In my younger days, we did not have a lot of choices when it comes to cuisines. However, sometimes after eating all those rich and creamy foods in western cuisines, Italian, for one, all the herbs in Thai or Vietnamese food and the spices in Indian cooking as well as some dishes we never heard of before at some Chinese restaurants, I would start to crave for the very simple food I grew up eating.
Some may feel our simple dishes are rather bland and unexciting but I am a simple man. Personally, I do feel that there is beauty in their simplicity and one of my favourites from those long gone days would be fish balls in clear soup…
Cooking this has never been easier ever since the people in Sarikei started producing frozen fish paste available in packets like this…
In the old days, one would have to make one’s own which would be such a chore and a whole lot of work.
One would have to buy the fish, bay kar (ikan tenggiri/mackerel) no less – I understand there are different types and one is nicer to fry and eat just like that and another is better for making fish balls. The fishmonger may be kind enough to debone or fillet the fish for you, otherwise you will have to do it yourself. Then you will have to scrap the meat off the skin and mince/chop it and pound it even to make it QQ (firm). Finally, you can start cooking your fish balls.
If we did not make our own fish balls, we had to buy the frozen ones from the market or shops. There were some local-made ones that were not too bad but one would need to know where to go and what to buy. Most of the time, the factory-made ones were not good – when you boiled them, they would expand from the size of golf or ping pong balls to the size of tennis balls!!! This was because of the amount of flour in them and the fact that there wasn’t much fish wasn’t too bad – there would be all the preservatives, artificial flavouring, msg and what have you. That is why I am not keen on going to all those steamboat places in town – they give you all the frozen stuff and for the amount of money I have to fork out, I might as well have my own steamboat at home…
Cooking this is so easy now – you just take the paste and roll it into balls and drop them into a pot of boiling water. I will usually add a few cloves of garlic for the added taste and to cover the fishy smell and of course, I will add a handful of Tianjin preserved vegetable or what we call tang chai/dong chai (冬菜), rinsed well, after taking the amount required from the pack. I will add some chopped spring onion and daun sup (Chinese celery) to enhance the taste and fragrance of the soup. One may add fried shallots too, if one so desires. When using this paste, there is no need to add any salt and msg – they already have them in the paste. You may add your own pepper if you like that.
Incidentally, I heard some people complaining about the fish paste from Jakar. They were the first to come out with it but lately, I have been buying the one in the above photograph from Sarikei and it is good, no problem at all. Cooking fish ball soup…
…has never been easier and one can even add tang hoon (glass noodles)…
…to it to enjoy. I’ve also heard of one Sibu homemade fish paste that’s very good but I’ve yet to go and buy. Will blog about it when I do.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 