The kind of fish that the poor used to go to the river to catch to eat, cheap price, now changed life into an expensive specialty 300,000 VND/kg

Oily shrimp is considered a famous specialty of Son La. This fish is small in size, only about 2 to 3 fingers, proliferating all year round, but most often from January to April.

In the past, oilfish was abundant in Son La hydroelectricity area. To catch fish, people have to use electric bulbs to light up the fish from the night before, and then pull the nets up the next morning. Fresh fish bought at the boat is 10,000 VND/kg.

Oily shrimp is a specialty in Son La

Today, people here catch and process oily shrimp into dry oil shrimp and become one of the occupations that bring stable income.

Accordingly, fish after buying from the boat will use a small, sharp knife to cut from the back of the fish, remove the intestines and head, wash the fish, drain the water until it is marinated there, because the oil cloves are thin, when slaughtered. decomposes very quickly. The fish is marinated with fresh chili, sugar, salt, satay and typical local spices, all marinated, mixed for 15 minutes, then dried in the sun. Fish drying racks are designed with bamboo, depending on weather that fish can be dried for 2-4 days to get dried oily shrimp products, for every 5 kg of fresh oily shrimp, one kg of dried oily shrimp can be processed.

Grilled dried oil shrimp fish with iridescent golden color, as juicy as golden snapper

Mr. Hoang (in Chieng On commune, Quynh Nhai district, Son La) said that oily fish is a typical dish of Thai people in the river region, present in simple meals here. And now, dried oil shrimp has become a famous specialty everywhere, the price is not cheap.

According to the survey, both fresh and dried oil carp are sold on online markets and e-commerce platforms. Fresh oil carp costs 25,000-35,000 VND/kg. The seller introduced this fish is small, thick, can eat the bones, has a lot of healthy calcium, can be stored or cooked in sour soup, made fish cakes…

This fish is abundant from January to April every year

The price of dried oily shrimp is from 180,000-300,000 VND/kg, as attractive as the yellow snapper of the coastal areas. This type of dried fish can be grilled, fried, golden iridescent and delicious, greasy, sweet, and spicy are intertwined in each fiber of the meat.

According to Mr. Hoang, in the season, a boat can catch a few kilos of fish a day, then sell it to traders or pack it, freeze it, and send it to a bus to the provinces. “Fresh oil shrimp is not as expensive as dried fish. Mainly people here buy fish from boats and then process it into dried fish and sell it to the market. The profession of making dried oil shrimp brings a good source of income for people.

Having been to Son La and enjoying the specialty of dried oily shrimp, Ms. Ngoc Anh (in Ninh Binh) said: “I find the taste quite similar to yellow only, sweet and fragrant, very suitable to sip, especially I also asked my friends to order 5kg of dried fish to take home, both to eat and to give, and everyone praised me so much. After that, I sometimes sent them to buy from Son La, because If you have friends there, you can buy it from the source, so the price is cheaper, the dried fish can be eaten in the freezer for a few months without fear of spoiling.”