Enjoy the fish cake of Lo river

Early in the morning, cycling along the smooth asphalt road on the Lo River embankment, Mr. Teacher Kinh enthusiastically introduced dishes made from fish from the Viet Tri River confluence. He said that it was the season for Ven fish, so I would like to introduce the Ven fish cake, a specialty of his hometown that not many people know about.

He took me across Vinh Phu bridge to the other side of Lo river. Since Vinh Phu bridge was built connecting the two banks and especially when Phu Tho and Vinh Phuc became one, Duc Bac market - a small market along Lo river seemed to be more bustling. Many shops separated from the market were set up along the dike.

Mr. Kinh stopped by a fish stall where a familiar-looking salesgirl was nimbly dissecting and fleshing a river bream. I have lived in the countryside since I was a child, so I know many types of freshwater fish, but this was the first time I had seen a river bream. The bream has a rather thin body, but the length from the belly to the dorsal fin is quite high. The whole body is covered with silvery-white scales. Their fins are dark gray. The average weight of a small bream is from 300 - 400 grams, while the large ones weigh from 600 - 700 grams to a kilo.

The bream usually lives in the lower reaches of rivers, they also live in lakes and ponds but the water environment must be clean. Is that why the fish meat is white and less fishy than other types of fish? The food of the bream is small creatures, plants such as insects, vegetables, algae or leaves. The bream's wide mouth helps them filter water to find plankton and larvae, worms, bivalves and gastropods. The bream breeds from May to July.

Therefore, the rainy season in the North is also the breeding season of the Reef fish and fishermen in the river confluence in Viet Tri can freely catch fish. The Lo River has clear blue water, which is a suitable environment for the Reef fish to live and reproduce. The meat of the Reef fish is firm and delicious, but it has many small bones. Therefore, people often filter the meat and make it into fish cakes, which becomes a dish with a unique and unforgettable flavor.

The fishmonger named Duyen was skillfully deboning fish while happily chatting with my brother and I. Duyen said that it was the season for the Vietnamese Perch. Some days her husband caught 50-70kg. In addition, she also collected from her fellow fishermen who caught a lot, earning hundreds of yen. The fish were sold for 30-35 thousand VND per kilogram, but if the fish was removed, it could be sold for double the price. Early in the morning, when there were few customers, Duyen took out her smartphone to show us pictures of various types of river fish caught, including pictures of large perch that weighed several kilograms.

During the fish season, there are days when many people order several kilos of filtered fish meat to make fish cakes, and she cannot handle it all by herself. Those who have not eaten it do not know, but those who have eaten Ven fish are addicted, and every Ven fish season they must find a few kilos to make fish cakes. Like a good housewife, Mr. Kinh said that every year during the Ven fish season, he goes to Duc Bac market to buy several kilos of Ven fish meat to make fish cakes to eat and as gifts for his friends.

In general, the spices for making fish cakes as well as other fish cakes are not too demanding and are all available locally, but the preparation process is quite time-consuming and the fish is only caught seasonally, so it is rarely enough to eat until full, but only to enjoy the taste.

Mr. Kinh whispered: The drained fish meat will be cut into moderate pieces, put into a blender or chopped on a cutting board until small but not too smooth. Usually, for every 1kg of ground fish, add 0.2-0.3kg of pork with both lean and fat to make it more chewy and fatty. When grinding, add chili, pepper, wormwood, coriander, and garlic. After grinding and chopping, the fish meat is mixed with a little fish sauce, seasoning powder, cooking oil, and crispy fried flour, then left in the refrigerator to "incubate" for about an hour.

The purpose of this is to help the fish meat absorb the spices evenly and have elasticity, making it easy to shape into pieces before frying. After marinating and incubating for enough time to absorb the flavor, it is then taken out to be shaped into small round pieces of any size depending on the chef's preference or rolled into pieces using lolot leaves. Mr. Kinh said: For those who don't know, when making Ven fish cakes, in addition to the above spices, I always do not forget to add chopped ginger leaves and lolot leaves to increase the deliciousness and aroma of this fish cake dish. The fish cakes are fried directly or steamed and allowed to cool before frying.

In addition to the fish cake, you can also make balls to cook sour soup with star fruit or sour ears. On a summer day, a bowl of sour soup from the fish cake also makes the meal more full of the love of the homeland. The fish cake has just been fried, the fragrant aroma of spices spreads, when served with fish sauce, garlic and chili, with hot rice or with wine to treat guests from far away, especially on cool rainy days, it is no less than a delicacy.

It is true that each person has different culinary preferences, but once you have enjoyed Ven fish cake, the flavor of this rustic dish will be unforgettable.

Thang Long

Source: https://baophutho.vn/thuong-thuc-cha-ca-ven-song-lo-238052.htm