Contents

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Accumulate more Fish Photo

After taking a break last week, I felt so desperate to do the trip this week. I'm beginning to suspect that fishing should be a form of addiction. And I think sea sickness is the main cause of that addition. I might be wrong but since drugs, alcohol and gambling involve some parts of the body being hurt or under stress and stimulated, there could be a possibility that I am right about this.

The Timur Tengaroh 2 village is becoming more quiet as the Hari Raya festival is approaching. This village is considered a newer settlement and naturally the villagers will go back to their original village during the Hari Raya festive. Salleh's family is already preparing to go back to their village when I arrived.

This is the fourth week of the Ramadan month and the Muslim is still fasting. I still have to refrain from eating and smoking in public. Something I respect about Salleh is he is still able to perform his tough fishing job while fasting.

The catch I would say is still not as good as compared to June but I do accumulate more fish photograph. I will put these up in my Fish Identification List some time this week.











Thursday, August 25, 2011

How to choose a fresh fish?

How to choose a fresh fish? The answer is simple enough. Catch the fish yourself. That way you'll be 100% sure it's fresh. Other than that you'll have to learn some background knowledge, acquire some skill and sharpen your senses.

Background Knowledge
Before we go detail into checking the fish physically, we ought to understand that there are two main categories of fish in the market. The main categories are:
  • Caught fish
  • Aqua cultured fish
Caught fish is the wild fish that normally do not come in the same sizes in the market. It normally taste better than the fish from breeding ponds and cages. In Malaysia, caught fish is much more expensive and will normally be sold to exclusive restaurant or export to other countries like Singapore. Only a small amount will end up in the local wet markets. I found out that some fishing village markets actually sell imported fish while the fishermen sold their local fish out at a different price.

Aqua cultured fish or farmed fish will normally be sold in bulk to the lower and mid range seafood restaurant, exported and sold to wet markets. Aqua cultured fish is then further divided into freshwater and saltwater. Some natural saltwater fish can be breed in freshwater. Of course the taste is different.

Time Factors
The 2 main categories the fish can be further categorized into how long the fish had been caught or harvested. This can range from days to weeks to months. Hence the terms "local" and "imported" fish come into picture. Local simply means that the fish is harvested locally and normally are being marketed within a few days to at times a week or 2 after the fish is harvested. Imported fish range from weeks onwards to months.

Some people just do not believe that some fish are actually harvested months ago before arriving at the market place. But it is true. In Malaysia the deep sea fisherman goes out to sea for as long as a week but in neighboring countries a fishing trip can last as long as three months. Fish supplier and fish monger that intend to store their fish for a long period of time are using formaldehyde solutions to keep the look of the fish. They usually have to display their fish for days before a buyer can come along. Without the implementation of advanced packaging and freezer, this is the only way for the fish to last in ice packed boxes before being sold out to their customer.

Formaldehyde is the simplest member of aldehyde family but a very reactive chemical, where the gaseous form is known as formaldehyde and the liquid form as formalin. Characteristically, formaldehyde is a colorless, strong-smelling, irritating, poisonous and flammable gas (WHO, 2002). Formaldehyde solutions or more commonly known as formalin is a chemical that is widely used as a preservation chemical for human corpse and preserved animal. International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified formaldehyde as a Group 1 carcinogenic to humans (2004). According to Malaysian Food Regulations 1985, Regulation 148 and 159 (2006), only smoked fish and meat are permitted to incidentally absorb formaldehyde during processing in a proportion not exceeding 5 µg g-1. However, for fresh fish, the permitted amount of formaldehyde present in fish is not specified.

For more information of formaldehyde solutions effects, you can search the web or visit this link:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/formaldehyde
http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/chemicals/chem_profiles/formaldehyde/health_for.html


Skill and Senses
Here are the skill to check the freshness of a fish:
  • Eyes: Look for bright, clear eyes that bulge up. The eyes are the window to a truly fresh fish, over time they fade quickly into gray dullness. Fresh fish will have their eye fluid bulge up in a spherical shape.

Fresh fish eyes are bright and clear

    Rotten Fish Eyes - Got this picture in the a wet market
  • Skin: Look at the fish. Does it shine? Does it look metallic? Or has it dulled or has discolored? Fresh fish have a somewhat slimy protective coating that keeps the fish colour rich and bright. The flesh have to be firm.

Fresh fish looks bright and metallic

The same fish as above but the skin is dull and colour faded

       If it fails the 2 criteria above, then don't even bother to go to the next steps.
  • Gills: This is the oldest trick. Opens up the gills. Fresh fish have rich red colour while the old ones are in faded bricks colour. Sticky gills could also indicate excessive use of formaldehyde solutions.

    Fresh Fish with red gills
    Dull and discoloured gills
        • Smell: Its arguable to say that fresh fish do not smell at all. Some freshly caught fish does smell quite heavily of mud but look out for pungent dead rat and nauseating chemical smell. Nauseating chemical smell is also an indication of excessive formaldehyde solutions.
        • Taste: Although it's already too late but it will build up your experience in time to choose better the next time round. Fresh fish normally do not taste bitter in the deeper coloured portion and is very tasty. There should be no foul-smell at all although some fish does come with a heavy smell and the meat should be very much intact.
        Be realistic
        Fresh fish will normally come with a much higher price unless the whole market is having a lot of similar type of fish. Don't be surprise to find freshly caught fish to cost as much as 2 to 3 times the market price. Do not fall into the cheap and fresh trap. Logically these two does not happen at the same time, or at least not in this region.

        
        Some freshly caught fish


        Wednesday, August 24, 2011

        Seafood and Fisherman's Food

        I had always been a seafood lover. Growing up in Penang island, great seafood is just easy to find. There are countless seafood restaurant that serves fresh seafood. My personal favorite during those time includes all sorts of clams, prawns, squid and crab.

        When I moved to JB about 4 years ago, I suddenly felt that the seafood here are quite bland especially prawn and fish. I had thought that maybe the seafood here are different because of the different sea environment. I was wrong. I only found out this when I made a trip to Sungai Rengit and tasted the prawn there. Ever since, I would travel hundreds of kilometers to find good seafood. I would drive 3 hours to Sungai Duyong in Melaka, Kukup in the western coast of Johor, Mersing in the east of Johor. Only the former is worth the trip. Once I even drove along the old trunk road by the west coast sea side that leads to Batu Pahat to look for seafood restaurant. At a different time, I drove all the stretch of eastern Johor coast..

        Since I step into Tanjung Leman, I started to recover back my long lost seafood taste. It is even better than when I was in Penang. Nowadays, snapper, grouper, mackerel, lobster, prawn and crab become so in reach. In the normal circumstances, fisherman would have sold those as it fetches high price from the middleman that sold it to the expensive restaurant. Most fisherman would reserve Tigertooth Croaker, mackerel and small black promfet for their own consumption because these fish taste is among the best but at the same time does not fetch a high enough price for them to give away. The fact that I'm doing it partly for pleasure, I get to enjoy the best out of it.

        Lobster maggie for breakfast
        Home cook steamboat for two adult
        Home cook Teochew Steam Roving Coral Grouper


        Sunday, August 14, 2011

        This week's catch - Getting better

        This week finally the sea is getting calm in Tanjung Leman. The water is clear and the sky looks blue. I haven't see this for quite some time. For the last few weeks there are all sorts of thunder storms, Nock-ten and even water spout which is a tornado like phenomenon happening in Tanjung Leman and Mersing. Here is the video of the water spout captured from the L.O. Corner restaurant facing the sea  on 8th of June 2011. I was lucky that the water spout did not happen in the weekend before or after. Imagine this to happen while you're still in the sea.






        The catch this week is considered much better compared to the previous few weeks. We even caught a Tropical Sand Goby or Acentrogobius Caninus, trapped in one of the Bubu placed at the fisherman Jetty. I only snapped pictures of the fish and let it go. 



        Acentrogobius Caninus - Top View

        Other catch includes a 750 grams Spotted Coral Grouper, a one kilogram green eyes Orange-spotted Grouper, some other mid size groupers, some lobsters and etc. So why the fuss about 1 kilogram or 750 gram grouper, we often see anglers with their bigger catch. Actually for groupers, 750 grams to 1 kilogram is the perfect size for best taste. Price actually drops when the grouper is larger than 1.1 kilograms. But anglers will go for bigger fish for the fun of the "fight" and not for the taste.

        Plectropomus maculatus


        The  Coral Grouper made lunch along with some small size Barramundis and Russel Snappers. I had also treated my colleagues for the Orange Spotted Grouper tonight. I'll save the lobsters for tomorrow. Gosh! I'm really gaining weight and maybe a lot of cholesterol too. Just hope the oat meal breakfast can really take care of the cholesterol built up. Maybe, sometime next week, I'll post up what kind of seafood I had been having for the last few weeks.

        Monday, August 8, 2011

        This Week's Special - Longfin Grouper

        This week the catch is not so good because majority of the fish trap are damaged. We had to repair the fish trap in the sea. The damage fish trap are those located at the lobster area. We believe it is most probably due to other fisherman's lobster net stucked and they damaged the fish trap while releasing their net.

        Caught a longfin grouper this week.

        Epinephelus Quoyanus

        This week there are some white sea urchins stuck on the fish trap. Like all sea urchins, these sea urchins have sharp spikes that is easily broken.

        
        White sea urchin

        Monday, August 1, 2011

        Rough Sea This Week - Nock-ten

        I've been to Tanjung Leman for the past 3 months but this time the sea is the roughest I've ever seen in this area. I guessed it's most likely to be affected by the storm called Nock-ten which hits the Philippines and South Korea badly. from Tuesday this week killing more than 50 in Philippines alone.
        For the detail reports on the storm, visit this link:
        http://my.news.yahoo.com/toll-philippines-storms-hits-54-111801312.html.


        Rough sea  viewed from Leman Beach with Sibu Island and Pulau Tinggi

        The condition on the beach is actually not so bad although strong wind is felt and I spent time capturing some photograph of the Leman Beach.

        Beach Camping

        
        My favorite resting spot below the sea hibiscus tree at the center of picture

        On the next day, the sea had calmed down in the morning but just before noon the condition begins to turn bad again. We're in the sea when the strong wind started to blow again and we could not finish collect the fish from all the fish trap. Just had to turn back. Brought back some lobster, one grouper, one large eel catfish and a few snapper.


        
        Lobster caught

        Eel Catfish
        Russel’s Snapper or Ikan Tanda

        We actually went back out to sea to try our luck with Apollo net and got back with some king prawns, tiger prawn and all sorts of fishes. But I had to come back after the second cast when the sea got so rough that for the first time I got sea sick. Went back to Skudai at about 6 pm with just some king prawn, a grouper and a mangrove snapper.

        King prawn