Supermarket Goodies and Box fish

Below is a Boxfish dish, steamed.
I was told that the BBQ ones are also very nice.
I did try the meat, very white n tender... taste like Ikan Ayam.






these are found in the supermarkets,
some pupas(wrong selling)...???
some sort of silkworm pupa i guess.


Qi Kat fish, freshwater species,
clean and chopped.


Dragon gobies cut and tray of Patins chunks

Huynh family members-Nhat Huy's birthday

ca keo

Keo Fish / Ca Keo
[Ca Keo (Viet): Spiny Goby (market); Pseudapocryptes elongatus alt P. lanceolatus]




This air breathing vegetarian fish, a species of Goby, is found from India to Tahiti and north to China. It lives only in brackish waters, particularly in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. It can grow to nearly 8 inches but the photo specimen was 7-1/2 inches and weighed 0.77 ounces. It was harvested wild in Vietnam where this fish is quite popular for a hot-pot soup named after it. Photo © cg1.



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This fish is generally eaten whole. It may be grilled or fried but is more often used in a hotpot soup called Ca Keo, after the fish. This soup cannot be made here because the two essential herbs for the broth, la giang (sour) rau dang (bitter) are pretty much impossible to obtain even in Los Angeles.

In Vietnam, many restaurants keep the fish alive (not difficult since they can breath air when they need to). When a customer orders Ca Keo soup it is brought to a boil, then the fish are put in live (to prove they're fresh), and the soup is eaten when it comes back to a boil. Live fish are not obtainable here because the State of California takes a very dim view of non-native air breathing fish that are impossible to exterminate once established in our waterways.

Fried plain and eaten with a dip (a mix of fish sauce and tamarind called Nuoc Mam Me is often used in Vietnam) it's served as an appetizer (photo at left - deep fried with a light coating of salted sweet potato starch). The body cavity is mostly filled with fat, which sort of disappears during frying but leaves a strong slightly bitter taste which I don't really care for, so I clean the fish before frying. A Vietnamese ca keo eater might protest that I'm throwing away the best part, but even some Vietnamese admit the bitter taste was a bit off-putting until they got used to it.

What I don't like about this fish is that it has a fair number of prickly parts in it which make eating it less pleasant than it might be. The worst of these can be avoided by removing the head behind the fins, but there are a few others.

Buying: These can be found in Asian markets serving a Southeast Asian community, generally packed in foam trays in the frozen food section, but sometimes on ice in the fish section.

Cleaning: Not done in Vietnam - but easily accomplished (see notes above). There are no detectable scales on this fish. It's up to you whether you remove the head or not. If you do, cut on a diagonal from just behind the head and behind both the pectoral and pelvic fins

vietnam pics

Saigon hai san nha hang Vietnam

enjoy the pics...

LIVE STURGEON

LIVE SALMON

LIVE COBIA & FLOWER CRABS

LIVE STINGRAY

LIVE FRESHWATER PRAWNS


Lastly a tank of fishes,looks like mollies with milkfishes' tail.

I missed out a few pics,
snakes,golden pomprets,normal groupers and many assorted clams n shellfishes.

Phan Thiet Lobster


Geoduck & Crab.


Couldn't identify the crab, abit redish with small eyes.
more like a crayfish or different type of lobster.

the small fish on the right looks like an clownfish n coral trout mixed.
Was recommend to eat it, SGD $30/kg.
But we already ordered the golden pomfret.

Malaysia Rompin cau ca

Reached Rompin Jetty about 5-10min later and started to set up,it was a really sunny and bright day,good for fishing.

Bien Mui Ne

This kind of weather at around 8am,
it's hot! hot!! hot!!!




Standing at the rocks facing the sea.....
i got a few bites here and there...no biggies.

Honey hunting trip

Joined the local vietnamese boys and uncles for a rats catching trip,
didn't have catches,but did saw their way of catching.



One of the boys suggested we go for honey hunting.....
though it is illegal to do it in Vietnam,
heard it is under the protection of the nature.....
nevertheless we carry on.


The above is the 1st hive we encounter and the below is the 2nd and the last.




The experienced boy advised us,the uncles,to go away.
While he swiftly smoked and chopped the beehives down onto the aluminium bucket.




We had the taste of the honey and the honeycombe,
the honey sweet with abit of sour taste,
the honeycombe white was very nice to chew with.

One of the uncle pinced a big piece and put it into my mouth saying it is good for me,
i thought it was honey,not knowing that it was the bee larvae in the hneycombe,
Chewy ,abit sweet,milkyyyy or creamy,
before i could swallow,another piece came near to my mouth again,
Ummmp...i took it and start chewing again,
pinced another piece of the honey filled honeycombe and stuff it straight to the mouth again..... very delicious.....

Below is the bee larvaes in the honeycombe,
the vietnamese aunties pan fry it with oil.

Phan Thiet theme park