Just One Food - Nyonya Acar Fish

Every time we eat at Yut Kee @ Jalan Kamunting, there's always a queuing system (for your table) where you leave your name at the counter (with the owner's son), state the number of persons dining and wait for your name to be called.

So, while waiting, I sometimes wander around and there's this stall outside Yut Kee where I've noticed an elderly lady selling foodstuff.  One day, out of curiosity, I dropped by her stall just to see what she has to offer.

You'll see some newspaper clippings (in Chinese) hung around her stall and, judging from the pictures, I assume she must be well-known for her glutinous rice dumplings (or "chung").  Even her name card bears the picture of a dumpling! ^_*

So, I bought some to try.  Her "Chung" or Glutinous Rice Dumpling cost RM6 a piece.  Her chung is more nyonya style with no beans, bits of dried prawns, mushroom, salted egg yolk (which wasn't top quality), pork belly and a tiny piece of dried scallop.

Though the glutinous rice was soft, it seemed a lot starchier probably because it felt very compact without any beans.  I'd say this is just an edible chung as I've had the privilege of eating better rice dumplings than this.

But then the "Acar Hu" (Nyonya Acar Fish/Nyonya Pickled Fish) @ RM12, which caught my attention, was a different story altogether.  I can't remember if my mom ever made this acar fish (she probably did but then I probably wouldn't like this kind of sour dishes when I was young) but I certainly remember eating these small fishes fried till crispy perfection (and devouring everything from head to tail).  It's sad that we don't see this sold, make this or get to eat this often enough these days and by that I mean delicious, simple, deep-fried crispy small fishes that evoke memories of our childhood.  I guess as our standard of living goes up, cheap fishes like these have become a 'tradition' of the past in a time where everyone (children especially) favour the less bones, thick cuts and easy-to-eat fish fillet.

Anyway, back to this...this dish is usually made with "chee ya hu"/ikan belanak/silver mullet though it can be substituted with some other types of fish too.  Some use small fourfinger threadfin/ikan senangin/"ma yau" or mackerel/kembong.

One packet of Nyonya Acar Fish has 4 whole fish (sometimes 5 depending on the size of the fish) and this looks like mullet to me.

I googled how this dish was made though I've never attempted to make it myself.  Too much work, I'd rather just buy it....haha! :D

The acar fish is made by first deep-frying the fish until golden and crispy.

Then turmeric is fried with oil until the oil becomes yellow (and the turmeric discarded).  Ginger, garlic, onions and red and green chillies are then added to the oil and fried till fragrant.  I especially liked the garlic slices and crisp fried ginger. ^.^

Finally water, Chinese rice vinegar and seasoning are added and brought to a boil.  This sauce is then poured over fish and left to pickle overnight in the marinade.

According to the lady seller, it actually tastes better as time goes by and I can certainly understand why as the flavours come together the longer it sits in the marinade.  I can eat this with just plain rice and I'd be very happy! ;)

If you enjoy things sourish and don't mind fish with bones, you may like this.  Actually, the fish is fried till so crispy that almost everything is edible (except the centre bone) though it may not seem to taste all that crispy since it's been steeping in acar sauce.

The other foodstuff I noticed at her stall were "acar kiam hoo" (acar ikan masin/pickled salted fish), bottled cincalok, sambal belacan, dried shrimp sambal and some others.

She also sells kuih kosui rolled in freshly grated coconut.  Hers are brown in colour, so they're gula melaka-flavoured (this kuih also comes in green for pandan-flavoured ones).

So, the next time you head to Yut Kee for a dose of Hainanese chicken chop, you might just want to check out the stall outside.  I've bought this Nyonya Acar Fish twice already...and enjoyed it both times (though it was better the first time, maybe because of the deep-fried ginger and the fish was more well-fried...hehe!) ^o^