Craving for “the strangest” fish on the planet

A fish with two legs, in addition to swimming around in the water, it can also run and jump on land, and when needed, climb a tree to play! And the important thing is that fish meat is very delicious, to the point of becoming a specialty of Ca Mau mangroves.

A fish with two legs, in addition to swimming around in the water, it can also run and jump on land, and when needed, climb a tree to play! And the important thing is that fish meat is very delicious, to the point of becoming a specialty of Ca Mau mangroves.

The World Creatures Organization has mentioned many strange animals, but people’s understanding of them is still quite sketchy. Notably, among the six “strange” animals listed, there is mudskipper, a rather important fish in Vietnam.

Grilled fish with lotus leaves – A masterpiece of Ca Mau people

According to documents, mudskippers live mainly under the canopy of mangroves and alluvial plains of Ca Mau cape. The reason why mudskippers are included in the list of “strangest” animals on the planet is because of their unique features. other common fish, because of its protruding eyes like someone with two marbles on the top of the head.The name “pollard” probably also comes from its own bulging eyes.

The strangest feature that makes mudskippers unlike any other fish is that it can live in saltwater, brackish water (but their best habitat is salt water). Mudfish shelters in deep flooded burrows, swims in rivers, moves on mud, runs, and hunts on land. Mudfish breathe with lungs and gills. Their bodies can store water in their gills for respiration when on land, exchanging gases through the skin like frogs. It has 2 front fins that act as a “pair of hands”.

Because of the special structure of the body, mudskippers also have the ability to climb trees and can jump from branch to branch very skillfully. Therefore, mudskippers also have another folk name, “tree climbing fish”.

Normally, fish often lie down to “roam” on the roots of trees, but when there is a sound, it jumps into the river to swim, dive or jump on the water surface.

Fish after catching is washed

If scientists are interested in studying this fish as a special model of evolution, many people love it because fish meat is very special and can make many delicious dishes.

In Ho Chi Minh City, this fish is quite abundant in Can Gio, visitors can use fishing rods to fish, then give it to chefs to process into dishes. The fish here is quite big, the meat is delicious.

The dishes made from mudskippers are very generous such as shellfish, skinned with salt and pepper, steamed with water, rolled with raw vegetable rice paper, and sour soup of mudskippers… but the most delicious and popular dishes cannot be surpassed. The face is grilled mudskipper with salt and chili.

In Ca Mau, to catch mudskippers, people often indent (dig a cave) or fish during the day, lighting up the lights at night. The mudskipper fish when the light is in the eye will be motionless, so it is easy to catch. But the most popular and most effective is to use sage (made of nipa leaves, shaped like a jar) in the mouth of the cave. After a period of hiding, mudskippers crawl out and will immediately enter the stilt. Just like that, people open the bar and then catch fish to bring back. Common mudskipper fish weight 100g to 200g/fish.

Mudfish are divided into many types by people, the small ones are called star gobies, the larger ones are called barrel goby in Bac Lieu, and in Ly Nhon and Can Gio they are called jumping goby. Usually only local people can easily distinguish different types of fish, thanks to the fish’s fins, color, skin…

Fish meat has a very high nutritional content, because its food is also shrimp, crab, crab…

The fish is cleaned with scales, scrubbed with lemon to reduce the fishy smell, marinated with spices and grilled over embers.

Tourists traveling to Can Gio often eat grilled fish

In Ca Mau, people also prepare many attractive dishes from dried mudskipper fish – a favorite specialty today.

The dish of grilled fish with lotus leaves is so delicious it’s hard to describe