liuzhou

Fish and chips! Finally got round to cooking my pangasius / basa fish from here. And jolly good it was too! Still have two more half fillets in the freezer for later.

I make it three. The aforementioned 'squab'. 'Oystern' unless it's some obscure dialect plural. And "Holliday fruit cake' unless Billlie made it⁈

"The menu for Thanksgiving dinner at the United States Military Academy in 1916 also showed a daily menu at USMA in November of 1820 taken "from an old record."

By emissions they mean climate changing emissions in general; not just flatulent emissions, human or bovine. There are others.

Image by Totti - This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. This is a fish I rarely see. In fact, it’s been about two years. For good reason. This is 石斑鱼 (shí bān yú - literally ‘stone spotted fish’), Epinephelus akaara, Grouper, specifically Hong Kong Grouper. Groupers are, again, a huge family. The HK grouper is native to the East China sea from Japan and down to the Tonkin Gulf, passing HK en route. The species is considered to be endangered due to over-fishing. China, excluding Hong Kong, has introduced some controls. Farming the fish has proved unsuccessful as few of the hatchlings survive. When it was available it was, like so many other varieties, mainly steamed and dressed with soy sauce. I hope it recovers.

Men’s meat-heavy diets cause 40% more climate emissions than women’s, study finds I resisted the temptation to make some crude joke, but this is interesting, if unsurprising.

I mentioned in this post that, when the fish counter staff clean your fish for you, they will try to hold on to the creatures’ float bladders (aka fish maws) in order to sell them separately. Another part they like to collect is the liver. Again, these will be sold separately, even though they made up part of the weight which determined how much you were to be charged. Float bladder (maw) OK. They don’t usually weigh much and one won’t go far in feeding a family. But some can be sizeable. What I see in the supermarket is this. These are freshwater 鱼肝 (yú gān) fish livers - mainly from various carp . That ¥9.80 is the equivalent of $1.54 USD for 500 grams / 1.1 lbs. These are best fried and, in my home, eaten on toast. My neighbours probably don’t know what toast is. They are mild tasting and not overly fishy - the livers, not my neighbours. They taste of pork and some definitely seem a bit fishy. If you get the chance to buy a monkfish liver 安康鱼肝 (ān kāng yú gān), jump at it. They are delicious. Like eating foie gras by the beach. They cost more. Last time I bought them, they were ¥65 per 500 g. These I like to briefly brine (usually in soy sauce and vinegar) then steam in foil wrappers. I've also happily eaten them raw as sashimi in Japan. Monkfish Liver Strangely, although I can get the monkfish liver, I've never seen monkfish among any fishmongers' wares in China. It is available frozen, online.

I like me a good bhuna. Last time I had one was in Hong Kong about 10 years ago. Good Indian food in HK.

For a long time I've been puzzling over what these are. The are labelled as 芒鱼 (máng yú). Google does turn up a few similar looking fish, but the vast majority look nothing like these. Today I worked out what they are! They are about 30 cm - 51 cm / 12" - 20" long, dark skinned on the back and lighter on the belly and shiny bodied. I was fairly sure that they were a seawater species, but whether they were just a local or more widely distributed one, had no idea. One suggestion that they are caught in coastal areas around Guangdong and Hong Kong proved false. I decided we really needed a better look at the mysterious 芒鱼 (máng yú), particularly its unusual head. Today, I looked a bit more closely. And got some stats. The fellow below is 48 cm / 19 inches from tip of nose to end of tail. It weighs 1.2 kg or 2.7 lbs before evisceration. They are a river fish, but imported from Vietnam's Mekong Delta where the fish enjoy the brackish water, hence them being included in the seafood sections of the supermarkets. Yes it's good old pangasius / basa fish as discussed above. Apparently, the 芒鱼 term is a Cantonese translation of the scientific name for the entire genus, although Cantonese uses the rare character 𩷶 which is not available in Mandarin. He's now sitting in my fridge waiting to become fish and chips for tomorrow's lunch!

Crucian Carp (centre)* Although grass carp (see first post) is probably China's most consumed species of fish, more valued is 鲫鱼 (jì yú), Carassius carassius, the Crucian Carp. Resembling overgrown goldfish, to which they are related, as are all carp, these freshwater fish are native to England but have long since been introduced worldwide. Indeed, they are considered an invasive species in many places. China has been raising carp for over 1,000 years, and until relatively recently, in inland areas such as the land-locked provinces of Sichuan and Hunan, carp was often the only fish easily available and crucian carp were the prime choice. Their flesh is described as “particularly delicious” and “similar to cod”, although they are quite bony. They are generally fried or grilled and sauced or added to hot-pots, stews and soups. It is also used to make a delicious, milky-white fish stock. * Note, in the image above, that the fish is mislabelled as 鲈鱼 (lú yú), a totally different (seawater) species. This is one of the problems I am up against all the time when trying to identify fish. Mislabelling is the norm. The tank also contains (left) the cheaper but less common, 丁桂鱼 (dīng guì yú ) or tench to which I will return. Sweet snd Sour Crucian Carp

They already have been!

That was my understanding. Just checking. My mother never bought anything but lamb's liver (calves' liver was far too expensive) when I was a kid - and she made liver and onions regularly. I was very surprised when I moved to China and ate lunch one day in a small three table restaurant near work. I found 'liver and onions' on their menu. Of course, I ordered it. It was absolutely delicious and only slightly different from my mother's despite the Chinese influences. I asked and found it was pig's liver. Now I regularly and happily eat pig's liver - it and chicken being the only ones I can get. No cows or sheep round these parts. Oh. I do get anonymous fish livers, too. This picture was taken years ago in that very restaurant on a return visit (one of many - it became my work canteen!)

What kind of liver? Which animal?

Dried Sea Cucumber Not quite a fish; more of an etcetera are the 海参 (hǎi shēn) or Sea Cucumbers. These echinoderms are members of the Holothuroidea family which runs to 1,707 species, although only a fraction of these are commercially fished for food. They go by various names: trepang in Indonesia, ナマコ(namako) in Japan , bêche-de-mer in France, etc. They live in large packs on deep ocean floors worldwide and are basically scavengers surviving on plankton and any organic detritus which falls from above. This breaks down the said material allowing its nutrients to recycle. Sea cucumbers are sold both dried and fresh. The dried ones resemble dog turds more than they do cucumbers. The live ones are not much better – slimy and utterly pointless. They taste of nothing but rubber. Smelly, tasteless rubber. Yet they are inexplicably loved by many in China and other parts of Asia. So much so, that in 2013, the Chinese government banned its officials from eating them at official banquets. Civil servants all across the country were paying fortunes for them and apart from the perceived greed, the strain on the public purse was just too much. I’m told wild Alaskan specimens were the most highly valued. Fresh Sea Cucumbers This ban didn’t help the creatures, though. The prices tumbled after the ban and sales went up, this time to private citizens attracted by the new lower prices. Sea cukes require boiling in water for about a week before being fried or stewed in sauces where they may soak up some flavour. They pair well, I’m told by enthusiasts, with mushrooms. Waste of some good mushrooms, if you ask me. They are also used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), particularly in cancer cases, but the American Cancer Society has said

Fresh hand pulled noodles fried with pork (marinated in Shaoxing with garlic and ginger), fresh shiitake mushrooms, shimeji mushrooms, snow peas and chilli. Finished with a little soy sauce made from black soy beans. Would have added chopped scallions , but didn't have any. Veg Mise

I grew up on 'butter beans'. Loved them. They are Lima beans by another name. The more common name in the UK. They were served as a side vegetable in the lunch canteen when I was in junior school. I even have a can here.

I had just posted the above when this landed in my email. https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/premium/supply-trade/growing-us-sales-lift-vinh-hoan-s-export-earnings-in-october

There is nothing wrong with this fish! It wouldn’t be my death-row last wish fish, but I’ll scoff it down in less troublesome times. 巴沙鱼 (bā shā yú), Pangasius bocourti, Basa Fish is one of the world’s most under-rated fish while also being unjustly libelled and vilified in certain sectors. Known variously as “basa” or “river cobbler” in the UK, "basa fish", “swai” or "bocourti" in the US and Australia and “dory" in parts of SE Asia, this is a freshwater type of catfish, native to the Mekong river in Vietnam where it is extensively farmed. In Vietnamese, it is “cá ba sa”. It is also found in Thailand’s Chao Phraya river basin where they call it "ปลาเผาะ (plā p̄heāa)”. China farms it in lesser amounts. Basa Ramen Much of the species is sold as frozen fillets. The mild-tasting flesh of the fillets is firm, white and boneless with a texture not dissimilar to that of cod or haddock. In fact, it has been illegally sold as cod in some fish and chip shops in the UK. It can be sold legally if described simply as “fish and chips”, but “cod and chips” must be cod. I have often used it happily in fish and chips when cod was unavailable, as well as using it in fish stews and soups. For more information on the vilification may I refer you to this 2013 article on “the money-maker that nobody loves”? For a more recent report see this 2020 “more balanced appraisal of Vietnam’s pangasius sector”. The article includes this video which I will also link to separately for those in a hurry!

I'm voting with the spouses. Sorry!

It's not so much what "cooks and chefs think" that's important; it's what the law thinks and that is not universal. There are regulations most places, but they differ. What is permissible in one place is often not in another. Truth in advertising? It'll never happen. All advertising is a trick to make you want something you don't need.

Via Twitter Very important clarification regarding how to kill a lobster before cooking it.

Fried 'dace' in black bean sauce Today I’m heading for somewhat different territory. As I have mentioned before in these forums, China does very few canned foods. In most supermarkets, if they have a canned food section at all, it will be a couple of shelves with some spam-like meat products and some 鱼罐头 (yú guàn tou) – canned fish. 99% of those cans will contain 豆豉鲮鱼 (dòu chǐ líng yú) which translates as “fermented black bean dace”. However, 鲮鱼 (líng yú) is not ‘dace’ at all. It is actually Cirrhinus molitorella or Mud Carp. Real dace is Leuciscus leuciscus and seldom, if ever, found in China. Mud carp are a freshwater fish, native to southern China and Vietnam. They have been cultivated in China for over 1,000 years and today are mostly farmed. Although, they are sometimes sold fresh, the majority of their meat is used in a number of industrially-made fish products including fish balls, fishcakes, dumplings etc. In 1893, a Guangzhou (Canton) company started canning these fried mud carps from the Pearl River with fermented black bean sauce. These canned ‘dace’ have always been considered as food for the poor or, at best, as emergency rations. A 227 gram / 8 oz can costs in the region of $2 USD and the contents can be eaten straight from the can or with rice or noodles. The shelf life is stated to be three years. Probably actually much longer than that. Every cornershop has them. The product is extremely salty. Ingredients are listed as dace, black beans, salt, vegetable oil, salt, soy sauce (with caramel colouring), sugar, spices and MSG. Yes, they list salt twice, plus it’s in the soy sauce. Fried 'dace' in black bean sauce There have been intermittent reports over the years of this product containing minute traces of malachite green, a chemical with carcinogenic properties although it is generally considered the levels are too low to constitute any danger. But it does smell like cheap cat food. Alternatives are few but do include these similarly priced 凤尾鱼 (fèng wěi yú) which are anchovies of some sort and are in a sauce full of similar ingredients. With there being somewhere between 140 and 160 (opinions vary) species of fish called ‘anchovies’, I’m not even going to try to start to identify them. I buy my anchovies from Italy. Canned anchovies An even cheaper (around $1.50 USD) choice is labelled as 豆豉海鱼 (dòu chǐ hǎi yú), which is ‘black bean sea fish’. I’ve never gone there. It could be anything. We do get canned sardines, almost always in tomato sauce, in a few stores, but most of these are imported from Thailand or the Philippines. I buy canned Portuguese sardines. Expensive but wonderful! Sardines from the Philippines