The fish have returned to the city.

Linh fish in the flood season in October in Ho Chi Minh City is still about 100,000 VND/kg - Photo: D. TUYET

Ms. Le Thi Muoi, owner of a grocery store in an alley on Tan Ky Tan Quy Street (Tan Binh District), happily told.

Ms. Muoi and her husband are both from the upstream of the Hau River in An Phu, An Giang, and came to work as workers in Ho Chi Minh City. Having lived here for more than 10 years and given birth to children, they still maintain their rural lifestyle and enjoy eating dishes with the flavor of the countryside and the wind of the West.

After quitting her job as a factory worker, she opened a small grocery store and it became easier to buy local products when street vendors came to her door to offer them.

My husband likes to eat linh fish, but he has to wait until October for it to be cheaper. At the price of 100,000 VND/kg in the city right now, he might get sick of it.

Ms. LE THI MUOI

Linh fish sauce hotpot in the city

"For over a month now, the floodwaters in the countryside have risen so high that my husband and I have not been able to visit, but we can still fully experience the flood season in our hometown.

Uncles and aunts ride bicycles and motorbikes carrying boxes of fish, crabs, and crayfish from the flood season to people's houses to invite them to buy.

Prices are now much cheaper than two months ago, for example, delicious linh fish now costs only about 100,000 VND/kg at home in the city, sometimes even as cheap as 80,000 VND, while at the beginning of the season it was even 250,000 VND and you couldn't buy it.

Ms. Muoi added that her neighbors, who are new Northerners, are fascinated by the rice field crabs that cost only 60,000 VND/kg, while in July they were still over 120,000 VND. The crabs in the rice fields are plump and have beautiful purple shells.

On the weekend, after buying a bunch of fresh linh fish, Ms. Muoi cooked hotpot with fish sauce for her husband and children to enjoy with the true taste of home.

She was busy looking after the shop, didn't need to go to the market to buy anything, just called the fishmonger who was her regular customer to ask him to buy some hotpot vegetables like water mimosa, coconut leaves, water chives, water mimosa, water lily, water mimosa flower, chopsticks...

Most of them are products of the flood season in the West and the prices are also very "affordable". She only had to pay 70,000 VND. The fishmonger also bought a jar of linh fish sauce with the right amount of flavor to cook the hotpot broth.

At this time, the season for young linh fish that the villagers like to eat has passed, so she had to buy old linh fish that were about the size of a finger, a type of fish that is not suitable for deep-frying but is still very sweet and delicious when cooked in hot pot...

Snakehead fish during the flood season are sold at Binh Tri Dong market, Ho Chi Minh City - Photo: M.DUNG

Fish return with the tide to the fields

The flood season in the West usually begins at the end of August and peaks in October.

In recent years, only 2018 had a good water level, rising to the edge of the fields. In other years, the water level was lower than the expectations of the people in this area, especially for the elderly like Ms. Muoi who have experienced many seasons of white flood water and abundant grouper products.

This year's rainy season, the West has a larger flood level than in 2023 and the products in the flooded fields seem to be better. Many traders happily wait for the water level, buying wild grouper to bring back to Ho Chi Minh City to sell as a specialty.

Linh fish dish on hotpot tray

Ms. Phan Thi Thanh - a fish trader in the border area of ​​Moc Hoa, Vinh Hung, Tan Hung, Long An province - said that these days she can deliver more than 200kg of various types of freshwater fish to customers in the city, while at the same time last year she could only collect 50-70kg per day.

"Fish connoisseurs, especially those from the West who have moved to the city to make a living, really like to eat fish during this flood season. For more than ten years now, large fish have been rare during the flood season, but those who know how to eat them still really like it because the meat is firm and fragrant thanks to the abundance of plankton in the fields...", Ms. Thanh said.

This woman who has been selling fish in the West for over 30 years said that when she was young, she used to follow her parents on fishing boats, so she "understands" how fish from the rice fields come to the city. That was in the 1980s, when the flood season in the West was still "full" of grouper.

Her parents went by 2-ton motorboat and stopped at two or three fish purchasing points in Tan Hong and Hong Ngu in the upstream area of ​​Dong Thap, but they could not carry all the fish. The sellers and buyers did not have to reach out to choose each fish, but just poured them into buckets, some into the boat, some jumped out into the canal, and no one felt sorry.

At that time, Ms. Muoi's parents transported the fishing boat back to the wholesale markets in Ho Chi Minh City, and along the way, they picked out dead fish and threw them into the river to feed the living fish.

But since the year 2000, the system of dikes and flood discharge channels has been formed, the image of rows of fish barrels lined up on the canal banks waiting for merchant boats to buy has gradually become a thing of the past. Fish, even during the flood season, are becoming increasingly scarce...

Thanh's parents were old, and when she grew up, she sold fish on her own, and no longer had to collect dead fish and throw them into the river. She put the dead fish that were not too rotten and could still be sold in ice boxes to sell as "suffocated fish" which were cheaper than live fish. The rest were soaked in salt to dry or make fish sauce.

Linh fish from Hong Ngu, Dong Thap for sale to customers - Photo: D. TUYET

Even if you have money, you must know how to choose.

"That's how it was when wild fish became rare and became a specialty. The price of wild fish was twice or four times more expensive than farmed fish. Who would dare to sell it like in the past?" Ms. Thanh said that although rare, this wild fish from the fields still comes to the city all year round because there are people who love it and dare to spend a lot of money to buy it.

In the dry season, fish are brought up from ponds in Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Hau Giang, Kien Giang, and Long An. They are usually large fish and sometimes mixed with farmed fish, which can easily fool uninformed buyers.

Fish in the flood season are easier to recognize because most of them are small. Even two common types of freshwater fish in the flood season, such as perch, are mostly only the size of two fingers at most, rarely larger enough to be called perch, while snakehead fish are still at the small stage called snakehead fish, about half the size of a wrist.

But many Westerners who are connoisseurs of copperware like fish of this size, which is delicious when fried or braised in a clay pot. Linh fish, in particular, grow with the tide. The first batch of linh fish in the water season in August is also called young linh fish, at this time "the fish that is not worshiped but is called linh fish" is still small but is favored by the countryside people...

Seasonal cuisine with freshwater fish

"During the flood season, the most popular types of fish that "swim" to the city are still linh fish because people like to eat them, and snakehead fish, snakehead fish, perch, striped snakehead fish, and sometimes there are also white-bellied fish, he fish, loach, and sesame fish.

At this time, two-finger-sized perch is about 100,000 - 120,000 VND/kg depending on the market and snakehead fish is about 140,000 - 180,000 VND..." - Ms. Nam Le, a fish seller at Binh Tri Dong market (Binh Tan district), said.

According to experienced fish traders, only linh fish brought to the city has its price gradually decreasing according to the tide from low to high in the West. The other types of fish mostly remain "stabilized" in price without decreasing because there is not much to sell.

In addition to the wholesale market, most large and small markets in Ho Chi Minh City now have fewer people selling freshwater fish compared to 20-30 years ago, but almost every market still has a few basins of natural fish for customers to choose from.

"Fish during the flood season is the most diverse and delicious of the year, but buyers must also know how to choose, otherwise it is easy to mix fish with farmed fish. It is difficult for non-foodies to distinguish, but the prices of these two types of fish are completely different...", Ms. Nam Le added that if you are not a connoisseur of farmed fish and field fish, it is best to buy from a familiar source...

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/ca-dong-da-ve-pho-20241014100442441.htm