A mouth-watering feast of grilled Mekong snakehead fish served in a Can Tho restaurant

Snakehead doesn’t sound appetizing? Try it grilled in a bamboo shoot…

The delta’s culinary artists first season a 500-600 gram snakehead fish with dried onion, garlic, sugar, fish sauce and pepper. While waiting for the fish to marinate in the spices, they prepare the piece of bamboo by cutting it in halves lengthwise. This is the best time to light the coals under the stove.

After an hour of marinating, the fish is wrapped in banana leaf and placed between the two halves of bamboo, with the tips covered by aluminum foil.

Zinc wire is used to tie the pipe together before placing it over the red-hot coals.

The fish should be grilled over a small fire. Turn the bamboo regularly and don’t let the join face the fire, or the fish will be burned.

After about 30 minutes of grilling on a very low fire, the fish should be well-done and sweet. Take it off the stove, remove the zinc wire, and use a knife to separate the two bamboo halves.

Wild snakehead fish and a green bamboo stalk make for the best dish. A wild fish has the sweetest flavour while green bamboo makes the fish meat more fragrant.

People in the Mekong Delta usually eat the grilled snakehead fish by hand-rolling the meat in rice paper with Vietnamese vermicelli rice noodles (bun) and vegetables. The rolls are then dipped into fish sauce or soybean paste.

The dish is served at most restaurants in the delta city of Can Tho and many southern cuisine restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City as well.

Reported by Diem Thu