Sibu : Home made Fish Maw

 

My grandfather, having come from Minqing in Fujian was fond of eating fish and especially fish maw soup. I was told that he did not enjoy sharks' fin soup until very much later in life as he put priority on raising a family when he was younger. He was fond of fishing and rearing domestic animals with the help of his children, very typical habits of a Minqing Foochow man.

fish maw is actually processed swim bladder of a fish. My grandfather would sun dry the swim bladder to make soup. Hence he was always delighted when he caught a very big fish. Most of my aunts learned to make fish maw. The next generation only know how to buy fish maw from the shops!

One of my aunts told me that another process would be frying the the swim bladder in oil and then keeping it in a tin. Just before cooking the fish maw soup, the fish maw should be deep fried again, and then soaked in hot water, cut into smaller pieces to be added to hot boiling soup. The flavours would be awesome. Or you can just heat a small piece of the fish mall in a micro wave oven. 

I asked some of my friends of my age and found out that not many know how to prepare the swim bladders of fish from scratch. One even said that he only heard about people preparing swim bladders in the past. He too felt that every one would just conveniently buy from the supermarkets.

In the olden days my aunts would purposely visit the fish market and buy fish of fairly good sizes in order to collect the swim bladders. Sometimes they could even buy fresh swim bladders from the fish mongers who were friendly. Those were the days when swim bladders cost almost nothing.

One of my aunts liked to prepare fish maw for her husband who loved fish maw soup. She would be so patient in preparing the swim bladder, drying them in the sun on the balcony of their shop house. People seeing her drying swim bladders would comment, "She is such a good and loving wife!!" My uncle definitely loved her to bits.

Years later she would laugh about these anecdotes. But in retrospect, she would say, "It was really quite simple. I like to save money but what is most important, we can prepare our own fish maw. It is the real thing!!"

Sometimes the fish maw we buy in the shops may be imitation fish maw.

Today really good quality fish maw can cost a fortune.

May God bless all the homemakers who make things from scratch.