Fish soup cooked in the style of a fisherman's boat from Northern Vietnam.

This fish soup is commonly found in the meals of fishermen in coastal areas, characterized by its natural sweetness, mild sourness in the broth, and lack of fishy smell.

Making

To make a delicious fish soup in the style of a fisherman's boat, you need to buy fresh sea fish. Depending on your taste, you can cook it with scad, grouper (various small fish), or sea bass, all of which are delicious.
The original fish soup, brought along by fishermen on their voyages to the open sea, is usually simple and quickly sours up with lemon juice or the peel of the Garcinia cambogia fruit, which pairs well with the sea fish. If these are unavailable, substitute with other sour ingredients such as starfruit, tamarind, sour plums, sour leaves, or sấu fruit. Add some sliced tomatoes (optional) to enhance the visual appeal of the soup. To remove the fishy smell, use some crushed ginger, dried onions, green onions, and dill, which complement the flavor of the fish soup.

Adjust the amount of water to suit your meal, then turn on the stove and bring to a boil. Season with salt and a little fish sauce for flavor. Add star fruit (or other sour ingredients), tomatoes, and a few slices of chili (adjust to your desired spiciness). When the water is boiling vigorously, add the fish and cook until done. Since snakehead fish cooks quickly, avoid cooking it for too long or stirring with chopsticks to prevent the fish from breaking apart. Adjust the seasoning to taste. Turn off the stove, add dill and green onions, then ladle the soup into bowls and enjoy.

Desired outcome: A steaming bowl of soup with tender, white fish fillets, a naturally sweet flavor, a mildly sour and light broth, and absolutely no fishy smell. When eating, dip the fish in fish sauce with a few slices of chili and pepper. This soup pairs very well with various fresh vegetables.

Attention:

People in coastal areas often cook fish soup using small, fresh fish with thin bodies that cook quickly and aren't too greasy, often called "tap tang" or "lap xap" fish in some places. Small fish are left whole, only the gills, intestines, and gallbladder are removed, resulting in tender, firm, and flavorful flesh. If cooking sea bass or mackerel, they should be cut diagonally across the grain for a more visually appealing presentation and faster cooking.
Besides the fisherman's fish soup from the North, the South also has a similar fish soup with a light broth. When eating, the fish is usually scooped out onto a plate with a bowl of salty fish sauce on the side, and then dipped into the sauce.
The reason this type of fish soup doesn't have a fishy smell is because the fish is very fresh and added directly from boiling water, along with sour and spicy seasonings (star fruit, lemon, chili...). From a culinary science perspective, fish in general contains an amine group (NH) that causes a typical fishy smell, namely trimelylamine NH(CH3). Freshly caught fish has low levels of this substance; the longer the fish is stored, the stronger the fishy smell becomes. Adding the fish directly from boiling water helps the skin cook quickly, preventing the amino acids from dissolving in the water, thus eliminating the fishy smell and preserving the nutrients, resulting in naturally sweet fish. Furthermore, using ingredients that create a sour taste (containing organic acids) neutralizes the alkalinity of trimelylamine.
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