Author: Ning Xue

14/07/2020

Picked up my favourite paintbrush I practiced watercolour. The subject is the head of the fish we ate last night. It is kind of scary but fascinating object, especially the psychedelic light of death in the eyes. After the painting was completed, J looked at it and said I should do illustrations for Encyclopedia of birds and fish. I said that every creature in the world has been illustrated thousands of times. There is nothing new under the sun, but it is the first time I noticed the mesmerising colours in the eyes of dead fish.

I caught Two yellowtail scads just before dinner, so it’s very fresh daily catch. I want to make a traditional steamed fish dish with bean paste, but we only have miso paste in our boat, I assumed they taste similar so I used miso instead. Firstly apply the miso to the fish body and marinate for a while. Cover a plate with wombok cabbage leaves, place fish on top, coat with another layer of miso, sprinkle with ginger and garlic, spray with a little bit of oil, steam for five minutes, turn off the heat cover for 30 seconds (friend’s tips), open the lid and sprinkle with scallion and red peppers, pour hot oil on top to serve. This dish is another surprise. The salty and fresh taste of miso enhances the flavour of the fish. The cabbage absorbs the fish juice and hot oil to make it sweeter and more delicious. At the end, blend the rest of sauce with all the goodness to rice and serve. J loved this dish, saying this is the best way to cook this fish so far!

13/07/2020

In the morning, I caught one yellow-tail scad. I was so happy that I planned to catch another one for dinner. I was looking at the scenery while dropping the line until  it might be too deep. When I was pulling it up, suddenly it felt heavy. Quickly took the line and lifted the rod, and I saw a long fish coming out of the water. I carried it directly into the bucket with rod, but the fish jumped out and went under the bench beside the helm, so much energy even the line was broken! Later, I found the hook was not in its mouth, but beside its gill, did it crash into the hook again? My fishing skill is a bit unusual. The fish is not very pretty looking and has a flat head and a long body. The wide mouth is covered with velcro-like small teeth, body is covered with round scales, and has a tiny adipose fin near the tail. About 40cm, this might be the longest fish I have caught so far.

Later, I looked it up on the Internet. It should be a species of Saurida a genus of fish in the family of Synodontidae. There are 23 recognized species in this genus: I need an ichthyologist to identify this fish. It is also called lizardfish. They are voracious carnivores and usually live on sandy or muddy bottoms preying small fish and shrimp. Once the prey is caught, it is difficult to escape, thanks to the dense teeth. Its Chinese names are more than one: Xiang Suo, fairy Suo, Sha Leng, dog sticks, nine sticks, dog belly, nine belly (upset belly, in the past due to improper storage, this fish is easy to deteriorate, causing diarrhoea), snake branch, Ding Fish, Lai (Na) ge fish (sounds like ‘that fish’), tofu fish… so you know how common the fish is. Canton people are good at cooking, they use this fish to make refreshing and springy fish balls, which can also be cooked with Puning bean paste. But I chose a simple and conservative way: braised. The result is quite satisfying. The meat is white, soft, tender and juicy. It really has the texture of tofu. It has one major bone with a few soft bones, not too hard to eat. We enjoyed the fish Very much and blended the sauce into rice. Superb! We thanked the fish after the meal, also praised my cooking for not wasting this excellent ingredient.

12/07/2020

Got up this morning and start working on fishing again. After catching one, there’s no luck for another one. Because it is Sunday, there are so many fishing boats around the island, so are the annoying noise maker jet skis. Since living onboard, whenever the weekend comes, we look forward Monday, because weekdays are a lot quieter.

While preparing for lunch inside, I heard J yelled ‘Peggy and Anne!’ I immediately came up to have a look and it was indeed the boat that gave us a helping hand before. On 28th January this year, we went to the Gold Coast to do antifoul, the engine was stopped working halfway, we could only sail by wind. When we are close to shipyard, wind stopped completely, we put out a sign asking for help. It was that boat who went pass and gave us a tow to shipyard, so we didn’t miss the appointment. It was a small world that they met again here. They approached us and said hello. They planned to stay here for two weeks.

In the afternoon, the owners of the neighbour boat invited us to their boat for sundowners, also invited a couple from another boat. Six people had a drink in the sunset and chat about sailing experience and boat life, complained about annoying JetSkis and Donal Trump. These two couples all have lived onboard for years and have visited many places. The Polish lady and her partner have travelled to many countries in Asia. She mentioned many places and cities. It was getting late so we went back to our boats and I’m sure we’ll meet again somewhere.

Since we only have one fish tonight, I cooked it with tofu and cabbage, added some Korean hot Chilli sauce. Not bad at all.