Coming to Ngu Loc commune (Hau Loc district, Thanh Hoa province) on the days leading up to the Lunar New Year 2025, the atmosphere here is extremely bustling. The scene of fishermen catching and processing seafood and households competing to grill fish to serve people to celebrate Tet makes this place even more exciting.
According to many locals, the profession of grilling sea fish with charcoal has been associated with the people of Ngu Loc commune for a long time, passed down from generation to generation. On the days before Tet, households doing the profession are busy around the red-hot charcoal stoves, operating at full capacity to produce batches of fragrant fish.
This profession not only brings high economic efficiency but also creates the traditional beauty of the locality. Here, people often say to each other: "When the village and the alleys smell the fragrant smell of grilled fish, it means Tet is coming, Spring is coming".
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy (owner of a grilled fish establishment in Ngu Loc commune) said that on normal days, her family's establishment only has about 4 workers. However, near Tet, orders increased sharply, so she had to hire 7-8 more workers.
“Normally, my family grills from 100 to 150 kg of fish per day. During the days near Tet, the amount of grilled fish increases 3-4 times but still cannot supply the market,” Ms. Thuy shared.
According to Ms. Thuy, to have delicious and quality grilled fish, the processing must go through many elaborate stages, from selecting ingredients, preparing, grilling to preserving. In particular, the grilling stage requires the person doing it to always watch the fire so that the fish is cooked evenly, retaining its natural sweetness. The main ingredients are fish such as mackerel, hairtail, red snapper, and threadfin fish...
According to the households that grill fish here, work becomes busiest during the days before Tet, when the number of orders and additional orders increases. The grills have to operate continuously from early morning to late at night to keep up with the demand.
A representative of the People's Committee of Ngu Loc Commune (Hau Loc District) said that the locality currently has thousands of workers working in fishing and seafood processing. Among them, grilled sea fish is considered a stable source of income for many households, helping many families become well-off thanks to this profession.
