Cá Kèo: Vietnamese Goby Fish and Four Ways to Eat It

Cá kèo, goby fish, is a Vietnamese street food. The fish lives mostly in Southwest Vietnam, especially in Soc Trang, Bac Lieu, Ca Mau and Can Tho, but you can buy it at any market in Vietnam.

Preparing the fish

To clean goby fish, rub it lightly with lemongrass leaves for a few minutes, then rinse it in fresh water. One thing to remember: don’t remove any part of the fish, inside or out, because all of it is good to eat.

Goby fish is cooked into four main dishes.

1. Braised goby fish with pepper

This is a popular dish in southern family meals. The fish is combined with pepper and chilli and mixed with herbs and cucumber. Served with hot or cold rice, it’s still delicious.

2. Grilled goby fish with chilli

Many chillies are added to the fish, and it is grilled over the kitchen coals for a few minutes. When it smells good, it’s ready to serve. The fish are often grilled out on the street to draw customers in, and this is one of the reasons goby fish became a street food.

3. Fried goby fish

Some people think the fried version is better than the other two because it comes with tamarind sauce, which the original describes as a special sauce of the people of the Southeast, sour, salty and sweet together.

4. Goby fish hot pot

The author calls this the most popular Vietnamese street food, and it is the author’s own favourite. The hot pot is usually cooked with river leaves (lá giang), another favourite flavour of the people of the Southeast. When the broth boils, the live fish go into the pot. Watch the pot carefully, because the fish twist and struggle hard to get out of the boiling water. Once the fish stop moving, it’s time to eat. You can also add vegetables such as spinach to the pot.

If you visit Vietnam, take your friends along to try goby fish.