Snubnose Pompano
I posted this in the Dinner 2021 topic a couple of days ago. It is 鲳鱼 (chāng yú),Trachinotus blochii, or Snubnose Pompano.
Pompano is a 21-member family of marine fish, most of which are eaten. The snubnose variety is found in the Red Sea and East Africa to the Marshall Islands and Samoa, north to southern Japan, south to Australia. Here it is farmed on China’s east coast near Shandong province and others. The local supply is again from Beihai.
It is sometimes marketed (both here and elsewhere) as 小昌鱼 (xiǎo chāng yú)*, Silvery Pomfret or Butterfish, but these are not true pomfrets, which are a completely different species.
Snubnose Pompano
Snubnose sold here are around 26 cm/10 inches nose to tail, although they can grow much larger. Their meat is delicious, but there isn’t a lot of it! I will happily eat a whole one myself and still be looking for more. I have been to family dinners where two or three of them were prepared. They are normally steamed, but can be pan or even deep fried after being coated with starch. I use potato starch rather than the monstrous type so favoured by many.
Pan Fried Snubnose Pompano
Probably the best I ever had though wasn’t in China, but was cooked by a Chinese woman on a beach on a Thai island which must remain secret! Actually, it needn’t as it is now totally out of bounds to visitors as part of a protected area and you can’t go there anyway! The fish was fried and covered with a delicious chilli-heavy sauce. I have tried to replicate it, but it has never worked. The ambience was part of the recipe.
*The middle character 昌 is wrong. It should be 鲳. However, the label and sign writers in the local supermarket regularly get their own language wrong. With 10s of thousands of characters to recall, it isn't surprising. Doesn't help me with identification though, when the name they give is incorrect.
