milkfish





i was at lim chu kang jetty when i saw some people loading about twenty crates of milkfish onto a lorry. lim chu kang jetty is located at the end of lim chu kang road. the jetty is for offshore kelong (fishing traps) and several fish farms to transfer caged culture fish to lorries on the mainland.

the milkfish came from the nearby fish-farms. the buyer was teaching someone how to cook the fish. according to him, you should bend the body of the fish a few times before you steam it with cut ginger and a bit of light soya sauce. he mentioned that this was the same fish that was being sold as ikan bakar in batam for $2 a fish.

the milkfish is very popular with the filipinos. the fish is called bangus in the philippines. because the milkfish is notorious for being much too bony compared to other food fish, deboned milkfish or "boneless bangus" has become popular and they are common in stores and markets.

the milkfish is comparable to a herring or a grey mullet in size. it is a plankton eater with metallic-silvery basic colouring and blue-green markings on top and under. fine small scales dress the streamlined body. it has big eyes and a long fork-shaped tail fin. in markets, the milkfish is normally offered in a size of 10 -15 cm length and a weight of 75–500 grams. however as a fish in natural habitat, it can reach a weight of 22.6kg, a length of 180 centimetres (!) and a maximum-age of 15 years.

a biologist once determined that a milkfish has 66 bigger and smaller bones. removal of the bones can be a problem. but there are reports that the bones lose their risks when they are cooked in vinegar-water. the milkfish eats primarily algae and other micro-plankton. sometimes they also feed on worms and fish-eggs. therefore it is not necessary for the fish to have teeth but they do need longer intestines.