![]() There is no doubt, however, that it is a nutritious fish that is easily available and affordable. There is also something in its silver coating that some believe is anti-carcinogenic. The Chinese appreciate this fish for its high fat content and it is believed that it is a food that can reduce cholesterol. It can also be cooked with tangy tomatoes. The fish is often red-cooked until tender, with plenty of thinly sliced brown onions and shredded ginger. In the northern regions, they like to douse the fried hairtail with an appetite-whetting brown vinegar and sugar gravy, which also helps repel any lingering pungency. Sometimes, Welsh onions or scallions are added and the fish and herbs become a topping for noodles. The fried fish can be processed one more step, by braising in a savoury brown sauce that varies in different regions. The most common way is to shallow-fry it to a crisp, so that the thin edges can be crunched up while the flesh inside remains sweet and tender. Hairtail, beltfish, ribbon fish, knife fish-its English names are many, but the Chinese know it generally as daiyu, one of the few instances when the country is linguistically united. It helps that this species of fish has always been in abundant supply in the seas around China, enough to feed the mighty masses. Otherwise, the hairtail has few other fine bones, unlike the slim forked bones of most Chinese freshwater fish.įor this reason, the hairtail is appreciated, and also for the sweetness of its flesh. The transparent side fins are attached to long, thin, comb-like bones that pierce the sides and these have to be carefully removed before eating. It lacks a traditional fish tail and the side fins taper to a thin thread at the tip. It is a member of the cutlassfish family, with double rows of fins running down both sides. These days, hairtails are more often than not sold flash-frozen, already processed and cut into much shorter sections. Males have thick jaws and a bulging forehead. The slender fish are as gray as a rain cloud, with large heads and dark spots over their backs. They swim by making deep S-shapes with their bodies, like a snake moving across the ground. Once, in a seafood market in Xiamen, we saw freshly caught hairtail glittering in the sun and they were an unforgettable sight. Wolf-eels live in shallow water as deep as 740 feet (225 m). Freshly caught, the fish are laid out in rows at the fishmonger's, lengthy ribbons that resemble rather flat eels.
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