Malaysian fishy tales

MM Online:

Malaysian woman raises eyebrows online after turning pet koi fish into soup dish

Omeychua said the koi fish tasted like ‘ikan patin.’ — Pictures via Facebook/amanda.omeychua21

PETALING JAYA, Jan 21 — A Malaysian woman shocked Facebook users recently after she shared photos of her dead pet koi fish being turned into soup.

The woman, who goes by the name Amanda Omeychua, made a post on the group “Masak Apa Tak Jadi Hari Ni” (which roughly translates to “Cooking Fails of the Day” in English) which included a photo of over 20 dead koi lying on the floor.

According to one of Omeychua’s comments, the fish died of suffocation after her domestic helper forgot to turn on the oxygen pump in their pond.

She then decided to turn the colourful creatures into dinner rather than let them go to waste.

“A traditional recipe for a king. It tasted like ikan patin (silver catfish),” wrote Omeychua, along with the hashtags #drownedkoi and #MCOsoup.

Her post has gone viral with over 10,000 reactions and 4,500 comments so far.

Some users were less than enthused about Omeychua’s dish and said they couldn’t stomach the sight of pets being made into food.

“If it was me, I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to eat my own pet fishes. I would just bury them, it would be too sad,” said one user.

“The fish are too cute to eat. I guess we all have our tastes,” wrote another.

Others were surprised that koi fish were even edible in the first place.

“So it turns out you can eat koi fishes. All this time, I thought they were just pretty decorations for the pond,” said one user.

Some Malaysians also claimed to have enjoyed koi fish soup at various restaurants in Penang, Sabah, and Sarawak.

In one of her comments, Omeychua apologised to anyone who may have felt grossed out by her unusual meal.

Koi fish are popular pets in many Asian countries where they are seen as symbols of good luck and prosperity.

High-quality breeds can fetch a high price on the market and the most expensive koi fish in the world was sold in 2018 to a Taiwanese woman for US$1.8 million (RM7.2 million).

Kohaku - is the most expensive koi ever sold, in China $2.2 million US dollar

 

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kt notes:

Koi are basically carp which when steamed Chinese-style, ie. with ginger slices, shitake mushroom slices, snui phoi (Chinese pickled plums), soya sauce, etc, is a very deliciously smooth and appetising dish. 

Most of my Chinese, Indian and even Malay readers would have eaten the dish as it's only a fish dish with just pickled vegetables and mushrooms, thus effectively halal (though without JAKIM certification, wakakaka - nowadays, even baby diapers have to certified halal, wakakaka again).

The basic difference between koi, the beautiful colourful pet fish, and the ordinary river (or pond) carp that's steamed for our gastronomical delights, is the fish gorgeous colour and its general shape. It's this factor, the fish wondrous colour markings, that makes the koi a much prized pet.

Wikipedia informs us: Carp are a large group of fish originally found in Central Europe and Asia. Various carp species were originally domesticated in East Asia, where they were used as food fish.

Carp are coldwater fish, and their ability to survive and adapt to many climates and water conditions allowed the domesticated species to be propagated to many new locations, including Japan. Natural color mutations of these carp would have occurred across all populations. Carp were first bred for color mutations in China more than a thousand years ago, where selective breeding of the Prussian carp led to the development of the goldfish.

goldfish - together with carps, considered pests in some countries (eg. Australia). Their authorities prohibit goldfish or carp-koi releases into local rivers, lakes and ponds

The authorities also encourage freshwater fishermen to catch as many of the carps as possible, and never to release those carps back into the rivers and lakes even if undesired for eating. Kaytee and some East European friends in Oz love to steam these carps for snacks while we quaff our beer and wine

In October 2007, I penned
Does an 'Asian' eat 'Asian' food at home? (2) in my other blog KTemoc Kongsamkok. In that post I wrote (just an extract):

There is a restaurant in Bogor (near Jakarta, Indonesia) that does an incredible grilled sweet-sauce-coated carp dish served with rice, ulam and sambal terasi*.

Bogor

When I was last there, I saw a particular huge fat golden carp swimming around happily in the pond under part of the restaurant (yes, it was on stilt).

Cheryl (btw, that’s the name of the carp – all carps have names starting with ‘C’, wakakaka) swam hopefully in circles beneath me expecting that I would throw some food to it. There and then, I was reminded of the Malay fairytale of Bawang Merah & Bawang Putih, where the evil but gorgeous stepmother turned the poor mum into a carp and imprisoned her in a well – hmmm, maybe some other time for this fairytale.

Before long, after a couple of refreshing drinks, I walked up to the dining table and discovered to my horror that Cheryl had ended up on a plate before me. I pretended not to recognise her, and in fact had to rotate the plate around so that her accusing eyes weren’t fixed on guilty me. But in honour of Cheryl I partook of her body with great relevance, with the regular pinch of sambal terasi*, jasmine rice and ulam. I celebrated her by respectful mouthfuls.

* 'terasi' is Indonesian for our Malaysian 'belacan', hence 'sambal terasi' is 'sambal belacan'

So there is nothing unusual about Amanda Omeychua cooking her dead pet koi. My only hesitation in eating them would be the fact those fish died of supposedly oxygen starvation, but who knows whether their demise could have been due to some other (less palatable) causes.