Special night market selling 'winking' animals

WATCH CLIP: Night squid market in Cua Lo

When the coastal city lights up, on the road to Lan Chau Island, Cua Lo town is bustling with people and tourists coming here to buy flashing squid. This is a famous specialty squid that few people miss when looking to relax at the most bustling beach in Nghe An.

Flashing squid (also known as jumping squid) refers to squid that fishermen have just caught from the sea, still fresh, with eyes and stars on the body of the squid flashing. This type of squid is a specialty of the sea in Nghe An, usually appearing from March to August every year.

Ms. Hoang Thi Que has just taken a batch of live squid from her husband's basket boat that she caught from the sea to shore to sell. *Photo: Quoc Huy*

This market starts at around 7pm. After returning from fishing, people gather to sell squid on the road to Lan Chau Island, in Nghi Thuy Ward, every evening.

During this time, many gourmets often take a boat to shore to buy the squid, without waiting for it to be sold at the market. The squid is sold in bunches (squid put in trays or plastic baskets - PV), each bunch contains 15 to 20 or 12 to 15 squid. Each bunch of fresh, still-flashing squid costs from 150,000 to 300,000 VND, which means each squid costs from 15,000 to 20,000 VND.

The best time for flashing squid to be sold by fishermen is from 7pm to 10pm. After this time, the price of flashing squid will gradually decrease as the night progresses.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Dao (Nghi Thuy ward, Cua Lo town) said that her family fishes for squid using basket boats, the husband goes out to sea, the wife stays on shore waiting for goods every evening.

The special market only sells batches of squid in iron trays. Photo: Quoc Huy

"Every night, fishermen usually go fishing about 2 trips, from 4pm to after 9pm. They split the trips into two because the squid caught is fresh, the boat must dock and sell it to customers immediately to get a good price. Depending on the amount of squid caught each night, when there are still customers, they will sell until midnight. Every night, if we are lucky and there is a lot of squid, our income is more than 1 million VND/person" - Ms. Dao shared.

Mr. Pham Van Phung (a fisherman in Thu Thuy ward) shared: “From 5pm, we will pull the basket boat down to the sea, fishing until around 8pm before returning to shore. On calm days, there is a lot of squid, each boat can catch 2-3kg/night. There are times when there are many customers, there is not enough squid to sell, there are also days when the sea is rough, we go fishing all night but only catch 2-3 squids”.

According to fishermen, most of the squid caught is sold out that night, and on days when there are many tourists, there is not enough squid to sell.

Knowing that Cua Lo beach had the first flashing squid of the season, Mr. Tran Minh Phuc (Hung Nguyen district, Nghe An) went down to the sea late at night to buy some. "Everyone is addicted to flashing squid, just waiting for summer to enjoy it. The squid is fresher and sweeter than the ones sold in the market. I fought for a long time to buy a few bunches" - Mr. Phuc said with a smile.

According to restaurant owners here, the best squid is when it is just caught and brought to shore, cleaned and left whole, boiled, steamed with beer, or eaten raw. The sweet, fatty taste and crispiness of the fresh squid have become a unique culinary feature of the coastal city of Cua Lo.

Some images recorded by VietNamNet at the special market selling flashing squid in Cua Lo: