Nghe An fishermen light fire to burn "god fish"

"A penny's worth, a pound's worth of work"

Ms. Nguyen Thi Manh, block 9, Nghi Thuy ward (Cua Lo town) has more than 40 years of experience in processing anchovies. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Ms. Nguyen Thi Manh (65 years old), in block 8, Nghi Thuy ward, Cua Lo town, has 40 years of experience in processing anchovies and said: "I am originally from here, I learned this anchovy processing profession from my father and mother, it is very elaborate and meticulous!".

Usually, at around 3am, she and her daughter go to the wharf, wait for the fishermen's boats to return, and choose to buy batches of fresh, delicious, and evenly sized fish. They bring the fish home and clean them. "Washing the fish also requires skill and meticulousness. The washing process must be done so that the fish is clean but the scales do not flake off," she said.

After being steamed, the fish is dried over charcoal. Photo: Thanh Phuc

After washing the fish, let it drain and then start shaping it. “You have to bend the fish into a circle, with its mouth holding the tail (it can be secured with a bamboo toothpick or fishing line), symmetrical, not crooked, and without breaking the fish bones,” said Ms. Manh. After that, the fish is put in a steamer until cooked, taken out of the pot, and placed on an iron rack to drain.

Fan a charcoal stove, wait for the charcoal to be saturated, put the fish grill on to dry, during the drying process, turn the fish over evenly, pay attention to the moderate charcoal temperature, do not let it get too hot, the scales will be scorched black, it will look unsightly. When you touch the fish and it feels dry, no longer sticky, take the fish out of the charcoal stove, arrange it on a round iron grill. Light a charcoal stove, use sugarcane bagasse or fresh sugarcane peel to cover it. When you see smoke rising with the sweetness of sugarcane, use an empty barrel to cover the charcoal stove, put the fish grill in the barrel, close the lid. The fish is smoked with sugarcane bagasse so it will be fragrant and sweet thanks to the remaining molasses in the bagasse, the layer of sugarcane peel permeates each fish. After being smoked, the fish will turn a delicious golden yellow color.

The secret of the people of Nghi Thuy fishing village to create a sweet aroma and eye-catching yellow color for the fish is to smoke it with sugarcane pulp (shell) in a tightly closed barrel. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Witnessing the process of preparing anchovies with your own eyes, you can see the meticulousness of the workers. Ms. Manh said: “A batch of about five hundred thousand fish takes 7-8 hours of work without stopping. Because of the meticulousness and many steps, there are only ten households in the village who trade and prepare anchovies. The rest go fishing by boat, grill fish at the wharf or sell them at the markets,” Ms. Manh shared.

High demand during Tet holiday

In the beliefs of coastal people, the catfish symbolizes the round sky. Therefore, on the Tet tray, besides the green banh chung symbolizing the “square land”, almost every house has a plate of catfish, praying for a new year of calm seas and fishermen catching lots of fish and shrimp. Later, the custom of worshipping catfish spread beyond geographical space to other localities.

Round-shaped fish symbolizes "heaven" and is chosen by people to display on Tet offerings. Photo: Thanh Phuc

“In addition to its symbolic meaning of heaven, braised catfish with molasses is also a delicious dish, with firm meat, few bones, fragrant, rich, not boring, and easy to prepare, so it is chosen by many people in the Tet menu. In addition, the catfish is round, and when placed on a plate, it looks very eye-catching, making the tray look more beautiful and balanced. Catfish can be preserved for a long time (it can be kept in the refrigerator for months without spoiling), and the longer it is braised, the more delicious it becomes, so many people choose it as a Tet gift,” said Ms. Hoang Thi Yen, a catfish trader in Nghi Thuy.

Many people choose to buy catfish as a gift during Tet. Photo: Thanh Phuc

With the above “advantages”, the fish is quite popular during the Tet holiday. “People buy it to cook for Tet offerings, give as gifts, send abroad…

At one point, the whole village had about 100 households processing anchovies. This Tet holiday, there were days when each household sold hundreds of kilograms of anchovies after processing. Anchovies cost from 30,000 VND to 80,000 VND per fish (depending on size), and by weight, they cost about 120,000 VND to 150,000 VND per kilogram. Meanwhile, the price of fresh anchovies at the wharf is only from 40,000 VND to 60,000 VND per kilogram. Thanks to the labor and profit, many households have escaped poverty and have enough to eat and save thanks to the anchovy processing profession. However, anchovies are only available from the 11th lunar month to the 2nd lunar month, so in other seasons of the year, people switch to processing other types of fish," said Mr. Dau The Anh - Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Nghi Thuy Ward.

As Tet approaches, the demand for fish increases, so people in the seafood exploitation and processing village in Nghi Thuy are busy with preliminary processing. Fish grills are operating at full capacity. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Near Tet, the demand for fish to decorate the altar, Tet food and gifts makes Nghi Thuy people busy catching, processing and packaging products such as: mackerel, scad, yellowstripe scad, anchovies, dried squid, one-sun-dried squid...