Pot of braised fish on a rainy day

Rich braised fish. Photo: B.D

My hometown is a true countryside. People's lives mainly depend on a few fields to grow rice and other crops. I remember that around this time, around August or September of the lunar calendar, the rainy season begins. Every rainy season, we get to eat delicious braised fish.

Fish from upstream follow, swimming up from the swamps in countless numbers. My father said that if you work hard all day long, cast nets, traps, and cast nets, or sit fishing for a few hours, you will have a bunch of fat freshwater fish. There are many types of freshwater fish such as carp, grass carp, bighead carp, etc., but perhaps the most abundant are crucian carp and perch.

When Dad brought the fish home, Mom cleaned it, cut the big ones into pieces, and left the small ones whole. To remove the fishy smell, in addition to adding some chili peppers, Mom also added some galangal. Mom's fish stew would never lack chopped turmeric leaves and slices of sour star fruit. Mom stewed the fish in a clay pot and cooked it on a wood stove.

The meal was served, a plate of freshwater fish with turmeric leaves, a piece of yellow, sour star fruit was eye-catching, even before eating it, it was already delicious. Bringing the bowl to my mouth, eating the fish with hot rice, there were no words to describe how delicious it was.

The meat of the freshwater fish is both firm and fragrant, soaked in spices and the sour taste of star fruit. Whenever my sisters and I braised freshwater fish, our stomachs would be full. Therefore, every time we braised fish, my mother had to tell my sister to cook more rice so that the whole family would not be hungry.

Time flies, almost twenty years have passed, my family is no longer as poor as before, my father no longer has to go fishing in the rain and wind. I have also grown up, had the opportunity to travel here and there, enjoyed many delicious dishes but never forgot the braised fish on a rainy day.

Life is truly joyful and happy when there is a place to return to, to enjoy old dishes, to gather with loved ones. When sitting around the dinner table with braised fish with my parents, my heart is filled with tears...

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/noi-ca-kho-ngay-mua-3141551.html