March 16, 2013

Mackerel II - From Nang Chong to Luak Bay

The Bubuk Season is ongoing in Miri at the moment and Luak Bay is full of men and women and children moving along the water edges with their PAKA.

The fishermen and fisherwomen who go to sea with their motorised boats continue with their daily work and come home with large trays of MACKEREL or ma ka.

Here Wahid and his family netted some huge mackerels this morning.


No photo description available.



With customers asking only for slices,or steaks Mrs. Wahid kindly cut the fish....



I like the parts below the stomach. This is a MALE mackerel.




My lunch this afternoon. I wish my children are here to share the fresh fish.

You see I am far away from Nang Chong Village now where my grandmother used to live. She would love to have a bit of this. Foochow way of eating the mackerel would be cutting up the fish into small pieces and deep fried. In those days, the mackerels she bought were small, around 1 kg. and nothing like the 6 kg monsters we get today.

Foochow fishermen with their old wooden boats without the help of ice in those days, could not go very far into the sea. Most of the time, they would make salted fish straight away. Wet salted fish or dry salted fish.

Life for those Foochow fishermen were tough, they had no handphones, no wireless radios, no radar. A few men were lost at sea. When life became too tough and the Communists over ran the state, they gave up their boats and took up rough work in Sibu as labourers.

In actual fact, according to one Foochow uncle, some of our Foochow pioneers were fishermen to start with in China and when they came to Sibu, they started padi farmer and pepper farming. Rubber planting was an entire new kind of work for them.

So you can imagine the cultural shock they had and how amazing it was for them to survive the changes in life.

And in the same way, our tastes have also slowly changed and evolved. We have learned to use belacan, chillies, pepper. We have learned to smoke our fish, grill our fish, and bake. Times are changing and we have to learn to adopt, adapt. And be adept.







8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am extremely inspired with your writing talents as
neatly as with the format for your blog. Is this
a paid subject or did you modify it your self?
Either way stay up the nice high quality writing,
it's uncommon to peer a nice weblog like this one nowadays..

Here is my site :: zetaclear reviews

William said...

CY has always been a very talented writer!

CY, I like your research. You seems to have never ending information about the good old days.

Anonymous said...

Tourist Attractions in India- Are you looking for holiday in India? Go Holiday India best offers holidays to India, India holidays,india Tour Packages and famous Tour and Travel Delhi, Agra, Jaipur,Rajasthan.

Ensurai said...

Thanks. Would appreciate it if you keep reading!!

Ensurai said...

Thanks William. I have people who love to tell me stories...and I get to know more people in hope of finding more stories.

Ensurai said...

Thanks . Hoping to go to India one day....

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

you cook it really nicely.

Ensurai said...

Ann, just simple cooking. I did not deep fry like most people do. It is the Western style. shallow frying. thanks.

Soh Mien on First Day of Lunar New Year

 Today 10.2.2024 is the first day of the New Lunar Year of the Dragon. Yes I have cooked the chicken and made the soh mien. Happy New Year!!...