Grilled goby fish with wild reed pipe of Westerners

Grilled goby reed pipe has a characteristic aroma like the smoke of rice straw in the countryside, the meat is not dry, but soft and sweet.

Goby fish lives a lot in the brackish waters of the West, with a small, elongated body, only about a hand long, soft, and sweet fish meat and few bones. When processing, Westerners often wash fish with salt and leave it whole, without removing the intestines because of the bile, the liver is bitter but has a fatty taste. Although the fish is small, it is processed in all kinds of ways, and every dish is delicious: goby fish cooked in sour soup, cooked in a sour hotpot with Giang leaves, braised with laksa leaves, cooked with porridge, dried or grilled with salt and chili, deep-fried…

The latest video of the Western cuisine channel Khoi Lam Chieu introduces the rustic reed-tube grilled goby dish. The video attracted tens of thousands of views, reminiscent of the time of South Vietnam’s reclamation. My Duyen, the owner of a vlog channel, rolls her hands into the brackish water field in Binh Dai district, Ben Tre to catch goby fish.

My Duyen wades in the field to catch goby fish. Photo: Khói Lam Chiều

According to My Duyen, this dish is simple but also requires meticulous ingenuity. In which, the most feat is finding the reed that is the right size for the goby fish. In the West, reeds grow wild in the open ground, along with fields, canals, trees are high above the head, the trunk is divided into small internodes.

Grilled reed fish cannot be cut into pieces with a sharp knife because the tree is brittle and easily broken. My Duyen took the spear and cut it around the reed pipe and then broke it. The spool only wipes the outside, do not wash the inside to avoid losing the characteristic fragrance. Goby fish, after being washed, is marinated with chili salt to increase the flavor.

After the fish was soaked, My Duyen cut a small line in the middle of the reed tube, gently separated and put each seasoned fish in each tube, grilled on embers, rotated the reed tube evenly so that the fish meat was cooked evenly inside.

When the reed tube starts to burn on the outside, and the fish smell is fragrant, the dish is complete. Photo: Khói Lam Chiều

My Duyen shared that the goby in a reed tube has a characteristic aroma like the smell of rice straw smoke in the countryside, the meat is not dry, succulent and sweet. Eating fish when hot will be more fragrant and the meat will not stick to the reed. When eating, diners split the reed tube in half, dipping fish with tamarind fish sauce. The white meat is soft and tender, with an attractive aroma, natural sweetness and marinated spices blend to create an unforgettable rustic dish. The tray of rice will be more full when there is a hot pot of sweet and sour goby with vermicelli and salty fish sauce.

Đăng bởi: Thảo Vân Nguyễn Thị