Fish Head Soup

For obvious reasons during  the Holy Week, there was an abundance of fresh fish heads in the seafood aisle of the the supermarket. I bet the Asian community, especially the Vietnamese, were happy about this bounty. The fish heads were packed in styrofoam and neatly cling wrapped.There were three fish heads to a pack.Watching the heads arranged in the seafood chiller made me remember  the late Doreen Fernandez ruminations on the variety of flavorful and gastronomic pleasures one can wrangle on a fish head. Be it charcoal grilled or boiled as sinabawan or sinigang, the fish head never fails to enlighten the tongue in its potential to discover hidden flavors.
                   

Sour Fish head soup  or Can chua ca  is a  popular traditional South Vietnamese cuisine. It has some semblance to the Filipino sinigang because it uses a base souring agent. Sinigang has kamias, tomatoes or batwan as souring ingredients. Can chua ca uses pineapple. However the Vietnamese version infuses, sliced sour bamboo, cilantro leaves and fish sauce on the soup. It is more aromatic and several degrees saltier than sinigang. It has more layers and textures and altogether offers a different flavor.

My own version of the sour fish soup  excluded the sliced pineapple  and sour bamboo. Crushed ginger and a good bunch of sliced cilantro  were the central flavors in my soup.

         

One thing to remember when making fish head soup is not to plunge the fish head in the soup if  the liquid is still short of boiling or it will fall apart. The liquid has to be boiling. That, according to the book "The Classic Cuisine of Vietnam".

Comments

[jenny]

Ange,

Have discovered how to get wonderful, all natural and very large fish heads(Salmon) for free. Whole Foods market (don't know if you have them there, but they are all over the U.S.) - if you ask the fishmonger will give it to you for free!!!!
I have my little one trained to eat fish head soup, and she loves it!

[angelo]

too bad we don't have whole foods here.
lucky you jen, to get fish heads for free.
isabella loves to eat the fish eyes and we always "fight" on who gets them.
really, how heathy can you go with sinabawan, no?

Sus kay kamahal kon mabakal sa Asian market...likewise, my little Izzy also loves to go for the fish eyes. I have taught her to eat the brains as well. My poor husband got home one day and found us voraciously attaching the humongous salmon head...oh the joys of freaking him out...