An ichthyologist's wonderland 魚類學家的異想世界: 沙丁魚和鯷魚 Sardines and Anchovies

The Arabian Gulf is a blessed region with plenty fish resources. The fish market is full of wild-caught fish from various habitats, such as coral reef, rock, seaweed meadow and pelagic waters. In Saudi fishermen mostly target large predatory pelagic fish, the Spanish mackerel, and small tuna and other pelagic fish is regarded almost as "bycatch" and sold with cheaper price. There are not yet fisheries for small-pelagic fish, such as sardines and anchovies. However, in the retail market there are usually "large" sardines available and i guess they may come from other regions, such as Oman or India, for their relatively bad freshness. But one day there are really fresh ones in the supermarket, and thus i gave them a try.

For the first try, i did not clear the stomach, just wash them, and pan-fried the sardines with olive oil. These sardines are really oily, the fish oil kept going out during being fried and they left more oil than i added in the beginning. Next time, i should not need to add too much oil as this time.

Thy tasted wonderful.

As a Taiwanese, fried Pacific saury (Cololabis saira) is a common dish on the table. It is nutritious full of healthy fish oil, large quantity, easy to get for the frozen ones, and cost next to nothing to have one. The fried sardines made me remind the saury, which is a key to the childhood memory. They also had much fish oil, with a white-brown meat being bit hard. When adding some lemon juice, they become more delicious for the sourness from the lemon "neutralized" the greasy from the fish oil. They are really good fish (as long as they are fresh).

沙烏地面對阿拉伯灣的地區，是一塊漁業資源富裕的海洋。漁市場有各種棲地的魚，如珊瑚礁、岩岸、海草床、以及中表層魚類。在中表層魚類中，土魠是沙烏地漁民主要捕撈大型捕食性中表層魚類，而其他包括小型鮪魚的中表層魚類，幾乎被漁民認為是混獲，價格無法與土魠相提並論。在這裡，還沒有發展針對像是沙丁魚鯷魚等小型中表層魚類的漁業，但在市場上，有時就可以看到體型相對算大的沙丁魚。因為這些沙丁魚相對來說鮮度較差，因此個人猜測，這些在市場上販售的沙丁魚應該都是從其他地方，像是阿曼或是印度運來的。而在有次去市場購物時，那批沙丁魚鮮度真的不錯，所以我就去嘗試一下。

這次沒有把魚內臟去除，將魚洗乾淨瀝乾後，就把魚用橄欖油煎熟。這沙丁魚還蠻油的，在煎的時候魚油不斷跑出來，最後鍋子還留下比我當初加得更多的油，下次只需要加一點點油就好。

魚好吃。

身為一個台灣人，因為秋刀魚價美物廉又營養豐富，所以煎秋刀魚長出現在餐桌上。而這次的煎沙丁魚，味道讓我強烈連想到秋刀魚，一種童年的味道。和秋刀魚一樣，沙丁魚也是充滿魚油，而且魚肉在煎熟後也是棕色又帶有點硬。加點檸檬汁，用酸味來解來自魚油的油膩感。這次的嘗試非常舒服，這邊市場賣的沙丁魚，只要新鮮，真的是好吃。

Pure-seiners in the Basque country for the small pelagic fish

巴斯克地區捕撈小型中表層魚類的圍網漁船。

Sardines as the main catch from this Basque purse-seiner

巴斯克漁船所捕撈的沙丁魚。

A large sardine (> 20 cm) from local retail market. Broken stomach probably implies bad freshness.

在當地市場買到的大型沙丁魚(全長超過20公分)。然而肚子上的破洞可能代表鮮度欠佳。

Fresh sardines (possibly different species) from the supermarket

在超市買到的新鮮沙丁魚，和上圖應該是不同種類。

I simply pan-fried the sardine with olive oil. Delicious.

簡單用橄欖油煎煎，沙丁魚就是一道美食。

In other occasion I literally caught some sardines from the sea. Although they are smaller, I can be certain that they are REALLY fresh. Then I had this second try. Similar to last time, i pan-fried the sardines with little olive oil, and added some garlic slices for more flavor. Then put on the plate and garnished by lemon slice. This time is great, too. The sardines have hard scutes in the belly, making they less favorable in the market. I can easily remove the scutes, as well as the bones. The meat is white-brown, and has less "red meat" (血合 as called in Japanese) that gives it stronger, bloody, and metallic taste compared to the saury.

Again this time further supported that the fresh sardines are good to have. (It would be better if i could have had it with a glass of dry white...).

第二次嘗試，就是正港現撈的沙丁魚。和上次一樣，用少量的橄欖油去煎，但加點蒜片提味，然後和檸檬片一起裝盤。這次同樣很好。這裡人們不喜歡沙丁魚的原因之一，就是沙丁魚腹有一排硬鱗，造成口感不好，所以需要額外挑除。但我覺得這排硬鱗，和魚中骨一樣很容易剔開。煎熟的魚肉介於白色和棕色之間。和秋刀魚相比，沙丁魚魚肉很少血合肉，因此吃起來不會有帶點血味。

這次嘗試一樣是很好的經驗，這邊的沙丁魚還蠻好吃的，如果能有一杯不甜的冰白葡萄酒就更完美了...

Smaller really fresh sardines

新鮮的現撈小沙丁魚

Pan-fried the sardine with olive oil and garlic. Garnished with lemon slice

一樣用橄欖油煎，這次加點蒜片，起鍋後和檸檬片一起裝盤。

Easy to separate the meat from the bone. Sardines have less smelly "red meat"

很簡單就可以骨肉分離。沙丁魚的肉比較白，同時味道重的血合肉也比較少

When in the Basque country, I had another impressive experience for the small pelagic fish: fried anchovies with garlic. In fact two things made me remember this dish: it is tasty, and the way my friend had it. They can remove the bone and eat only the meat from such small-sized fish. I could not do that delicate work and was only able to eat them whole. However, the anchovies are not consumed fresh here. Mostly they are sold as dried fish or salted fish, and most likely from India or other countries.

In another occasion i had some really fresh anchovies. So I have a chance to try this dish at home. I added some salt on the anchovies and put them in the fridge for a few hours. Then i put the anchovies in a hot pan with a bit more olive oil. Because they had stronger smell after being defrost, i added a few ginger slices (a common practice in Chinese cuisine to remove the bad flavor from the fish) in addition to the garlic slices.

As in Basque, I eat them whole for I cannot remove the heads and bones from the anchovies. They are good, especially for them have been simmered in salts for a couple of hours. Eating with garlic slices and/or ginger slice gives the fish a different flavor and taste. It is in some degree similar to a common Taiwanese dish, fried anchovy dry (炒丁香) that replacing the dried anchovies with fresh ones. It is a nice one as a snack or side-dish.

當我在巴斯克地區時，朋友有吃一道蒜片炸鯷魚。當時對這道菜除了他的美味之外，還有巴斯克友人可以用刀叉把鯷魚骨頭分開來吃的神技。可惜我刀叉沒有用的那麼熟練，只能連著骨頭一起吞下去。在沙的市場並沒有新鮮鯷魚，大多是從印度進口的鯷魚魚乾，就像是台灣的小魚乾一樣。在偶然的機會下，有機會拿到一批新鮮的鯷魚，就來試試看這到在巴斯克吃到的菜。

首先先將解凍好的鯷魚灑點鹽巴，放到冷藏庫醃個幾個小時。將稍微多點的橄欖油放入熱好的平底鍋，將醃好的鯷魚放下去，和蒜片薑片一起半煎半炸，大約不到五分鐘鯷魚表面變得酥脆就可以起鍋了。如果想要硬一點，也可以再炸久點。

就像在巴斯克一樣，我還是懶得去頭去骨頭，就給他這樣直接吃下去。味道很不錯，橄欖油替炸過的魚肉加點特殊的風味。配合炸酥的蒜片和薑片一起吃，又讓味道有些變化，吃起來就像是我們的炒丁香魚，只不過魚不是魚乾，而是新鮮的魚。雖然不知道下一次是什麼時候，但是這次是個很不錯的體驗，當作是配菜或是點心都很不錯。