Hualien's Sunfish Restaurant
My friend Emily took me to this man bo fish (曼波魚), or "massive sunfish" in English (it took me a while to figure this one out), restaurant in Hualien, Taiwan last week. According to this post, massive sunfish have a tiny range, from Taiwan to Australia, and are often mistaken for sharks on the account of the fin: http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/danieldasey/archives/2007/03/massive_sunfish.html
Actually, I didn't have massive sunfish for lunch but rather a delicious batch of deep-fried pork chops. I didn't realize massive sunfish were such a big deal at the time. Emily kept trying to explain, and I kept answering: "They're called flounder, I tell you." My fish vocab is quite limited; in my opinion, your average Taiwanese is a lot more fish-literate than your average American. We know salmon, trout and cod, and that's about it. Emily informs me that besides scaring the *&^% out of surfers, sunfish are also known for their habit of sunbathing. They come to the surface and sleep on one side, hence the sunfish tag.
8 comments:
HC and i ate at one of the many sunfish restaurants. we did eat some of the sunfish and although the flavor was good, i did not like the habit of just barely cooking the fish. part of it were undercooked and mushy.
however, one of my photographs of the sunfish meal did make it into Wikipedia :)
Better to eat a massive sunfish than a batch of deep-fried pork chops, regardless of how delicious it might be. Suggest you bone up on coronary artery disease: you just might be susceptible to it.
MJ, is yours the one with the broccoli? Did you offer it, or did someone just pick it off your flickr?
BTW, this shot is very shark-like: http://www.gowhales.com/images/sunfish.jpg
What an imagined origination of sunfish's name as your friend Emily described! But how about “man bo fish"? Where does that come from?
I have taste d the fish once before, and it was cooked as some kind of soup with ginger. The soup was pretty fresh and delicious. I'd like it very much if I could have it again.
Man bo fish is a transliteration from Japanese.
G'day!
Man Po fish is getting less. Someone have said to me in long long time ago no one want to eat it and the fish shape could be very big, but now fishers in Hualien try to catch it before the Man Po fish grow up. For my opinion is you could try it if you never taste it before but no need to spend big money to eat it very often.
Did you have fun in Hualien? Hope you would visit here soon.
Jay,
I just realized who you were: "Better to eat a massive sunfish than a batch of deep-fried pork chops, regardless of how delicious it might be. Suggest you bone up on coronary artery disease: you just might be susceptible to it."
I've had my cholesterol checked out - it's very low. My heart is as strong as they come. Nothing's going to take me down for the next 60 years.
Hey Jay,
Check out this pic of deep-fried pork chops revisited. Wow! So yummy! http://www.flickr.com/photos/patrick_cowsill/2331092340/
It's enough to make a fellow second guess his vegetarianism.
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