Early summer fish season

Summer comes, when the water in Tam Giang lagoon warms up with the weather, it is also the season of mam ro in Hue . Going to the markets in Hue, you will see the women and girls at the fish stalls all have a few jars or bags of mam ro with baskets of fresh fish on the side. Each small bag of mam ro costs 5 thousand, enough for two meals a day. Of course, customers will quickly buy the bags of mam ro that are ripe and bright red to enjoy the delicious taste of a specialty of Tam Giang lagoon in Hue.

The herring fish spawns in the sea, then swims into the lagoon in schools along the estuary. Fishermen in estuaries and coastal areas go out to catch herring fish to make fish sauce every season. Herring fish sauce has the bright red color of ripe buffalo horn chili, the fish is intact and not as rich as fish sauces made from other sea fish such as anchovy fish sauce, mackerel fish sauce... Herring fish sauce has a moderately sour, spicy and sweet taste. A bowl of hot rice with a little herring fish sauce is delicious enough, but the "best" of this fish sauce is eaten with boiled pork, green banana, melon and herbs...

I once witnessed two friends arguing about which side of boiled pork with fermented shrimp paste or fermented shrimp paste is better. No one would give in, so I will temporarily conclude that each dish has its own flavor and is equally delicious, so that the argument will probably not find a final answer... Fermented shrimp paste is processed in the coastal villages of Hue. In my personal opinion, the most delicious fermented shrimp paste is in the Hai Duong - Thuan An coastal area of Hue city, where there is a large estuary where the Tam Giang lagoon flows into the sea...

According to fishermen in these rural areas, the anchovies swim from the sea into Tam Giang lagoon in dense schools. The anchovies that are not caught will gradually get used to the brackish water environment and grow up to become whales. Whales are a summer specialty of Tam Giang - Cau Hai lagoon with dishes such as steamed whales with Malabar spinach leaves, whales cooked with aromatic eggplant soup, sour star fruit, whales braised with chili in a flood of water, whales made into pancakes at Chuon village market...

The early summer weather in Hue is also a favorable condition for another type of sea fish, the anchovy. On cool days, Hue markets often sell a lot of fresh anchovy. In Hue, just hearing about Thuan An fish makes you think it's delicious. But if it's anchovy, it must be from Thuan An, because anchovy is cheaper than other types of sea fish, so it's rarely transported from other provinces for sale.

It seems that in Hue, anchovies are not as popular as mackerel, herring or tuna. Anchovies have hard scales, so the fish sellers always peel off a long scale in the middle of the fish before delivering the fish to the customer. That is the big anchovies, the small fish do not need to be scaled.

This season is also the peak season for buffalo horn chili. The type of chili that Hue people often call fish-braised chili. Sea fish or river fish are both fragrant when braised with fresh buffalo horn chili. But braised snakehead fish with chili is the most flavorful. Another friend said that snakehead fish is more special than other types of sea fish because it is braised with ginger to make the meat more fragrant. In addition, the water of braised snakehead fish with chili is delicious when used as a dipping sauce for water spinach or boiled sweet potato leaves... Of course, that is just my personal taste, and if anyone asks for an explanation, I will not give up.

In early summer, the weather in Hue often has cool afternoon thunderstorms. After the rain, during dinner in the cool breeze, enjoying the taste of fish soup cooked with perilla leaves and fish stewed with fresh chili or boiled pork with herbs, green banana, melon with fish sauce, there is no dish more flavorful than...

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