Fish is a nutritious food prepared in various ways to create delicious dishes that many Vietnamese people like.
Vietnam has many rivers, lagoons, and a large ocean that supplies different types of freshwater and saltwater fish. Thus, Vietnamese fish is often the main dish in family meals.
Here are the popular Vietnamese fish types you may see when you travel to this beautiful country.
Content menu:
1. Freshwater fish
2. Saltwater fish
3. Brackish fish
1. Vietnamese Fish Living in Freshwater
Vietnam’s dense system of rivers, ponds, and lagoons favors the lives and development of many species of freshwater fish.
So, taking advantage of nature’s rich resources, the Vietnamese eat a variety of fish for their daily meals.
You can see the following common freshwater fishes.
1.1. Snakehead fish (Cá lóc)
Snakehead fish (Cá lóc) is also known as “fruiting fish” (Cá Quả) in the North, “banana fish” (Cá Chuối) in the Central, the South is still called snakehead fish.
Snakehead fish have flattened heads, long bodies up to two adult gloves, and smooth black skin with light blue spots. They live mainly on the bottom of freshwater lakes, rivers, and streams in Vietnam.
Many diners like snakehead fish to cook soup or eat tasty grilled fish. It has a good taste, less fat, and is rich in vitamins.
1.2. Crucian carp (Cá diếc)
Crucian carp live in freshwater areas in Vietnam, such as ponds, lakes, and rice fields in plains or upland areas. The fish meat is thick, and its meat is sweet and fragrant. The body is shaped like a white flower vase.
Crucian fish is not only a delicious dish but also contains many rich nutrients. The local people often choose this fish to cook soup or fry.
However, crucian carp have a lot of bones in their meat, so if you are a foreign tourist visiting Vietnam, you need to note and be careful when tasting this kind of fish.
1.3. Catfish (Cá trê)
Catfish have a brown-yellow color with a flat head and beard and live in lakes, ponds, fields, places with lots of mud, calm water, and little light. Catfish have become good fresh food and have high nutritional value.
1.4. Red tilapia (Cá điêu hồng)
Red tilapia has an oval shape, laterally flattened sides, short head, and wide mouth, living mainly in the Mekong Delta.
This type of fish is popular with most Vietnamese because the meat is delicious and sweet. Its price is quite suitable and stable, and it is easy to process into many tasty dishes.
1.5. Long goby (Cá bống kèo)
Long goby has a small head like a pyramid. Its narrow mouth has many teeth, living in riverside, canals, and swamps.
This nutritious fish has sweet meat and soft bones, which can be prepared into various dishes, such as fried dishes, well-cooked ones with fish sauce, and hot pot.
Lau ca keo (Goby hotpot) is one of the top local foods in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, which tourists should try when exploring the South.
1.6. Short goby (Cá bống)
Short gobies live only in clean water, streams, ponds, lakes, and canals. They are concentrated in the central and Southwest regions of Vietnam, which is also very popular with the people here.
Short gobies are easy to prepare, and their meat is hard and fragrant. The delicious and attractive dish from goby must be mentioned as lightly stewed goby with pepper. This popular dish attracts many diners in Vietnam.
1.7. Perch fish (Cá rô đồng)
Perch fish is well-known among the Vietnamese people in the countryside. Perches live mainly in freshwater.
Their meat is fatty and chewy. To increase the fatness of perch meat, many chefs cook them as braised perch, grilled fish, or deep-fried perch, dipped with lemon sauce, chili, and minced garlic.
The flavor of grilled perch is excellent and helps everyone in the family feel highly delicious.
However, as the same feature of crucian carps (Cá diếc), perch fishes contain a lot of bones in their body. So, be very careful to try eating them if you are a visitor from other countries out of Vietnam.
1.8. Basa fish (Cá basa)
Basa fish are a core export product of Vietnam to markets in European countries and the US. Basa fish is a type of catfish, mainly living in the Mekong Delta.
Vietnamese farmers cultivate them in big freshwater lakes. The most attractive dish made from Basa fish is cooked sour soup or braised fish.
1.9. Silver carp (Cá mè trắng)
Silver carp is a freshwater fish belonging to the carp family. It has a flat body, small scales, and an elongated body with very fishy-smelling glands.
These carp live in freshwater ponds, lakes, lagoons, rivers, and streams with weak currents. They like to stay in calm water areas.
Silver carp live on the surface and middle levels of water. Their food is small plants. They will grow up quickly when fed with plant powders; the time of raising from 10-12 months can get a weight of about 0.5 – 1kg each. Especially in the Da River in North Vietnam, Ca Me Trang can get up to 15kg.
Despite that, silver carp have very fishy smell glands, as mentioned. So, many people want to avoid this kind of fish sold in international tourist restaurants. However, you can find silver carp to taste its flavor at local or Vietnamese restaurants.
Freshwater fish in Vietnam is still considered good food with rich nutrients. Due to the dense levels of lakes, ponds, and rivers, freshwater fish can be found all around the country.
If you want to try Vietnamese freshwater fish when traveling in Vietnam, you can visit Vietnamese restaurants or local families where people can cook these fish.
Also, always note that freshwater Vietnamese fish are usually fishy, and their meat contains bones, so you need to note this when eating any species of freshwater fish.
2. Popular Vietnamese Fish Living in Saltwater
2.1. King mackerel (Cá thu)
Surely, king mackerel is always the name chosen for delicious Vietnamese seafood. The fish meat is thick, sweet, and not fishy, so it is easy to eat.
So, they often appear on the menu of families and tourist restaurants, such as mackerel with tomato, mackerel salad, mackerel vermicelli, and well-cooked mackerel with pepper.
According to scientists, mackerel is a good fish for our bodies because it provides large amounts of omega-3 and selenium. The active ingredient of selenium has a massive role in producing enzymes resistant to mercury poisoning and against oxidation in the body.
2.2. Vietnamese mackerel (Cá nục)
Vietnamese mackerel is in the same family as the king mackerel but has a more petite body, white and blue-black. Its meat is more fishy than the king mackerel and has many bones. Therefore, most restaurants serving international guests do not sell this type of fish.
However, this mackerel is often used in daily meals in Vietnam because it is cheap, popular, and available all year round in the seas.
They are used in salty braised dishes with red chili or marinated with lemon, garlic, chili, lemongrass, and a little salt for grilling, which becomes fragrant dishes. But please pay attention to removing the bones; this fish can be eaten with white rice.
2.3. Salmon (Cá hồi)
Salmons are fishes loved by many women. They contain lots of protein and amino acids that help provide enough nutrients without worrying about obesity. Salmon fish, in particular, contain many vitamins that help bones strengthen.
Salmon can be processed into many different dishes. Soft, fat, low-bone meat is suitable for cooking delicious and nutritious seafood for children. Some delicious dishes are made from salmon, such as salmon salad, salmon with tomato sauce, salmon sour soup, salmon sushi, and fried salmon with fish sauce.
2.4. Pompano (Cá chim)
The next fish with a sweet taste that many people love is the pompano (cá chim). There are two types: white and black pompano. Both have sweet, chewy, and fragrant white flesh.
On average, 100 grams of white pompano meat provides 126 kcal. Therefore, adding white pompano to the menu two times per week will help provide your body with nutrients and healthy food.
2.5. Tuna (Cá ngừ)
Tuna is an indispensable dish in Vietnam’s list of delicious seafood. Tuna meat is lean, low-fat, tasty, and non-toxic.
In particular, this fish has extremely abundant nutrients, such as omega-3, which helps prevent cardiovascular diseases, and vitamins and minerals good for the brain and skeletal system.
2.6. Herring (Cá trích)
Herring is a type of fish with high economic value not only in Vietnam but also in fishing worldwide. It is exploited and caught extensively for meat.
Herrings have bluish skin, small bones, and long and thin stems. They often migrate into large flocks.
Herring is not only delicious but also provides many healthy nutrients. It is rich in protein, calcium, magnesium, vitamin B12, and selenium.
One of her favorite dishes in Vietnam made from herring is herring salad. But this fish has many small bones, so you must be careful when eating.
2.7. Anchovies (Cá cơm)
Anchovies usually swim in large flocks of very small size, so people can eat their bones because the bones are very soft.
This type of fish provides a lot of calcium. It is also a clean marine fish, less prone to contamination by environmental toxins.
Many people in Vietnam are also familiar with anchovies because they are very common and processed into many different delicacies, such as stewed anchovies and well-cooked anchovies with pepper.
Typically, Vietnamese fish sauce made from anchovies is well-known nationwide and in many countries.
2.8. Cown tongue fish (Cá lưỡi bò)
This fish has a flat shape, like a cow’s tongue, so we often call them the cow tongue fish.
They are yellow-brown, similar to sea sand. This color helps them blend into the shallow coastal waters where they live near the seabed, making it harder for predators and humans to spot them.
Tongue fish meat is tough, fragrant, and not fishy, so many people like it even though the meat is very little. Many people often grill this fish with red chili salt for beer parties.
2.9. Stingray fish (Cá đuối)
Stingrays belong to a group of sea rays, which are cartilaginous fish associated with sharks.
Stingrays are grey in color, have a flat body, and a long tail. They are very popular in central coastal Vietnam.
The stingrays live at the bottom of the shallow sea, along the coast, where there is a lot of sand. Their color is very similar to the sand, so they often hide by lying quietly or moving very close to the sand in the sea.
Grill stingrays with spices like turmeric, garlic, and pepper. Then add a little salt and cooking oil. They will be very delicious. To enhance the delicious taste of stingrays, you should grill them with charcoal. That is a very famous seafood dish in Vietnam.
2.10. Cutlassfish (Cá hố)
Cutlassfish have different names, such as hairtail, Australia hairtail, or scabbard fish. It is a common marine fish in the saltwater ocean of Central Vietnam. This fish is not only consumed domestically but also exported to many countries.
The hairtail fish has white and sweet meat with many bones concentrated on both sides of its long body. When cooking cutlassfish, the chef often cuts it into short pieces of 4-5 cm.
The popular dishes are stewed fish with pepper and turmeric, hairtail fish with tomato sauce, fish sour soup, and grilled or fried fish with pepper.
Hopefully, the above saltwater fish will help you add more delicious and nutritious dishes to the daily menu. The list will also be a reference for choosing and enjoying the famous seafood dishes during holidays in Vietnam. Most Vietnamese fish in the sea can be found at seafood restaurants in Da Nang City, Nha Trang, Halong Bay, or Phu Quoc Island.
3. Vietnamese Brackish Fish
Many Vietnamese fish live in brackish areas, such as lagoons or river mouths. Here are the popular ones.
3.1. Rabbitfish (Cá dìa)
Rabbitfish can live in freshwater and saltwater, but they are more common in the area of river mouths and brackish water.
Rabbitfish are oval-shaped and dark brown. They can be caught in sizes ranging from 3 adult fingers to the size of a hand, weighing about 260 grams.
Its meat has a sweet taste, is not too fishy, and contains many minerals, such as iron, vitamin A, B1, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and zinc. Therefore, many people use this fish to steam for the whole family.
3.2. Mullet fish (Cá đối)
Mullets live near river mouths, an area with fewer mossy rocks, which differs from the characteristics of many other brackish-water fish.
They have a slightly round body, 20 to 30 cm long. The lower half is bright white, and the back is brown, which helps them camouflage well when it is difficult to detect because they prefer surface water.
Mullet meat has a sweet taste and is very fragrant when grilled. However, the disadvantage is that it has many bones, so it is cheaper than other brackish fish.
3.3. Grouper (Cá mú)
Unlike mullet, grouper likes to live in coastal coral reefs or rocky crevices at estuaries.
Grouper is a type of fish with a fierce temperament, large teeth, and a wide mouth. Its average size in Vietnam is 10 to 30 cm, and it weighs 1 to 3 kg.
Grouper has firm and delicious meat and much less bone than mullet. Thus, it becomes a perfect sour soup or a favorite steamed dish with lemongrass for many people. Therefore, the price of grouper is also much more expensive than mullet, estimated at 400,000 VND or more per 1 kg.
In conclusion
Vietnamese fish living in freshwater, seawater, or brackish are easy to find and taste their flavor. You can also try eating these fish cooked and served in seafood restaurants or a local family.
When you taste any fish species in Vietnam, please be careful with their fishy taste and bones in the body.
I hope you find a different taste and learn more about Vietnamese cuisine to enrich your journeys.
Will you travel to Vietnam to taste one of these fishes?
