Deep-fried Thai snakeskin gourami

IMG_2518

Snakeskin gourami found! I puzzled over this fish during a recent browse through the freezer section of my local Cambodian market. It was labeled “Marinated gourami”. I wasn’t sure if that meant it was fermented or what. I am pleased to now make the connection–this is in fact the mainland Southeast Asian freshwater fish known as pla salid ปลาสลิด in Thailand. There it is widely enjoyed salted, dried, and deep-fried.

The fish was marketed under the brand Gusto, (here is a link to its website with product list) the same brand that is responsible for my recent find of “Rotten” bean sheets. Looks like the company is focusing on items that are not yet mainstream imports. Gusto is also importing frozen yanang leaves (here is a Google image search–I still haven’t found these fresh in the States).

In Thailand, these fish are best known from a particular area, Banphaew District (บ้านแพ้ว) of Samut Sakhon Province (Central Thailand).

Besides having a nice flavor of its own, it is a really nice crunchy accompaniment to papaya salad.

Note: fit for human consumption

Note: fit for human consumption

La thawed it out and made some incisions across its body. She then deep fried the fish over medium heat until it was golden (I think it was like 15 minutes). The result was just as I remember these to be in Thailand, so crisp that you can even eat the bones and fins.

IMG_1782-1

Great to know we have these available in Philadelphia!

About David Dettmann

Food obsessed and frequently nostalgic.
This entry was posted in - Featured Food Discoveries, Thai/Lao food and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to Deep-fried Thai snakeskin gourami

  1. Pingback: More khrok fun: fermented fish and a spicy Isaan dip | Asian Markets of Philadelphia

  2. Pingback: Yanang leaves and Lao bamboo soup | Asian Markets of Philadelphia

  3. Pingback: Sour krasang fruit for Cambodian soups and dips | Asian Markets of Philadelphia

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s