fried long tong fish is delicious, but fried in batter is even more elegant if it is wrapped in vermicelli, raw vegetables, cucumbers and dipped in fish sauce, vinegar, garlic and chili. The dish is unforgettable because the long tong fish meat is chewy and sweet, combined with the flavors of homegrown vegetables and fruits.

I can never forget the days of October in Phong Dien ( Can Tho ). The people here used some traps like bird traps or used small mesh nets to block one end of the canal. Then they threw handfuls of mud down, the water surface stirred, the panicked long tong fish rushed into the "basket". Not just one house but the whole village gathered together to catch long tong fish, happily like a festival. Each house harvested about ten kilograms of long tong fish. The fish were brought home, their heads were cut off, their intestines were removed, their scales were rubbed off, and they were marinated with fish sauce, salt, and spices before being spread out on trays to dry. After a good day of sunshine, the long tong fish, after eating their fill of spices, shriveled up into unique dried fish.

To eat with dried fish is pickled cabbage. To make pickled cabbage, Phong Dien people clean the cabbage, dry it in the sun for three days, wash it again before marinating it with salt and sugar. After receiving the processed cabbage into the eel skin jar, people pour salt water and caramelized sugar into the river water (must be Phong Dien river water), when it boils, let it cool and pour it into the jar. Not 3 days like many other places, to eat delicious Phong Dien pickled cabbage, you have to "wait" for 6-7 meals later. That is when the cabbage "ripens" into a beautiful turmeric yellow color, giving it a mild sour taste, crunchy and crunchy like jumping in your teeth. Enjoy fried dried fish with pickled cabbage, drink a glass of Phong Dien's original rice wine - a wine that you can taste as you drink it, the flavor of the river in the West is so rich and passionate!

Article and photos : Phuong Kieu

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/ca-long-tong-kho-cung-minh-185631626.htm