Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Fish Story

Today, some of my friends and I were sharing thoughts on recipes for toddlers and came on the looooooooong topic on fish names...

For me, I like going to the fish section at the hypermarkets to check out on the names and the prices coz' the I don't really recognise some of the fish slices at the morning markets most of the time and the prices and be high. I normally go for mah yau, se pan or hong chou for my son.

Can't help but post part of the "e-conversation" here. Can be quite funny too.

C.Nee : My gal loves fried fillet. Try to fry the fillet first without salt ya), then cook the fried fillet with some water and soy sauce. Very yummy....
Y.Leng : .....eh, what fish fillet u r talking abt? .. r u talking abt the 'ikan sebelah' which we can get from the market or the frozen type?
C.Nee : 1 piece of fish potong horizontal like "ma yau" (cantonese), "beh kah" (hokkien), "hong chou" (cantonese)...any fish lar...If can get fresh one lor....frozen not so good. "beh kah" (hokkien), "hong chou" (cantonese). Very fragrant when fried.
Chanel : For steaming ok ah?How the fish looks like, got picture ah?
C.Nee : Venice, pls help with the fish terms. Errr....same look lar...."beh kah" is the one without sisik, with dark shinny smooth skin. Jenahak has got red,black skin with big
sisik....sometimes myself also cannot recognise, will ask the fishmonger.....

Venice : i still wondering what fish lar chin nee. can u pls resend the photo to me again
C.Nee : Haha....remember liao....in english , it is called Mackerel. In hokkien, it is called "tua pan"......
Sharon : there's a few type of mackerel. One of it is considered "tuk"
C.Nee : Tuk is the ikan tongkol, I believe..
Venice : in bahasa malaysia is called ikan tenggiri. in cantonese called kau yue. taste very good when fried it but steam is a no no coz doesn't suit the taste if u steam it. Ikan tenggiri can oso make fish ball, buy from market which oredi pre pack then can have home made fish ball
C.Nee : Ok, let me get this straight:-1. Ikan tenggiri = 'kau yue' in cantonese and "tua pan" in hokkien.This is a not scally fish, usually used to make fish ball, mamak shop use to fry it and sell in pieces of make fish curry. Another variety is the fish look very much like tenggiri but in rounder body is called ikan tongkol.
2. Ikan senangin = 'mah yau' contonese and "beh kah" This is a longish, white and scally fish.
3. Ikan jenahak = hong chou???
4. Ikan parang = 'sai tou yue'??
correct??

Sharon : no lah. Beh Kah is not senangin (mah yau). Beh Kau is "ang hu" / "ang chor". You can get mah yau slices from wet markets.
C.Nee : Sharon, ang hu and ang chor different ler.....
Sharon : Aiyo... I pening already..
C.Nee : Ang hu = ikan merah (cheap). Ang chor = jenahak (expensive) black red colour. Almost look like "se pan".

So, what's the conclusion? I'm really confused.

I think the summary is :
senangin - mah yau (cantonese), beh kah (hokkien), threadfin (english)
jenahak - hong chou (cantonese), ang chor (hokkien) {black red colour}
parang -sai tou (cantonese)
kerapu - sek pan (cantonese), garoupa (english)
kurau - ??
tenggiri (longer body) - kau yue (cantonese), tua pan (hokkien), mackerel (english)
tongkol (rounder body) - mackerel (english)

16 comments:

LHS said...

I totally get confused of those fishes.

What i normally do, slice the mah-yau in small pieces like fillet, sprinkle some powder (shang fun in cantonese), fry a bit with ginger then pour some water and soy sauce. Ya, very delicious.

Sue said...

dont' even ask me anything about fishes... i don't know their look nor do i know their names... only one i know and is easy to recognise is pak chong

Lazymama said...

Fish...I know how to eat! Ask me to name them, forget about it! :P

Jess said...

Fish name? me also "half pail water" knowledge!!

jazzmint said...

hehe..me oso confused with the fish..i usually point and ask..and then ask eh got bones, a lot bones, how to cook..then end up buying it if it's OK. Best is salmon, easy to recognise kekeke

Tracy said...

Eeesh, all the while I thought Ikan Kurau was "Ma Yau" but from ur summary, Ikan Senangin is "Ma Yau". Correct or not?

From what I know, there're 2 types of "Ma Yau" and "Sek Pan" - the big ones (where u can get in slices) and the small ones (satu ekor kecil).

Hee, hee, I'm able to recognise most of the fish in the market cos I always buy different types of fish to cook, Ikan Bawal (White Pomfret) being the most recognisable one (my family's favourite)and Telapia (Fei Chau), Dory (fillet), Kembong, Selar (like Ikan Kembong but usually we stuff with sambal belacan), Siakap, Cod, Skate (Ikan Hantu), Catfish, Patin (bigger than catfish with two long fillers and white in colour)and etc, etc, etc.

mom2ashley said...

im hopeless with this but any tips would be good especially when ashley starts to eat solids!

Babysmooches said...

Jazz, I malu to ask too many question. Takut kena cheated by the fishmonger. lol.

Tracy, I've always wanted to know if Dory is a "good" fish. We buy selar quite often but seldom buy kembong coz kembong is considered "tok" (I'm still breastfeeding). If we do eat kembong, we normally chop the head off.

Dinah, get those fish slices that can be used for cooking porridge. The fishmonger will normally recommend the good ones. :-)

Tracy said...

I can tell u dat Dory's flesh is delicious, no bones at all and can found in supermarkets (even in markets) and it's easy to prepare. When cooked in porridge, it has a 'sweet' (teem in Cantonese - tasty) taste. I always cut into small pieces, coat with cornflour, fry and prepare sweet sour sauce and pour the sauce over the fried fillets ... yummy, yummy. (psst, psst, I did stop buying Dory's flesh for sometime after watching "NEMO", hee, hee).

Ya, ya, for the time being, u better not take Ikan Kembong as u r still breastfeeding, not very good but then again any reason why cos my Malay frens who are either in confinement period or breastfeeding, they do take Ikan Kembong.(*question mark*)

Mumsgather said...

I oso donch know my fish lah. If go to wet market, simply point point to buy. At least supermarket got some fish names so slowly learning from trial and error and experiment. hehehe. So charm and useless.

Babysmooches said...

I've just realised that it can be cheaper to buy Brendan's fish at Tesco than at the morning market near my house!! Kena "cut throat" by the morning market fishmonger!! I can easily spend RM50 there while at Tesco, I spend about half of that amount for Brendan's one week supply!

lulu said...

Not too sure about the chinese names but I do know with absolute certainty that tongkol is tuna, not mackerel and kurau is threadfin not senangin. i'm also quite sure that beh kah is horse mackerel :) hope this helps you a bit at least.

Leo said...

kurau - mah yau (cantonese), ngor her (hokkien), orr [black] ngor (hokkien), Indian Threadfin (english)

senangin - mah yau (cantonese), ngor her (hokkien), peh[white] ngor (hokkien), Fourfinger threadfin (english)

jenahak - hong chou (cantonese), ang chor (hokkien) {silver golden colour}, golden snapper (english)

jenahak (more commonly called Ikan Merah in Malay) - hong yu (cantonese), {black red colour}, Humpback red snapper (english)

Ikan parang (is just parang, it mean the type of big knife you use to cut thru dense forest) -sai tou (cantonese), wolf herring (english)

kerapu - sek pan (cantonese), garoupa (Portuguese), grouper (english)

tenggiri batang (longer & bigger body with dark grey vertical bar pattern) - kau yue (cantonese), beh ka (hokkien), Narrow-barred Spanish Mackerel (english), 马鲛鱼 (ma jiao yu) - Mandarin


P.S Tenggiri are large fish which is around your armn length
tenggiri papan/ bunga - kau yue (cantonese), beh ka (hokkien), Indo-Pacific King Mackerel/Spotted Spanish Mackerel (english), 马鲛鱼 (ma jiao yu)/斑点马鲛 (Bāndiǎn mǎ jiāo) - Mandarin

Ikan Tenggiri Korea (many little spot pattern) - kau yue (cantonese), tua pan (hokkien), Korean Seerfish (english), 马鲛鱼 (ma jiao yu) - Mandarin

Ikan tongkol (rounder body & super small as in palm size) - cha hu (hokkien), Long Corseletted Frigate Mackerelmackerel (english), bullet tuna (english)

Babysmooches said...

Thanks for dropping by Leo Lee and thanks for the detailed explanation. Much appreciated. :-)

Leo said...

I am no expert myself. I was searching for fish name in Cantonese > Eng > Malay and found your blog.

I found more details from a forum though:
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/4503695?author=xxhenry89xx

Babysmooches said...

It's an old post but it's nice to receive your message and still learn something new. :-) Thanks again Leo Lee.

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