Cá Thác Lác: Ghost Knife Fish, Fried or in a Hot Pot

The name of this fish may scare you, but its meat is delicious. Cá thác lác, the ghost knife fish, lives mostly in the South and has now spread throughout Vietnam. Many street vendors and restaurants have it on their menu.

There are two main ways to cook it in Vietnam, and both have become popular on the streets.

1. Fried ghost knife fish

This dish shows up more often in family meals than in restaurants, because it’s at its best with hot rice. Some people also eat it as an appetizer before the main dish.

To make it, take only the meat from the fish and fry it in a pan of hot oil for a few minutes, until the meat looks like marbles. Then it’s ready to eat.

2. Ghost knife fish hot pot

The ingredients are simple: one ghost knife fish, some pork bones, dried shrimp, melon, garlic, scallions, chili and pepper.

First take the meat from the fish and mix it with garlic, scallions, chili and pepper. For a sweet broth, cook the pork bones in the broth for 1–2 hours. Then add the dried shrimp, fish sauce, glutamate, chili and pepper. When the broth boils, add the fish meat and the melon, cut into pieces, together.

The hot pot with bitter melon is the most popular version. You can eat it with noodles, rice or wheat. Most restaurants offer only five or six kinds of hot pot, and ghost knife fish hot pot is one of them.

In hot weather, either of these two dishes is a good choice.