The ikan bawal (pomfret) or what we call ikan duai locally is one of the more popular fish around here but the white ones are held in much higher esteem than the black ones. For this reason, it is often featured as one of the dishes in a Chinese banquet here, be it for a wedding or for other auspicious occasions.
Usually, the pek chio, as it is called in Hokkien, is steamed…
…and for that purpose, it has to be very fresh so one would be able to enjoy the sweet, smooth and succulent meat and the size of the fish would be a fair indication of the price of the “table”, that is the cost of the whole dinner. There have been times when it is fried and served with a pale/colourless sweet and sour gravy (minus the tomato sauce) with lots of chopped garlic, chili, spring onions and what not…and the general feeling is that the fish is not fresh and served this way, it would not be noticed. I actually like it very much when they do it like that and needless to say, it is anytime better than when the fish is not fresh and is kind of bland, not nice and sweet at all and they just go ahead and steam it and serve.
You will never find the black pomfret featured at such dinners but you may see it served at the smaller restaurants, food shops and stalls for the simple reason that it is cheaper and thus, does not have the snob appeal that its white counterpart enjoys. Usually, it is deep-fried and served…
…but at most Chinese places, it is more commonly served as a sweet and sour fish dish…
These days, however, even these or chio, the Hokkien name for it, is no longer as cheap as it used to be.
I bought a big one the other day and the seller told me to steam it. Steam the or chio? That is not the usual practice as the black pomfret has a stronger smell and is not all that suitable for steaming but the seller insisted that it would be very very nice as the one he was selling me was really very fresh. Well, in the end, I didn’t as I wanted to try this instant paste that I received recently from my cousin in KK, Sabah…
– the pes asam nyonya and I added some brinjal and the sour variety – the terung Dayak to it…
…and it turned out really great!
Even though I did not steam it as the seller said I should, we really enjoyed it as the fish was indeed as he said, very fresh – so sweet and nice…
…though I cannot remember how much I paid for it now. I bought this big one and a very big ikan tengirri/bay ka (mackerel) and at least a dozen or more of these kilat (silvery/shiny) that can either be steamed or fried…
I always consider this one to be a smaller, more affordable version of the white pomfret but these were very big – a whole lot bigger than the palm of my hand (some are very small) and altogether, I think I paid around RM90…but that is all right as I had enough fish to last me way over a week – in fact, I still have quite a lot of the tenggiri in the freezer and especially when the fish is really fresh and nice, I do think it is worth it.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 