Enjoy the delicious fish cake from the Lo River.

Early in the morning, cycling along the smooth asphalt road on the Lo River dike, Mr. Kinh, the teacher, enthusiastically introduced dishes made from fish from the Viet Tri river confluence area. He said, "It's currently the season for bream, let me introduce you to a special bream fish cake from my hometown that not many people know about yet."

He took me across the Vinh Phu bridge to the other side of the Lo River. Since the Vinh Phu bridge connected the two banks, and especially since Phu Tho and Vinh Phuc were reunited, Duc Bac market – a small market on the banks of the Lo River – has become much more bustling. Many stalls have moved away from the market and set up shops along the riverbank.

Mr. Kinh stopped by a fish stall where a familiar-looking young woman was nimbly gutting and filleting river bream. Having grown up in the countryside, I knew many types of freshwater fish, but this was the first time I'd seen river bream. River bream have a relatively thin body, but their height from the belly to the dorsal fin is quite high. Their entire body is covered in silvery-white scales. Their fins are dark gray. The average weight of a small bream is 300-400 grams, while larger ones weigh 600-700 grams to a kilogram.

Bream typically live in the lower reaches of rivers, and they also inhabit lakes and ponds, but only in clean water. Perhaps this is why their fillets are so white and less fishy than other types of fish. Bream feed on small organisms and plants such as insects, vegetables, algae, and leaves. Their wide mouths help them filter water to find plankton, larvae, worms, bivalves, and gastropods. Bream reproduce from May to July.

Therefore, the rainy season in Northern Vietnam is also the breeding season for the scad fish, allowing fishermen in the riverine areas of Viet Tri to catch as many as they want. The Lo River, with its consistently clear water, provides an ideal environment for scad fish to live and thrive. Scad fish meat is firm and delicious, but it has many small bones. Therefore, people often fillet the fish and make fish cakes, which become a dish with a unique and unforgettable flavor.

The fish seller, Duyen, was nimbly deboning the fish while cheerfully chatting with my brother and me. Duyen said it was currently the season for bream. Some days her husband catches five to seven kilograms. Besides that, she also collects from other fishermen, sometimes up to ten kilograms. The fish sells for 30-35 thousand dong per whole fish, but if filleted, it sells for double the price. Early in the morning, when there were few customers, Duyen even showed us pictures of various types of fish caught in the Lo River on her smartphone, including photos of large bream weighing several kilograms.

During the fishing season, on days when many people order several kilograms of filleted fish to make fish cakes, she can't keep up with the demand. Those who haven't tried it don't know, but those who have eaten scad fish before are addicted; every scad season they have to find and buy a few kilograms to make fish cakes. Mr. Kinh, a diligent homemaker, said that every year during scad season he goes to Duc Bac market to buy a few kilograms of scad fish to make fish cakes, both for himself and to give as gifts to friends and family.

In general, the spices used to make fish cakes, like other fish cakes, are not too complicated and are readily available locally. However, the preparation process is quite time-consuming, and the fish are only caught seasonally, so there's rarely enough to eat to your heart's content; it's more about savoring the flavor.

Mr. Kinh explained: "The drained sea bass meat is cut into appropriately sized pieces, then put into a food processor or chopped on a cutting board until it's finely minced but not too smooth. Usually, 1 kg of minced fish is mixed with 0.2-0.3 kg of pork (a mixture of lean and fat) to make it chewier and richer. When mincing, add spices like chili, pepper, star anise, coriander, and garlic. After mincing, the sea bass meat is mixed well with a little fish sauce, seasoning powder, cooking oil, and crispy frying powder, then left in the refrigerator to 'ferment' for about an hour."

The purpose of this is to help the fish meat absorb the spices evenly and become pliable, making it easy to shape before frying. After marinating for enough time to absorb the flavors, it is then shaped into small round pieces of varying sizes as desired by the chef, or wrapped in betel leaves. Mr. Kinh said: "For those who don't know, when making fish cakes, besides the above spices, I always add finely chopped ginger and betel leaves to enhance the aroma and flavor of this fish cake." The fish cakes are fried directly or steamed and cooled before frying.

Besides being used in fish cakes, the fish can also be rolled into balls and used to make sour soup with star fruit or sour plums. In the summer, a bowl of sour soup made from snakehead fish cakes adds a rich, nostalgic flavor to a meal. Freshly fried snakehead fish cakes, with their fragrant aroma of spices, are best enjoyed dipped in garlic and chili fish sauce with hot rice or as a side dish with wine, especially on cool, rainy days – they are no less delicious than the finest delicacies.

While everyone has different culinary preferences, once you've tasted Veen fish cake, the flavor of this rustic dish will be truly unforgettable.

Thang Long

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