Linh fish is a river fish associated with people in flood-prone areas. Those who grow up in the upper reaches of the Tien and Hau rivers, when far from home, always miss dishes made from linh fish .
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| Linh fish is a specialty only available during the flood season. |
Today, June 22 (May 5th of the lunar calendar), residents of An Giang province's upstream area go to the riverbanks to bathe in the sandbanks to celebrate the Doan Ngo Festival and also to welcome the flood season. The Tien and Hau rivers are usually clear, but after May 5th, the water gradually turns murky.
When the water changes color, the flood season, also known as the flood season, brings abundant aquatic resources to the delta, in which the specialty that only appears during this season is linh fish, accounting for more than 70% of aquatic species during the fishing season.
Young linh fish from upstream follow the water into the fields to hide. When November comes, they are as big as a thumb and swim out to the river. The busiest time is from the 10th day of the 10th lunar month, which is the season when linh fish swim out. An Giang people call it the “running fish” season because they swim so fast that their shadows cover the water’s surface.
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| To have a pot of braised fish with sugarcane with the right ancient flavor, it must be cooked very elaborately. |
Before 2000, during the fish season, along the Tien River, Hau River, canals and streams, fishermen stood together happily like a festival. Around 8am when the water was warm, the linh fish would swim from the fields to the river, by 12pm the amount of fish would be very small, on rainy days the fish would stay in the fields so no one would go fishing at that time.
There are so many fish that they can't catch them all. At this time, salt farmers in Ben Tre and Bac Lieu are busy running large ships carrying salt to the headwaters of Tien and Hau rivers because everyone needs to buy salt to ferment linh fish to make fish sauce.
But due to impacts, the source of linh fish gradually decreased. From 2002 onwards, the linh fish season was no longer as vibrant as in the 60s to 90s. Linh fish only appeared in An Giang, Dong Thap, the rest were distributed sparsely in Vinh Long province and Can Tho city.
Although hundreds of years ago, linh fish was recorded in the book Gia Dinh Thanh Thong Chi as "linh ngu", people still indifferently considered them food for the poor, linh fish was very cheap so at that time people had a saying "cheap as linh fish".
In the past, people caught fish not to eat but to make fish sauce or fish sauce. Now, calling it a fish for the poor is very appropriate because poor people catching linh fish in the early flood season means earning a lot of money, the price of fish sold at the market is up to several hundred thousand VND/kg.
There was this change because from 2002 onwards, the rustic fish "swam into" restaurants to become delicious dishes such as braised linh fish in clay pot, fried crispy, fried in flour...
In the past, linh fish was for the poor, but now it has become a dish for the rich, a special meal to entertain guests from far away. Pure linh fish sauce is a friendly gift for people far away from home.
And one of the dishes that leaves many unforgettable memories for people in flood-affected areas is braised linh fish with sugarcane.
In Tan Chau, An Giang, the headwaters of Tien River, when making braised linh fish with sugarcane, people clean the fish and remove the intestines. Some people leave the head and scales intact, while others cut off the head.
The best way to braise linh fish with sugarcane is to use fish as big as your index finger, with fatty, soft meat and few hard bones. To have a delicious fish dish, it must be braised in a clay pot.
People split the sugarcane into many small pieces, the small pieces are split into 4 segments and depending on how much fish they want to cook, they place the sugarcane segments at the bottom of the pot, marinate the linh fish with spices and put it in the sugarcane pot, then pour in the coconut water.
Then use a clay stove to cook, put charcoal in the stove, put the pot of linh fish on to cook until the charcoal is burning slowly. The girls watch the fire carefully, do not let smoke rise or the charcoal burn too much because that will cause the smoke to stick to the fish and lose its delicious taste or the charcoal fire to burn too much will make the fish cook too soon and the fish meat will be loose and not delicious.
Cooking like this properly takes more than 4 hours and watching the fire is very hard, so sometimes the villagers cook or entertain guests during linh fish season. When the coconut water in the fish pot has evaporated, the fish is cooked and the fish bones are soft, at that time the dish of linh fish braised with sugarcane is hard to forget.
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| Linh fish is delicious in any dish. |
Linh fish has many small bones, but if braised at the right temperature, the bones will be soft and mushy, so you don't have to worry about getting fish bones stuck in your mouth. People eat bread with linh fish braised with sugarcane or eat rice mixed with raw vegetables, green banana, water mimosa flowers, raw vegetables, etc.
Nowadays, from the countryside or the city, few people sit down to cook the traditional dish of linh fish stewed with sugarcane like in the past because the hustle and bustle of life has swept away many things. Linh fish stewed with sugarcane now cooks quickly, and the clay pot is not as good as in the past, so it is not as delicious.
Once you have eaten the ancient dish of braised linh fish with sugarcane, it is difficult to forget because of its unique taste that cannot be confused with other types of fish. For those who grew up in the upstream area and live far from home, eating braised linh fish with sugarcane brings back memories of their childhood. How can you forget, on a cold night with the north wind, the family gathered together, eating a bowl of rice and bread dipped in braised linh fish with sugarcane, although simple, the delicious taste will last a lifetime.
How can I forget the images of my mother, aunt, sister sitting by the fire cooking linh fish? And then, every flood season, I yearn for linh fish stewed with sugarcane, and for my deceased loved ones, my heart aches.
According to nhandan.vn
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