What your name is…

I had just reached home that morning after sending my girl to work when I received this photograph…

…from a friend of mine via Messenger on Facebook. She told me that they did have ikan buris…

…at this shop in the Dewan Suarah vicinity sometimes and I told her I did buy some once a long time ago in February, 2021 but I have not seen any there since.

She told me she would be going there the following morning to buy some curry puffs and she would check for me, which she did. She even sent me a snapshot of the shop sign…

Of course, I wasted no time at all in going straight there to grab some – it’s only about 5-10 minutes from my house.

I asked the lady in pink if they had any ikan buris but she did not seem to know what I was talking about so I showed her the photograph and told her that my friend just took it minutes ago at her shop to send to me. She recognised it instantly and asked the helper to take out the ikan lajong from the freezer.

Ikan lajong? But that is a different variety of fish altogether, also a freshwater river fish, also very nice, so very fresh, sweet and smooth. We had it steamed…

…at a restaurant here in town quite regularly. Of course, it is very exceptionally delightful in its own right, just that it does not look like ikan buris nor does it taste anything like it. I did buy it once at a stall run by an old couple at the Sibu Central Market a long time ago but it was a different fish altogether – I would also buy their ikan buris (or sai seng in Hokkien) if they happened to have any.

I went and googled for a photograph of some ikan lajong and got this one…

Why!!! It does look like ikan buris! Now I was absolutely confused!!! I was discussing this on Facebook and my cousin came in and said that ikan buris is in our Melanau language. Does that mean that ikan lajong is the name in Malay? Perhaps they’re distant cousins like the ikan patin which I am not a fan of because of its smell and its excessive fat.

Never mind! In the words of Willaim Shakespeare, “What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet!” As long as I can get hold of some once in a while to enjoy, it does not matter to me one bit what it should be called. Yes, I did say once in a while because it does not come cheap and is worth its weight in gold. I bought two packs with three inside each of them for RM81.00, RM40.50 each and that works out to RM13.50 each. That I would say is very cheap as a section of the fish, steamed like the one in the above photograph is over RM30.00!!!

You may recall that I was down with a terrible cough and running nose and even though I am much better now, I still have this sore throat that is killing me so I simply can’t eat much. That was why I had plain porridge that day and deep fried ikan buris…

…to go with it.

Thank you, Madam Lau, for the tip-off! It sure made my day!