Friday, April 11, 2014

Elephant Ear Fish@ Ho Chi Minh City - PhotoHunt

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 The Kissing Elephant Ear Fish :P

PhotoHunt theme : Ginormous/ Stones

We spent a day island-hopping, exploring the natural beauty of the Mekong Delta to escape from the hustle and bustle of the big city.

Walking on dusty dirt roads as we passed through a village to the next stop, we often saw piles of bricks and stones outside dilapidated houses. The owners are probably making a good living with the hundreds of tourists descending on their village daily. ;)

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After visiting a honey bee farm and a candy factory, about mid-day we were absolutely famished when we arrived at a fruit tree farm. After snacking on some local fruits, we had a thrilling ride on a sampan into the deeper canals of the Mekong river to find lunch.

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We had a unique lunch set in a pagoda restaurant, surrounded by lotus and koi on the Mekong Delta. 

The moment the eight of us seated ourselves around the table, a waiter plopped a pair of ginormous Osphronemus Exodon or Elephant Ear Gouramis as its commonly known before us. A waitress followed with a ginormous sticky rice ball and placed it in front of me.

Every one whipped out their camera phones and snapped away, not allowing the service staff to touch the two items until we had taken photos to our hearts' content. LOL 
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Gutted and deep fried, then propped up on a plate between wooden chopsticks, the fish has a sweet and succulent flesh which is meaty. Deep fried with its scales on, the whole fish including its fins and scales are all edible. :)

The waiter picked off the flesh and together with local herbs (such as mint, cucumber basil), and noodles are placed in wafer thin rice pancakes which are tightly rolled and dipped into a Muoc Cham fish sauce.

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yummy fish wrapped in rice paper

We had fried chicken, deep fried cassava balls, steamed prawns and a vegetable soup.

This local Mekong cuisine is served at Diem Phuong Restaurant. After lunch we returned back to Ho Chi Minh City.


20 comments:

  1. interesting looking Kissing Elephant Ear Fish . Fried?

    Over here there is one restaurant that does similar dish but using Tilapia fish. Called Salted Baked Tilapia

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    1. Deep fried. Salt baked tilapia, I learn another way of cooking the fish. :)

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    2. yup....am still puzzling how to salt bake the fish. Hubs said pour salt in unwanted wok and baked....but am not sure. seems tedious

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  2. Never saw an elephant ear fish ! Looks funny !

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  3. really enjoying this documentation of your vietnam trip. is this packaged tour and what's your tour agency?

    love fried fish.

    frankly my dear

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    Replies
    1. It's a packaged tour. Most Vietnamese agencies offered this island hopping tour. It's an unforgettable experience, al least for city folks like me. :)

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  4. Oh interesting, i like vietnamese food, feels very healthy :P

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  5. Never had rice paper. But I have rice paper candy. I'm pretty adventure when it comes to food. I would have to go to leave the area to try those dishes.
    Mine is up and coffee is on

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  6. Merci pour ce très beau reportage. Tes photos sont magnifiques.
    Amicalement.

    Roger

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  7. The fish looks ginormous. And the rice ball is amazing.

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  8. You would have to have a ginormous appetite for all that food!

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  9. Thanks for sharing your adventures; I'm enjoying these posts!

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