Salted fish: pekasam

 

Hi Natty!  What's going on today, beautiful girl?  Wow, it's the end of March already.  Have you got your Masters yet?  I hope everything is easy going for you.  Lol... you like challenges while I want a life of no challenges.  Ah, that must be heaven.

But since I have no cheese, there happens to be a substitute for the flavor!  I used to nibble on blue cheese and brie a lot back in the States, but over here you can get the same experience and flavor from salted fish.  Today's salted fish is called "pekasam".  Which is basically when they coat the fish with a salt and tamarind mix to create a crunchy skin when fried.

The best fish for this recipe is the puyu, which you can often see people fishing for around here in the storm drains by the roadside.  Or the rice fields, like the video below.  The small fish are the tastiest.  The fish you see in the photo above is way too big, ideally it should be a third that size.  That's because you can crunch right through the bones!  When the fish is too big, the bones are unpalatable.  I found someone selling puyu pekasam at the day market today when I went there to pick up some ant poison for my mother.  I fried some up for lunch, and they were so good!  Like a beautifully aged cheese.  Then I used the renderings left over in the pan to make broth for my noodles.  The fish I got were too big, and I had to pick the bones out of my mouth.  Remember, the smaller the better when it comes to puyu pekasam!