Field fish is one of the natural products bestowed upon the residents of the rice fields and rivers of the Mekong Delta, including An Giang . From these products, the people here have processed them into delicious and attractive dishes that are not available anywhere else.
During flood season, water carrying alluvium from the upper Mekong flows to the lower Mekong Delta, the headwaters of An Giang.
This is also the time when some types of freshwater fish, such as snakehead fish, perch, catfish, climbing perch, loach, etc., move from rivers and canals to the fields to reproduce and develop into schools.
When the water recedes, fish in the fields follow the water to low-lying areas to return to rivers and canals. Therefore, flooding not only helps clean the fields but also adds alluvium to the soil.
Floods not only help rice plants grow well but also bring in extremely rich and abundant aquatic resources, especially freshwater fish, freshwater crabs, eels, frogs...
Among the freshwater fish, snakehead fish is one of the fish with the most delicious meat. Although wild snakehead fish are smaller in size than farmed snakehead fish, they are very delicious and have firm meat.
Snakehead fish can be processed into many different dishes, such as: Grilled, steamed, braised, cooked in soup, made into fish sauce, dried...
Among these, grilled snakehead fish has the most distinctive flavor, captivating anyone at first taste.
This is also a famous delicacy of the people in the An Giang upstream area as well as the Mekong Delta. Grilled snakehead fish does not require gutting, scraping off the slime, scaling or seasoning, just wash the fish, then skewer it with a fresh bamboo stick from mouth to tail and stick the fish head down to the ground, the fish tail straight up to the sky.
Thus, when covering the fish with straw, the water will slowly drip down while grilling, making the fish meat more supple and fragrant.
Grilled snakehead fish - An Giang specialty.
The straw used to grill snakehead fish needs to be just enough so that when the straw has just burned out, the fish is just cooked. Too little straw will not be hot enough to cook the fish, nor will it bring out the characteristic aroma of this dish.
Too much straw will burn the fish. According to the experience of people living in the river area, who are also “fish grilling chefs”, snakehead fish only needs to be grilled in straw for about 10-15 minutes.
When you smell the fish cooking and the aroma is strong, it is time to stop burning straw and take the fish out. The finished grilled snakehead fish usually has a black outer layer due to the burnt fish scales.
Just use a knife or dry straw to scrape off this layer of skin, then make a cut down the middle of the fish's spine, revealing soft, white, and fragrant meat.
Drizzle scallion oil and add some roasted peanuts on the fish that has just been cut, this will make the fish more fatty and delicious.
Grilled snakehead fish will be more delicious when dipped in tamarind fish sauce or crushed salt with fresh chili. Fragrant white snakehead fish meat is rolled in green mustard leaves, vermicelli, rice paper...
Grilled snakehead fish wrapped in rice paper served with a little green banana, star fruit leaves, cucumber and star fruit mixed with the spicy, salty taste of chili salt or the sour, spicy and salty taste of tamarind fish sauce, spreading all the flavors in the diner's mouth.
Besides snakehead fish, perch also often appears in family meals in the Mekong Delta. The meat of perch is fatty, sweet and fragrant, so it can be processed into many delicious dishes, such as: braised perch in clay pot, sour perch soup with water lily, fried fresh perch with sweet and sour fish sauce served with raw vegetables...
Among them, perhaps braised tilapia in clay pot is a familiar dish to all the people here. This dish is quite simple to prepare. After cleaning the tilapia, put it in a clay pot, marinate it with spices and leave it for about half an hour to absorb the spices before starting to braise.
Braised tilapia in clay pot - one of An Giang's specialties during flood season.
Braised perch in a clay pot is usually cooked over low heat. Once the fish is soft, fragrant, and the fish sauce is thick, sprinkle some ground pepper before removing from heat.
The fragrant perch, still simmering in the clay pot, is served with hot rice. The fragrant, golden-yellow perch meat has a bit of spicy chili and is then served with hot rice. There is nothing better than this.
Like other freshwater fish, catfish is a type of fish that is abundant in the rice fields in the West. Catfish has fatty, sweet meat, so it can be made into many delicious dishes, such as: Crispy fried with ginger fish sauce, braised with pepper, grilled... But the most delicious dish is probably crispy fried catfish with ginger fish sauce.
After cleaning the catfish, let it dry, make a few cuts on the body. Fry the fish in hot oil until both sides are golden brown and crispy. Fried fish eaten hot will have a crispy taste, the fish meat is chewy and sweet without being fishy, dipped in ginger fish sauce with a rich, sweet, sour and spicy aroma.
Also a familiar fish product in the Mekong Delta, loach has firm, sweet, delicious meat, so it is often processed into many attractive dishes: Grilled loach with tamarind fish sauce, crispy fried loach, loach cooked in sour soup, etc.
In particular, the dish of braised loach with turmeric, although simple, is still no less attractive. Before processing, the loach needs to be buried in ash or squeezed with salt, then scraped clean of slime, gutted, washed in salt water with lemon juice and rinsed many times with clean water, then drained.
Marinate the loach with spices and turmeric powder, then simmer until the water is almost dry. The loach braised with turmeric is golden brown and fragrant, the fatty loach meat mixed with a little spicy chili, eaten with hot white rice is delicious beyond description.
In addition to the above dishes, there are still many delicious dishes made from freshwater fish. Although the form is simple and the preparation is not too sophisticated, it still bears the culinary characteristics of the residents of the rice fields and rivers of the West.
If you have the opportunity to visit the Mekong Delta, culinary enthusiasts should once experience and taste the flavors of these extremely unique and attractive dishes made from freshwater fish.
Source: https://danviet.vn/dac-san-an-giang-day-la-4-loai-ca-dong-lam-mon-gi-ca-lang-khen-ngon-nut-luoi-co-ca-ro-kho-to-20250313134849384.htm
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