"Grilled snakehead fish street" with billowing smoke preparing for God of Wealth's day

On the afternoon of February 6th (the 9th day of the first lunar month), the "grilled snakehead fish street" on Tan Ky Tan Quy road (Tan Phu district, Ho Chi Minh City) was quite bustling, with smoke billowing from the shops selling snakehead fish, and staff busily preparing goods for sale on the God of Wealth Day the following day.

The bustling atmosphere on the "grilled snakehead fish street" begins from noon on the 9th day of the first lunar month.

Most of the grilled snakehead fish stalls here source their fish from Binh Dien wholesale market (Binh Chanh district). The fish, weighing between 1-2 kg, are cleaned and then skewered lengthwise with sugarcane stalks before grilling.

Using sugarcane stalks to skewer fish for grilling will make the fish meat sweeter and more flavorful, and prevent the skewers from burning.

According to Mr. Le Van Hung, the owner of a grilled snakehead fish shop here, his family grilled about 200 to 250 kg of fish this year.

"This year, we've noticed a significant decrease in consumer purchasing power, and the price of imported fish has also increased slightly, so it's likely to be harder to sell. We're afraid that if we grill too much, we won't be able to sell it, so my family has only imported a smaller quantity than in previous years," said Mr. Hung.

The vegetables and rice noodles served with the snakehead fish are carefully selected, washed, and divided into small bags by the staff.

The charcoal grills will be burning continuously to cook fish from noon today until noon tomorrow, January 10th.

Each batch of fish is grilled for 35-40 minutes. After grilling, the burnt outer layer of scales is scraped off.

Grilled snakehead fish costs between 200,000 and 220,000 VND per fish, depending on its size, and comes with herbs, dipping sauce, and a packet of vermicelli noodles.

This year, Mr. Nguyen Trung's grilled snakehead fish shop imported about 1,500 fish (approximately 2.5 tons of snakehead fish).

According to Mr. Trung, this year they noticed a decrease in consumer purchasing power, so they didn't stock as much fish as in previous years, and they also didn't hire as many staff as before.

When a customer places an order, the fish is reheated, topped with scallion oil, and carefully wrapped in aluminum foil to keep it warm.

Ms. Lai Thi Lieu (Binh Chanh district) traveled over 10km to her usual shop on Tan Ky Tan Quy street to buy grilled snakehead fish for the God of Wealth festival.

"This year, my family only bought one to offer as a sacrifice tomorrow morning. I was worried that there would be a lot of people buying and jostling tomorrow, so I went to buy one today," Mrs. Lieu shared.

Hundreds of grilled snakehead fish are neatly arranged on shelves, ready to be sold to meet the high demand of people tomorrow morning, the 10th day of the first lunar month, the day of the God of Wealth.

Dantri.com.vn

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/xa-hoi/pho-ca-loc-nuong-nghi-ngut-khoi-chuan-bi-cho-ngay-via-than-tai-20250206181228951.htm