The smell of a fish that is being fried and removed from the oil or the smell of a fish that is just taken off a barbecue is immensely satisfying. Many people like it even better when a fish is plump and filled with eggs. However, not all fish taste good. Some fried fish smell like soap or some cooked fish emit an unpleasant odour. As a result, people sometimes complain about these fish and might even spit them out. It has been noticed that mainly people with a lot of money criticise the smell, while poorer people just enjoy the fresh fish. Therefore, it are not the fishermen and the ones doing the cooking that are complaining but the people who just turn up to eat. To illustrate, when fisherman Mr. Phinhong was enjoying a freshly fried fish with a relative, that relative was complaining about the bad odour that was coming from the fish. The fisherman just told him not to worry and explained that he could discard the fish if he wanted to.
The fish that are being caught by the fishermen are not always directly eaten, as they go fishing from sunrise to sunset and can catch a lot. As such, many people pickle the caught fish to keep them up to a year and it is known that developing countries have good fish stocks. Until 2008, the That Luang marsh used to be one of the better spots for fishing. However, a lot of fish died for unknown reason that time and people were warned not to eat any of these dead fish. It might be possible that some fishermen still sold these fish at local markets for income however. Despite this, the government did not prohibit fishermen to catch living fish as this is an important source of income for lots of villagers for generations already.
There are both positive and negative stories about fish, but a freshly fried or grilled fish from Vientiane’s marshes is a happy sight for anyone.
Information source: Vientiane Times.
