Sibu Tales : Fish Heads

 In the olden days, fish heads were considered very tasty parts by the Foochows, so fish was always served with the head, and the tail.  However most foreigners serving in Sibu were very afraid of seeing fish heads in their soup!

"No fish head for me!!" an American missionary once said. Many Foochow students were intrigued. And they tried to coax her into eating the fish head soup. But she politely refused. This was the kind of cultural shock that many frugal Foochows would come across. It has been known that we Foochow could eat anything, except tables and aeroplanes.

Today tastes have changed, the younger generation love burgers, fish fingers etc. Only some enjoy the traditional Foochow dishes.

However I still like to think that most Foochows love WHOLE fish fried, steamed or boiled.

At banquets in Sibu, sweet and sour whole fish was considered a good dish, but the best would be a whole steamed White Pomfret. That was a first class dish.

Sea fish from the deeper seas would be bigger and often the heads would be sold for less, while the steaks would be sold off piece by piece.

fish used for fish balls would also be cut up and the heads and tails sold off separately.

And then housewives would come to buy fish heads for their cats too. We also learn that fish heads are collected by people who make fertilizers or those who grow orchids.

At one time, there was a nasty man who almost had a fight with us. He was always throwing fish heads along the road next to our house. He used that small lane as his dumping ground and he paid no attention to our house which is only about 50 m from the small lane, at right angle to his fish heads. Later we asked the Council to put up a signboard for no dumping. Some people are really inconsiderate. So inhuman.

Bigger fish heads from Pa Tiek Poh, Red Snapper, and other fish would be snapped up by restaurants to make fish head noodles or bee hoon or just make fish stock for their various fish soups.

I wish I can buy salmon fish heads more often in Miri. Salmon fish heads are also sold very cheaply overseas because westerners do not eat fish heads.

Fish heads have also recently become very popular in many parts of Malaysia because of Fish Head Curry, Fish Head Masak Assam Pedas, and Fish Head Tom Yam. As the foodies become more influential, people's tastes also change over the years. Fusion food is all the trend and fancy now.

My favourite way of eating fish head is fish head bee hoon. Another good fish dish is chow chai hoong ngang which traditionally has some fish heads but today the new recipes call for easier ingredients like chicken slices, fish balls, and tinned oysters. 

Fish heads are not easy to prepare.