A HEADS-UP ON A TASTY TREAT
It’s not only the Chinese and Japanese who cherish a certain part of the fish, but Thais also have a taste for it
There is an old Chinese saying that advises “if you want to be happy for a day, eat some pork. If you want to be happy for three months, get married. But if you want to be happy for life, go fishing.” Adding to that, if you want to really enjoy the fish you’re eating, eat the head. Some people might not agree, but if you know how to go about enjoying a fish head, you may well become as happy as the old Chinese saying promises.
Nature has given the fish thick skin on its head as well as clumps of firm meat on its cheeks. At the joint of the lower jaw is a tendon that encloses the bone and allows the jaw to open and shut. The meat in the upper belly, near the pectoral fins, is the fattiest and most tender on the entire fish, and is free of bones. But the head is special in that it has skin, cartilage and tender meat.
When a fish head has been fully cooked, that skin will become loose and won’t stick to the skull and the skin and tendons around the mouth will be soft and slippery. The Chinese are experts at using chopsticks to gradually pick away the skin, suck out the tendons and eat the belly meat, which they remove with surgical skill to the very last particle.
Of course, this kind of dining takes time, so fish meals are relaxed, entertaining affairs where everyone socialises and has fun.
People willing to take time for a long, relaxed meal are usually easy-going types without work-related obligations that are going to take them away before they are ready to go. Elderly Chinese believe that a person who knows how to enjoy a fish head is probably upper-class and well-to-do, not a worker who has to watch the clock and get things done in a hurry.
There used to be a familiar story about a group of bandits who were trying to identify a certain millionaire who was one of a group of travellers with the plan of holding him for ransom. The rich man knew he was in danger, so he disguised himself by dressing like the other travellers. The bandits found him anyway: by watching him carefully, they saw that when the group of travellers sat down for a fish meal, he was the one who went for the head.
The mealtime allure of the fish head was not limited to China in the past. In other countries with Chinese populations, the taste for them has never declined and remains strong today. In Thailand, where there are Chinese restaurants everywhere, the dish called hua pla maw fai is a staple on the menu. The maw fai is a round hotpot in which the soup or other liquid dish is kept hot by charcoal or other fuel burning in the lower part, with a tubular vent coming up through the centre.
The fish of preference for this dish is the song hue (big head), a fish that originated in China and is now raised in Thailand. It is a good-quality fish, although the entire body, except for the head, is very bony.
To make the hua pla maw fai, the fish head is cut into pieces and briefly fried. Pieces of taro are fried, too, and when they are done both the fish head and the taro pieces are simmered in broth together with cabbage and Chinese celery. Soy sauce and sesame oil are added as seasoning. The heads of sea bass and garoupa can also be used to make delicious maw fai hua pla, especially if the heads are large, with thick skin.
This is hua pla maw fai as served in Chinese restaurants and ordinary khao tom (rice soup) shops. In the khao tom shops where the dish contains fish meat, pieces of fish head are also put in for customers who like it.
In Japan, fish head simmered in soy sauce is a much-loved dish. Cooks there like to use the head of the salmon because, besides having thick skin and cartilage, it has succulent meat in the front part of the belly. With long simmering the bones become soft, so there is no danger of one sticking in the throat.
These days, when so many people know about the virtues of salmon as a food fish and its meat can be found in most good supermarkets, the heads should be sold, too. But they are scarce, with not enough of them available to satisfy the demand.
But it isn’t only the Chinese and Japanese who savour the fish head. There are many Thais who like it, too. One classic Thai dish is the chilli sauce called nam phrik kapi, eaten with a steamed and fried pla thuu (a type of mackerel). In the past, when the pla thuu were much cheaper than they are now, people who had a taste for fish heads would buy the smaller fish, which were even less expensive than the big ones.
The reason was not that they were poor and trying to economise, however. When small pla thuu are fried, the heads become crispy and have an appealing flavour all their own. A taste for fried pla thuu head with nam phrik kapi is not universal in Thailand, but those who do like the dish really cherish it.
And the pla thuu isn’t the only fish whose head is esteemed by Thais. Tom yam pla chon is one of the most popular dishes of its kind in Thai restaurants. Most people prefer it made with the meat of the pla chon, but there are those — and there are many of them — who prefer it made with the head, usually with the phoong pla (fish innards) included. As a result, on the menus of restaurants that serve tom yam dishes you will usually see a listing for tom yam hua phoong pla chon. The sun-dried head of the pla chon was a preserved food popular with Thais of the past. When the meat of a fresh pla chon had been used to make food, the leftover meat was dried in the sun, and once that was gone, only the dried head was left. It could be prepared for the table in a number of ways.
One popular dish was made by simmering the dried fish head in coconut cream. When it had become soft pieces of pumpkin squash were added, and then the soup was seasoned with palm sugar and a little nam pla (fish sauce). It wasn’t necessary to add much of the latter because the dried fish head was already salty.
The longer the soup was left on the fire to simmer, the more fully it was flavoured by the fish, and the bones of the head became soft and crunchy. The result was an old-fashioned dish that was far more delicious than it may sound, but one that has been almost completely forgotten today.
Fish heads in any form might not be a first choice for many people, especially since other parts of the fish are so tasty. But if you give it a try, you may well be won over and come to share the old Chinese belief that, if you want to savour fish at its best, go for the head.