Millwater Asian Corner

42 millwaterasiancorner

Fish

A common Chinese family dinner usually consists of three dishes and one soup. Among a large variety of ingredients, fish is always popular for those who live near the coastal provinces. For the Chinese, nothing can be called ‘fresh’ unless it’s straight from the water tank or the sea. When I was young, my mum usually went to the wet market in the morning, to buy everything we need for dinner – all except fish. At around 5:30 in the evening, while mum is busy preparing dinner, dad will walk to the wet market, pick a fish from the water tank and bring it home immediately to steam. It takes less than 30 minutes from water tank to table, and with such effort the fish always tasted so good!

While some fish are not suitable to live in the tank, or some just can’t live long enough to meet their customers, there is always a table lining up for these kinds of fishes. My father, who was once a fish distributor, taught me some basic tricks to pick a fresh fish (in this case, ‘fresh’ means very recently dead): always choose the fish with clear eyes and shiny scales – and check the gills to ensure they have a beautiful bright red colour.

I think this will help you to understand why Chinese restaurants always have a tank filled with swimming fishes (and other sea creatures) as a selling point. I believe most Chinese will tell you; the best way to cook a fresh fish is steam. Other cooking methods such as stir-fry, deep-fry or braising are believed to be some cooking tricks to cover the fishy smell of the not-very-fresh fish.

Besides freshness, another element to make perfect steamed fish is technique. Precise timing and heat are very important. If the fish is fresh enough, and cooked with care, it should have an appearance of cracked skin, with little bits of meat that still stick to the spine. Steamed fish is definitely a dish that can test a chef’s skills.

Generally, there are two traditions of eating fish. Firstly, always cook a whole fish, symbolising ‘complete’, where the head means beginning, the tail means end. In order to eat a whole fish most Asians have developed a very special skill, which is spitting out the bones. All of my family and friends could put in their mouth a big piece of fish, chicken leg, spare rib or whatever has bone, chew for a while then easily spit out the cleaned bones onto the plate. They said the meat surrounding the bones tasted the best. Shamefully, I have not learnt this technique well. Some of my friends laugh at me and say I am not a real Chinese because I can’t spit bone. I usually fight back by saying “I am a Kiwi and I love fillet!”

Secondly, when the top side is eaten, never flip the fish onto the other side; just lift up and remove the spine to access the meat underneath. This is to respect the fisherman because flipping the fish symbolises “flip boat.”

This month, I have included a steamed fish recipe (please see the recipe page). While it is not quite possible to buy swimming fish from the tank in New Zealand, the freshness of fish in our local fish shop is actually quite good for steaming. Just keep in mind to look for the 3 tricks: eyes, scales and gills. Next time my mum comes to visit, I will ask her to show you how to eat fish eyes!

Nita Wong Originally from Hong Kong, 20+ years ago Millwater resident