Snapshots from Asia: Hong Kong’s Outdoor Fish Markets and the Asian Reverence for Fish
Fish is a big deal in Asia. The older generations can tell, at a taste, if the fish presented to them was wild caught or farm-raised. More remarkably, they can tell if the fish had been gaily swimming just prior to being cooked, or if it had been bottom-up for hours. This super palate can be quite the annoyance, especially when everyone else around the table is starving. A highly exacting uncle of mine has a reputation for sending fish that’s not screamingly fresh back to the kitchen with a caustic “Please, have some.” I love him dearly, but I make it a point of having a pre-meal meal before dining with him. My stomach has rumbled through one too many perfectly good fish being turned away at the table—for being just shy of screamingly fresh.
Having said that, I reckon Uncle would be quite content with the offerings at Hong Kong’s outdoor seafood markets. Entire streets are lined with vendors, and tubs upon tubs of live fish, shellfish, and even frogs. From geoduck with their elephant trunks, to prickly sea urchins, and alien-looking shellfish, the dazzling array would render even the most demanding of gourmets satisfied. Plus, competition among vendors is intense, guaranteeing you the best and freshest of the day’s catch.
The markets buzz with energy. Housewives haggle with vendors while poking at crabs with tongs, only selecting the ones that latch on in anger—because it is the feisty crab that tastes the sweetest. Next to the live tubs, fish that have given up the good fight are laid out on enameled metal plates and sold at a discount. Vendors stride around in slick galoshes, seeking to make eye contact with potential buyers as they shout out their wares and “Cheap, cheap!” prices.
The streets are wet from being continually sluiced with water—once a buyer has selected a fish, the fishmonger gets to work scaling and cleaning, sending slippery entrails and shiny, rainbow-hued flecks swooshing down a central gutter. Unlike at a Western seafood counter, the fishmonger never decapitates the fish. The Chinese believe that everything in life needs to be accomplished with a beginning and an end (to have a “head” and a “tail”). Fish, therefore, need to be eaten in their entirety. Besides, if the fishmonger were to discard the head, what heartbreaking waste it would be! Who would want to miss out on the fish’s cheeks, with its tender, silken pouch of flesh, or sacrifice the sweet, unctuous fluid in the fish’s eyeball (the marine equivalent of extracting the gelatinous marrow from a roasted bone)?
This Asian reverence for fish is the reason why Chinese home cooks never batter and fry fresh fish. The Chinese view fried fish with great suspicion—the belief is that if the chef has to mask the fish in oil and flour, then it was probably enroute to the trash to begin with. Instead, fresh fish simply steamed is revered as one of the greatest expressions of culinary finesse. It’s the reason why fish in better Asian restaurants is always labeled “market price” (the good stuff is never frozen), and also why you’ll never catch an Asian person ordering fried fish!
About the author: Wan Yan Ling can usually be found in the kitchen procrastinating on "real work" or online tracking down obscure recipes. Ling thinks eating alone is no fun, and she still believes in hand-mixing.
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12 Comments:
"and also why you’ll never catch an Asian person ordering fried fish"
Unless, of course, that Asian person happens to like fried fish. Jeez.
Luther at 3:26PM on 09/15/08
while i do love steamed fish, i also cannot turn down a good batch of fried whitebait
mlo at 4:10PM on 09/15/08
I love fried fish...but I love steamed fish more. Chinese steamed fish, at least. I just have to rely on someone else to properly de-meat it for me so bones don't get everywhere.
For a random question, what's the availability of abalone at these markets? That's one of my favorite foods of the seeeaaa.
roboppy at 5:14PM on 09/15/08
Fried fish is delicious, but not the "safest" item on the seafood menu -- but then again, maybe it's because I've yet to find a Chinese restaurant I absolutely trust =p
robobby: If you look carefully at the 2nd pic, you'll notice abalone in the foreground =)
onedaylingers at 6:11PM on 09/15/08
I wouldn't really order fried fish at any restaurant, either. I want to taste the fish, not a batter, though its not unheard of. Crispy fried flounder (where the chip-like fins are a prized part, at least in my family), pan fried butterfish (but no batter here)
But like mlo said...fried whitebait is awesome. My aunt with a four year old son calls them "fries with eyes" and the boy gobbles them down!
Fried smelt with roe is also delicious...I'm hoping to get some this weekend when Mitsuwa has its big fresh seafood sale.
But in all these cases, these fish aren't dredged in thick goopy batter or coated in an armor of breading. Usually its a very quick dusting of flour and seasoning.
fuuchan at 1:01AM on 09/16/08
Roboppy- here in Korea you can get abalone at pretty much all the major fish markets. The best is down on Jeju-do Island on the southern tip, you'll go walking along the beaches which are more like volcanic rock formations than sandy beaches, and there'll be random Korean old women who will have little buckets of abalone and other sea critters and chop them up for you on the spot.
machellebelle at 3:40AM on 09/16/08
fuuchan: ooooh, do you mean shishamo? I love pregnant fish! Some restaurants will grill them to a nice crisp rather than fry them. No thick, goopy batter coating here =p
onedaylingers at 9:20AM on 09/16/08
Mmmmm...we had fish last night. Since filets are the easiest to deal with out here, with the fresh fish markets being so far away, I thaw a filet, slather on some black bean and garlic sauce, top it with a chopped green onion and some julienned ginger and steam it. Once it's done, I drain the resulting water out of the dish, then heat about 2 T. oil in a frying pan until a wooden chopstick gives off bubbles when it's touched to the oil. Pour the HOT oil over the fish, top with a little more soy sauce and you're good to go. This is AMAZING.
I used to love going to the fresh fish markets in Hong Kong, though...but I couldn't bear to watch when they smacked the fish on the head to kill it.
Teahlo at 10:24AM on 09/16/08
Teahlo: That's how my grandmother steams her fish! Only, she adds the julienned ginger to the oil and fries it to a crisp, before topping the fish with it =)
I can totally understand not wanting to watch as the fish gets smacked, but I reason that the stuff they (producers, vendors, etc.) are willing to show us is generally a lot less gruesome than the stuff they aren't willing to put on show.
onedaylingers at 11:20AM on 09/16/08
Mmmmm. Think I'll try some "fries with eyes"
carolrsf at 4:49PM on 09/18/08
Wait, WHAT? Fried fish is one of my favorite Chinese staples! It's not breaded and fileted, but involves dumping a WHOLE, skin-on fish into the deep fryer and pulling it out crispy-crunchy on the outside, moist and flaky within. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm
Pammeh at 5:55PM on 09/18/08
Pammeh: I've no doubt fried fish is yummy, the point is that most Chinese people would not deep fry a seriously fresh fish (i.e. swimming just before you bought it) that they've paid top dollar for. It's considered a "waste" because you could deep fry a less than stellar fish and still get a decent end result. But steam a fish that's not fresh out of the water, and it'd be inedible.
onedaylingers at 2:05PM on 09/19/08