Supping… a Look!

My friend had reminded me when he knew that I wanted to learn this hard career. I had set a date to go on board with fishermen to truly experience but the date had been delayed several times because of typhoon season. Both my mood and my report had to wait in unpredictable time.

Therefore, I decided to look for something relevant to tuna fishing just to soothe my intrepid energy, a dish called “eyes of tuna”.

Indeed, I found myself so much happy in a delight restaurant in Tuy Hoa city, looking at the “window of the soul” placed in a bowl of soup. Just as to talk to the evil! I was so pleased and impressed.

The fishermen here explained that coastal gourmets all knew the best of a tune is in his head, and the essence of the head is in the eyes. Even kids love to have tuna head before asking their mother’s permission.

At that moment looking at the whole eye socket of the big tuna in the bowl with a couple of dried dates, pepper powder, and cilantro, you just couldn’t resist. What do you expect from the eyeball, which was once storming in deep ocean?

It should be the fat of cartilage tissues, the sweet pleasant aroma of goji berries and the essence of tufuling root (Smilax glabra), and blocks of moderately marinated fatty flesh.

It should be the transparent taste filling up your mouth when you excitedly sup the wild ocean yet delicate oriental herbal broth.

That “stewed tuna eye in oriental herbs” was a bit too fussy since local just treat steamed tune’s eyes as a side dish for suppers. In small restaurant around seaports, the dish costs only a dollar (20,000 VND). Ironically, the rustic tuna eyes from labor coastal area did not sweat to get into classy menu.

Recently, tuna has been exported to Japan under strictly preservative condition but people rarely know that long time before the whole tuna got to trading terms, tuna eyes had lead Phu Yen and Binh Dinh cuisine into national culinary treasure. Those two provinces have owned factories where tuna eyes are frozen and packed to distribute in the whole country.

The grapevines say that tuna eyes highly contain omega-3 and DHA, which are nutritious food for human eyes. That’s why people rush to have them with the naïve belief that you are what you eat.

I am skepticism, even with food. The nice day when I sup “the look from the ocean” in the hot day at Tuy Hoa city, I had to wonder if there are any scientific information needed to bring the good street food into classy menu, otherwise how could rural food survive in a harsh yet fragile environment of 5 star standards.

Steamed food should be the same anywhere, so is stewed food. However, the side dishes are totally different. In Binh Dinh province, people place plenty of spice leaves and herbs just as for rolling. Basil, shiso (tía tô – Perilla frutescens), and Vietnamese balm (kinh giới - Elsholtzia ciliate) are huge supporters for the tuna eyes. They elevate the dish onto perfect level. Besides enriching the taste, spice leaves also play as a balance element in that nourishing dish.

However, some of my friends had to give up when they found themselves a target of a giant direct starring. Indeed, some people never get used to that kind of illumination but since you had crossed the line, you would want some more of “the looks”.

Writer: Nguyen Vinh/SGTT

Translator: Thu Pham