Sweet potato fish have a rather strange and long-legged fate. Previously, when catching sweet potato fish, people often threw them away, because they couldn't cook anything, they were just mushy like chi chi, as soon as they cooked, they saw that the meat was left behind, the bones were left behind. However, heaven and earth gave birth to us, there must be a place to use it, this principle cannot be wrong.
The first time I learned about the khoai fish, it was not called khoai fish, but chao fish. This name is based on the characteristics of fish meat when cooked, as soon as it is in hot, high-temperature water or for a long time, the meat immediately rots into chao. Therefore, fishermen in Thai Binh, Thanh Hoa often call it chao fish, not khoai fish.
In the old days, even when there was a shortage of food, when casting nets and encountering sweet potato fish, people threw it away mercilessly like with white jellyfish (now it has become a specialty for making jellyfish salad, jellyfish salad, sashimi jellyfish...). Even if they are sold, no one buys sweet potato fish because braising is not possible, boiling is not possible, frying is also not possible, displaying a tray of fish pieces is as good as nothing.
Therefore, people throw fish and sweet potatoes for others to pick up to cook pork bran or for the poor to take home to eat temporarily. The poor also don't know how to cook, so they have to cook them together with water sweet potatoes (slice of sweet potatoes, water sweet potatoes or sweet potatoes), becoming a dish in the true "poor family" style of Ho Bieu Chanh.
It was not until hotpot-eating technology joined the Vietnamese dining table that the porridge fish transformed into sweet potato fish. And the first time I ate sweet potato fish hotpot was in Dong Hoi (Quang Tri), with sour hotpot water including salt water cooked with tomatoes, pineapples, chili to make it sour, spicy and add whole sweet potato fish.
The impression of the first piece of sweet potato fish still lingers until now, because of the rich but very delicate sweetness of the fresh sweet potato fish just dipped in hot hot hotpot water. That very delicate sweetness is completely impossible (more precisely, not yet) to find in any other fish.
Then, sweet potato fish became fragrant, becoming a specialty of coastal areas such as: Thai Binh, Thanh Hoa, Quang Binh, and Ba Dong. Sweet potato fish are only seasonal, the selling price on the spot is also 200,000 VND/kg, rarely brought elsewhere because it is very difficult to preserve or the transportation cost is double or triple the price of fish.
In general, even when the preservation equipment is better and there is more money, I do not choose to buy fresh khoai fish transferred from elsewhere, whether it is "in the day" or frozen immediately after leaving the net. Because khoai fish will definitely spoil or degrade.
Only when we have the opportunity to stop at sweet potato fish areas can we feel secure in enjoying it. For example, on the recent trip to Tra Vinh, as soon as we packed our suitcase, we immediately rushed to the afternoon market hoping to catch a batch of sweet potato fish at the end of the day. After a while of searching, we finally bought a kilo of fresh sweet potato fish, with the original price already double the price of pork.
Ba Dong sea crab is round, pinkish-white, slender, without scales, the back and tail are dark green, the mouth is wide, the teeth are sharp, the flesh is white and transparent, the fish bones are soft and transparent. The crab season in this region starts from December and lasts until May of the lunar calendar. This period may have changed the weather, so we met the crab 2 months earlier.
Because the sea area of Tra Vinh has abundant food sources thanks to being the place where the Tien and Hau river branches (Co Chien and Dinh An rivers) flow into the sea, the sardines in this area are particularly excellent. Looking at the red sardines, with a transparent whole body and natural pink fins, you can tell the quality. No wonder Ba Dong sardines have become the leading specialty of the locality.
Leave the sweet potato fish whole, wash it with diluted salt water, then drain it before processing or chop it into pieces and fry it in hot pot. Absolutely do not slaughter the fish to avoid it being crushed, only when the fish is cooked can it be skillfully separated in half to remove the intestines, intestines or heads of the fish.
Tra Vinh people cook sweet potato fish in two common styles: sweet potato fish cooked with spinach and sweet potato fish porridge. To cook porridge, you need to cut sweet potato fish into pieces to marinate with fish sauce, pepper, onions, garlic, and minced chili. Cook the porridge until soft, season to taste, then add the fish, wait for it to boil and then remove the pot, absolutely do not stir the porridge to avoid spoiling the fish.
Pouring porridge into a bowl, sprinkling scallions and pepper, there is a bowl of hot fish and taro porridge to eat with typical vegetables such as bitter vegetables, chopped green mustard greens, bean sprouts, chives... and reduce by a bowl of chili-soaked fish sauce. Fish and taro porridge is very cool, nutritious, has the effect of cooling down, laxative. The porridge has a light and sweet taste, fish meat is soft, bones are also soft like young cartilage, very pleasing to eat.
And sweet potato fish cooked with rau ngot has an absolute sweet taste because both ingredients are sweet. Fresh sweet potato fish left whole, pre-processed clean and marinated with scallions and fish sauce.
Put a pot on the stove to heat, fry scallions with watermelon to make them fragrant, then add stir-fried vegetables until soft, then add broth and simmer over low heat. When the water boils, the rau ngot is cooked, immediately add the fish, bring to a boil and reduce heat. Sweet and buttery vegetables, soft and sweet fish blend together to form a rustic but nutritious dish.
And our sweet potato fish meal that day was cooked in the original style to enjoy the sweetness of the fish. The water is cooked with a little lemongrass to make it fragrant to remove the fishy smell, then add tomatoes, simmer over low heat and season with salt. When eating, boil water and add sweet potato fish, after a few minutes take it out into a bowl and eat with chili-soaked fish sauce.
Extremely simple, but extremely delicious and sweet. As soon as you put the fish in your mouth, the fish meat has melted like porridge, leaving a sweet taste filling the teeth and palate. That is truly a piece of sweet potato fish that the sea of Ba Dong - Tra Vinh cannot find anywhere else.
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