Grilled Mudskipper Fish – Eat Best Food in Ca Mau

Despite having an ugly and weird appearance that makes diners wary, mudskipper is a "rare and hard to find" specialty in Ca Mau. Coming to Dat Mui, not everyone is lucky enough to enjoy this "heaven-given" specialty.

By Thomas Vietnam at vemekong.com | All Best Foods & Restaurants in Ca Mau

1. Better to Know as a Food Lover

Find them: Ca Mau city.

Best time: Dusk-Dawn

Don’t miss: Grilled Mudskipper Fish

Local’s pick: Seafood restaurant

Tourist’s pick: Restaurant in Ca Mau

Blog: /grilled-mudskipper-fish-ca-mau/

Facts: A special thing is that mudskippers currently only live in the wild, and cannot be raised by farms, so diners who want to enjoy it must ask people to catch them manually. They are also considered "rare and hard to find" specialties, and difficult to buy with money.

2. Better to Know Grilled Mudskipper Fish

Mudfish (or tree climbing fish) belong to the family of white gobies, often live and dig burrows to live in mangroves or coastal alluvial soils, along rivers... In Vietnam, Ca Mau is likened to a "capital capital."  "of mudskippers.

This fish has an ugly appearance with a small size of only about 1-2 fingers. Their eyes are quite large, bulging more than their heads, so their shape looks very strange.  Mudfish can live both on land and in water. They even "fly" and climb trees quickly thanks to two strong front fins, which act like a pair of hands.

Mudfish was once listed by the World Organisms as one of the 6 "strangest animals on the planet" because of its unique structural features on the body.

To catch this fish, local people have many ways such as setting traps, fishing during the day or lighting at night... When the light is in the eyes, the fish becomes motionless and disoriented.  easier for people to catch. However, setting traps is still considered the most popular and effective.

People often create traps from many materials such as using a sledge (made of nipa leaves, shaped like a thatch) or recycling old bottles to make traps placed in front of the fish's cave. When the water dries up, the mudskippers start to crawl out and will get caught in the trap but can't get out. People quickly picked up the traps and collected fish to bring back.

3. Grilled Mudskipper Fish in Ca Mau

To process mudskippers, people have to take the fish to clean, remove all the oil on the skin. This fish lives in a natural environment, so the meat is very delicious and firm. Therefore, many restaurants, eateries in the city or even gourmets are willing to spend money to buy them at high prices.

Mudfish is the raw material for many dishes such as braised with pepper, sour hot pot, fried, grilled with salt and pepper... Each dish has a different processing and flavor but they all leave a bold mark in the food.  diners' hearts.

With grilled fish with salt and pepper, people clean the fish and then skewer it on long bamboo sticks. The fish is grilled on a charcoal stove to bring out the aroma. No matter where it is baked, the chef will continuously brush the mixture of salt, chili and cashew oil up there so that the fish evenly absorbs the spices as well as has a beautiful color. When one side of the fish is cooked, flip the other side over. Grilled fish dishes have golden skin, crispy, fragrant nose. The flesh of the fish is white, firm and tender. When enjoying, diners just need to use chopsticks to separate the fish meat from the bones and then dip it with salt, pepper, lemon or spicy fish sauce, served with herbs. The aromatic sweetness of the fish combined with the accompanying spices creates a strange and delicious dish that "attracts" guests.

4. How to Make Grilled Mudskipper Fish

Ingredients for grilled mudskipper with salt and pepper

1kg mudfish

3 tablespoons salt

3 chili peppers

Brochettes

Good tip:

- You should choose live mudskippers, still swimming. Besides, you need to pay attention to the fish with light green scales, outside with a slimy layer, which are delicious mudskippers.

- You choose to buy big mudskippers, about 1 hand long, with bulging eyes and transparent eyes.

How to make grilled mudskipper with salt and pepper

Step 1. Prepare ingredients

You prepare sticks to skew fish, you should prepare long and strong sticks to skew fish.

After buying, the first thing you do is use a skewer from the fish's mouth to the fish's tail.

After that, you will thoroughly wash the slimy outside of the fish and let it dry.

Step 2. Marinate the fish

You put 3 tablespoons of salt in the bowl, 2 chili peppers and then puree them all.

Next, you put the drained fish into the bowl. Then, you bring the prepared salt mixture to the fish, marinate the fish for about 15-20 minutes.

Step 3. Grill the fish

With grilled mudskipper, you should grill with charcoal fire, the dish will be more delicious. Besides, you can also bake fish in an oil-free fryer or bake in a microwave or oven for about 15-20 minutes with a temperature of 180 degrees Celsius.

After marinating the fish, put the fish on the grill.

You grill the fish for about 10 minutes, then turn the fish over until the fish is cooked evenly. You grill the fish until both sides are cooked and the dish is complete.

5. Pro tips:

Here are our tips for easing your mind (and stomach) around food-handling environments that you may not be used to.

Make sure the food is freshly cooked. If you're eating hot street food, it's always safest (not to mention more delicious) to eat food you can see being cooked to order.

Look for lines and busy stalls. Busy street food stalls are an indicator of popularity, and their high turnover rate means the food is never sitting out for hours and developing dreaded bacteria. Yes, long lines can be discouraging when you’re hungry after a full day of exploring, but it’s not worth the risk of grabbing precooked food from the empty spot next door.

Eat when the locals are eating. The last and most important element here is when to eat. You’re likely already on a weird eating schedule while you’re traveling, but it’s important to try and adjust to the eating times of where you are. A bowl of pho might be lunch for Americans, but it’s breakfast for the Vietnamese. This ensures that you’re eating freshly cooked food and that you can find the best and most popular places to eat.

If you can’t drink the water, then you can’t eat the salad. Most people get so hung up on not drinking the water or skipping ice in drinks that they don’t think about all of the other ways in which water is used in food service. Fruits and vegetables tend to be washed with tap water in most places, rather than the filtered water that locals drink—or sometimes it’s not washed at all. If you’re really craving some produce, try fruits you can peel or cooked veggies.

Trust your gut. If you’re unsure about the food or the way that it’s being prepared, then keep moving. Eating street food all over the world doesn’t make you an expert. Every stall and every country are different, and sometimes the rules can be harder to follow. When something doesn’t look, smell, or feel right, don’t eat it! Trust your judgment. Chances are that there’s another spot close by that’s making something more delicious.

Eat when the locals are eating. The last and most important element here is when to eat. You’re likely already on a weird eating schedule while you’re traveling, but it’s important to try and adjust to the eating times of where you are. A bowl of pho might be lunch for Americans, but it’s breakfast for the Vietnamese. This ensures that you’re eating freshly cooked food and that you can find the best and most popular places to eat.

If you can’t drink the water, then you can’t eat the salad. Most people get so hung up on not drinking the water or skipping ice in drinks that they don’t think about all of the other ways in which water is used in food service. Fruits and vegetables tend to be washed with tap water in most places, rather than the filtered water that locals drink—or sometimes it’s not washed at all. If you’re really craving some produce, try fruits you can peel or cooked veggies.

Trust your gut. If you’re unsure about the food or the way that it’s being prepared, then keep moving. Eating street food all over the world doesn’t make you an expert. Every stall and every country are different, and sometimes the rules can be harder to follow. When something doesn’t look, smell, or feel right, don’t eat it! Trust your judgment. Chances are that there’s another spot close by that’s making something more delicious.

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Can Tho: Co Ut’s Cong cake, Ut Dzach Fine Rice Vermicelli, Thanh Van Grilled Pork Sausage, Crab Noodle Soup At Floating Market, Scorched Rice with Caramelized Fish Sauce, 7-Toi’s Duck Meat Pancake, Banh Mi Thuy, Banana Blossom Salad, Fried Spring Rolls, Fresh Spring Rolls, Fetal duck egg (balut), Honeycomb Cake, Mini Sticky Rice Cake, Cassava Silkworm Cake, Grilled Banana Wrapped in Sticky Rice, Khmer-style Bun Goi Da Soup, Egg Coffee, Con Son Grilled Snakehead Fish, Bun Mam – Fermented Fish Noodle Soup, Lau Mam – Fermented Fish Hotpot, Grilled Snails with Pepper, Magenta Sticky Rice Cake, Duck cooked with Fermented Tofu, Rice Noodle Pizza, Vegetarian Noodle Soup, Snails Stuffed With Pork…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Chau Doc: Chau Doc Fish Noodle Soup, Sugar Palm Fruit, Basa Fish Hot Pot, Mam (Fermented fish), Phu Huong Beef Noodle Soup, Broken Rice with Pork Chop, Long Xuyen Broken Rice, Nui Cam Pancake, O Thum’s Chicken Grilled with Lime Leaves, Stir-fried Shrimp with Sesbania Flower, Sweet & Sour Soup with Siamese Mud Carp Soup & Sesbania Flower, Caramelized & Braised Catfish, Grilled Rice-field Rat with Salt and Chili…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Soc Trang: Pia Cake, Cong Cake (Banh Cong), Bun Nuoc Leo Soc Trang’s Noodle Soup, Soc Trang’s Bun Goi Da Soup, Duck Noodle Soup with black Pepper, Curry Noodle Soup, Grilled Beef on Tile, Khmer-style Tube Cake, Khmer-style Mung Bean Cake (Banh In), Dried Radish (Xa Bau), Stir-Fried Noodles with Seafood (Mi Sua), Soc Trang’s Green Rice Flakes…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Ben Tre: Phu Le Rice Wine, Ben Tre’s Coconut Candy, Flat Banana, Coconut Rice, Snail Pancake, Sea Snail with Coconut Milk, Coconut Worm, Young Coconut Salad with Shrimp & Pork, Son Doc Puff Rice Paper…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Cai Be: Puffed Rice Cake…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Vinh Long: Elephant Ear Fish (fried giant gourami)…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in My Tho: Fried Sticky Rice, Snakehead Fish Rice Porridge, Hu Tieu My Tho (Noodle Soup), Coconut Banana Cake…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Tra Vinh: Macapuno Coconut, Bun Nuoc Leo Tra Vinh’s Noodle Soup, Tra Cuon’s Sticky Rice Cake…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Sadec: Sa Dec Noodle Soup, Sadec Crab Hotpot, Lai Vung Spring Rolls, Sa Giang Shrimp Puff Pastry, Lai Vung Tangerine…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Bac Lieu: Spicy Beef Noodle Soup, Bac Lieu’s Three-striped Crab, White Radish Pies, Bac Lieu Thick Noodles & Creamy Coconut Milk, Bon Bon Pickles…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Ca Mau: Banh tam ga cay (Silkworm rice cake with curried chicken), Grilled Vop clams with salt and pepper, Grilled Mudskipper Fish, Stone Crab Roast With Salt, Young Bee Salad, Nam Can’s Crab, U Minh Forest’s Honey, U Minh’s Fermented Fish Hotpot…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Hau Giang: Cau Duc Pineapple, Cai Tac’s Pork Organs Porridge, Hau Giang’s Bronze Featherback Fish Cake…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Ha Tien: Herring Fish Salad, Spider crab cake soup, Ken Noodle soup, Xoi Xiem (Siamese sticky rice), Steamed Noodle soup, Ha Tien Oyster porridge…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Rach Gia: Stir Noodle Soup, Kien Giang Fish Noodle Soup…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Con Dao: Bang nut jam, Vu Nang Snail, Roasted Pork Bread (Banh Mi), Coconut Ice Cream…

Must-Eat Foods & Restaurants in Phu Quoc: Phu Quoc Sim Wine, Phu Quoc Pepper, Phu Quoc fish sauce…

Hopefully, the above tips will help you to come up with a great plan for your adventure in Mekong River Delta, Vietnam. Have a safe trip!

“Sleep less, travel more, respect more” – Thomas Vietnam – Local travel expert.

Thank you