Locky's English Playground: Food: More x2 Fish@Hong Kong Wet Market

Tuesday 24 April 2012

Food: More x2 Fish@Hong Kong Wet Market

It's time for some revision and also add some fish names to your brain.

For revision, I highly recommend you read Food: More Fish@Hong Kong Wet Market, Food: Groupers@Hong Kong Wet Market and Food: Serious Crab Time!!!! for new fish, of course you should read on.

Most Hong Kongers know these fish, but other readers from other parts of the world may not know how they taste like, so I will try to make a few short descriptions about their texture and their common cooking method.

Purple-Spot Bigeye
Really big eyes!! This fish is usually skinned simply by tearing off the leathery skin and then steamed with soybean paste. Texture-wise, it is not smooth at all, it may even be coarse and rough, but it has that strong taste of seawater fish. Sashimi? Unsure.

Purple-spot Bigeye
Image from foodnetworksolution

Japanese Threadfin Bream

What was once abundant and cheap fish used for pan-fried or boiling soup has become scarce, expensive and a Japanese delicacy on the sashimi plates. Extremely crunchy as sashimi, soft and mashy when pan-fried. I like the Japanese style better, but not recommended if you buy those from the local fish markets. This fish is easily recognisable by its yellow stripes across the body.

Japanese Threadfin Bream
Image from baasfood

Eel
Hong Kongers love American eels. They chopped them, steamed them with blackbean paste and that fish oil will melt into the sauce. Otherwise, Japanese eels are grilled or seared as sushi. Can be crunchy or tender, but watch out those mini-bones!

American Eel
Image from Wikipedia

Pomfret

Again another one often pan-fried or steamed with blackbean paste. Extremely soft and easy to eat as the bones will detach from the meat semi-automatically after steamed, comes with yellowish fish oil. Strong in taste. Sashimi? Not sure either. This fish can grow up to 1m long!

Silver Pomfret
Image from yetanotherfoodguy

Chinese Noodlefish

Never eaten in singular form as the fish is so small that it is barely half a finger long. They are captured in the thousands and sold sun-dried with salt. Some eat them as snacks, others handle them with their chopsticks before the Chinese main courses are served, meaning as appetisers.

Chinese Noodlefish
Image from pic.cas.cn

Unicorn Leatherjack Filefish

Very tough and rough skinned fish allowing your mummy to skin the fish with one cut and one pull. Not particularly handsome look but the meat is unbelievably smooth and soft. Usually steamed with dried tangerine peels but there are many other cooking methods. Hard to find nowadays and their extraordinary tough skin tells you that they live in the gaps of rocks and are hard to catch.

Unicorn Leatherjack Filefish
Image from content61.eol.org

Vocabulary:

scarce -- (adj) not easy to find or get

mashy -- (adj) similar to mashed -- crushed

recognizable -- (adj)

(UK usually recognisable)

easy to recognize

grill -- (vb) [T] (US also broil) to cook something by direct heat, especially under a very hot surface in a cooker

sear -- (vb) [T] to burn the surface of something with sudden very strong heat

crunchy -- (adj) describes food that is firm and makes a loud noise when it is eaten

barely -- (adv) by the smallest amount; almost not

capture -- (vb) [T] to take someone as a prisoner, or to take something into your possession, especially by force

tangerine -- (n) [C] a fruit like a small orange with a loose skin

A piece of tangerine peel
Image from tastehongkong

Tuesday 24 April 2012

Food: More x2 Fish@Hong Kong Wet Market

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