There is a lurking place with the fate of lobsters. In the old days, lobsters were criticized by Americans as a cheap seafood, only poor people could eat or make food for livestock. That was when people did not know how to process lobsters, were helpless in front of the tough shell, so they considered them useless, only worth grinding into bran.
Thòi lòi is not difficult to prepare, but its ugly appearance in a brackish water habitat full of shrimp and fish in canals has made it cold. Only very poor people make thòi lòi as food, and the simplest way is to braise pepper to bring rice.
Times have changed, lobster is now considered a top-notch seafood, always prioritized for appearance at luxurious and expensive parties. Thoi loi fish suddenly became the queen of mangrove cuisine in river-sea overlapping areas in the South.
Indeed, the thòi lòi fish is very worthy of the Vietnamese proverb: "Good wood is better than good paint". Outside the terrifying and scary appearance of the "alien" creature, the thòi lòi possesses a set of super life skills, adapting to all environmental and climate conditions of mangrove forests.
But that's not all, after removing the "petal" layer of scrubs, a delicate, fragrant appearance of swans suddenly appears. However, it also takes a lot of effort to reach this molting stage because moths live in mud, so it takes a lot of time to pre-process them.
First, remove all the mucus on the skin by rubbing a kitchen sieve or a mixture of water, granulated salt and white vinegar. Then scrub, dissect the abdomen to remove all the internal organs. If you want to further reduce the ugliness of the protruding head, cut off the head with large protruding eyes to get a scary piece of fish.
There are many ways to process thòi lòi because thòi lòi meat is white like chicken, chewy and crispy like snakehead fish, and also sweet and fragrant. It is truly a wonderful food, knowing how to hide it in the style of "in stone there is precious jade". However, let's taste the basic thòi lòi braised with pepper of Mekong Delta people.
The "thòi lòi" has been thoroughly pre-processed and marinated with spices including ground pepper, fish sauce, salt, chili peppers, sugar, MSG, caramel sauce and coconut water. Then, put the "thòi lòi" and some pork belly in a clay pot and put it on the stove to braise over low heat until the "thòi lòi" meat is firm.
When the thòi lòi pot emits a fragrant smell, the braised water thickens, then sprinkle with scallions and you're done. The thòi lòi is not very big, about 2/3 of an adult's wrist is type one, the bones are soft, so braising does not take much time, only about 45 minutes to have a pot of thòi lòi braised with pepper burnt.
The thòi lòi meat is chewy and tender, combined with the fatty taste of pork belly fat, emitting a strong peppery smell and the spicy taste of chili, eating as much as you taste. Thòi lòi braised with pepper is used to eat with rice or white porridge, and you can cheerfully praise it while eating. It's called the first-class "rice-killing warrior".
But nothing is more impressive than grilled thòi lòi dish dipped in chili salt. Thòi lòi has cleaned bamboo skewers and grilled on charcoal, while grilling, continuously wiping the mixture mixed from chili salt and castor oil helps the fish absorb all spices and have beautiful colors.
Just fan for a few minutes and the fragrant aroma has spread from the grill. When one side of the fish is cooked, flip the other side up to continue grilling until the whole thòi lòi body is brown-yellow. Welcoming the whole thòi lòi that has been grilled, hold a bamboo stick, then gently peel off the charred skin, peel to where the fragrant white meat is revealed.
Breaking each piece of thòi lòi, dipping it in chili salt, lemon salt or chili sauce, then eating it with herbs and cucumbers, no grilled fish can compare. The deliciousness and beauty of thòi lòi fish meat is completely opposite to its appearance, making people amazed.
Thòi lòi is also used to prepare many other delicious dishes such as fries, braised with soy sauce, gỏi thòi lòi rau lìm kìm, lẩu thòi lòi chua cay... Each dish has a different way of processing and flavor, but they all make people fascinated by its delicious taste.
But it is extremely regrettable, thòi lòi is a species that only lives in nature, cannot be raised. Therefore, thòi lòi from a food that everyone dislikes to everyone craves, has a very high cost because it is much more delicious than other types of fish in the same habitat such as snakehead fish, perch, catfish, goby fish... ...
It is indeed rare to find a large piece of "thòi lòi" the size of a wrist, but there is no longer a scene of wading into the mud to pick it up. Therefore, "thòi lòi" is considered a valuable specialty and rarer than young crabs in this region. That's why it is said that paint is not always rated higher than wood quality.
The "thòi lòi" fishing season lasts all year, but large-sized fish are increasingly rare. To catch "thòi lòi", you must find their burrows, which are small mounds of soil on the alluvial ground. There are many ways to catch fish such as using fishing rods, using fish lights, placing traps, digging burrows. However, the most common way is to braid spurs with coconut leaves and then cover the mouth of the cave.
Thoi loi fish belongs to the white goby family, often living and digging burrows to reside in mangrove forests or alluvial land along the coast and rivers. In Vietnam, the Nam Can mangrove forest area - Ca Mau is considered the capital of Thoi Loi and delicious dishes made from Thoi Loi.
