Fried and steamed mud: food for the season
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From a Hong Kong restaurant:
Dare you try them?
Seriously, though, what gives with the translations?
I think that the problem arose with the name of the fish, which is so obscure that I haven't met anyone who has heard of it. We know it's likely piscine because of the fish semantophore on the left, and we can guess that it is pronounced something like meng because of the phonophore on the right. The character preceding the mystery glyph is the exceedingly common ní 泥 ("mud"). Adding that to the unusual 鯭, we could for the nonce call it a "mudfish".
In fact, there are such strange creatures, and I find them so fascinating that I will introduce them to you briefly here.
Neochanna is a genus of galaxiid fishes, commonly known as mudfish, which are native to New Zealand and south-eastern Australia.
…
Mudfishes are found in wetlands, swamps, drains and springs. They typically live in still or slowly flowing, shallow water, with thick aquatic vegetation and overhead cover.
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Mudfish have the ability to aestivate during droughts, seeking out moist areas under logs and vegetation so they do not dry out. While emersed (out of the water), they respire through cutaneous respiration, either through their skin, or by taking mouthfuls of air. Emersed mudfish frequently lie on their backs, possibly improving cutaneous respiration through the thinner abdominal skin, improving oxygenation of vital organs, or rehydrating skin on their upper surfaces.
As wetland habitats dry out, the standing water may become stagnant and hypoxic. During this time mudfish will hang quietly at the surface with bubbles of air in their mouths to improve oxygen absorption. Some choose to leave hypoxic water before it dries out, and leave again if pushed back in.
While emersed they are aware of their surroundings and are responsive to change in their environment: changing position, moving to damper areas, and congregating. Although they may be found deep below the surface in cavities and root holes, they do not appear to create burrows for the purpose of aestivation, with the exception of N. cleaveri. Under experimental drought conditions, N. cleaveri created vertical shafts in the mud substrate, which allowed the fish to remain submersed as the free water evaporated. As the water within the shaft evaporated, the mudfish excavated horizontal tunnels where they awaited the return of the water. They do not feed while emersed, but may return to water at night to feed.
The actual existence of such bizarre fish has transfixed me because I previously knew about them only from a memorable passage in the work of the highly imaginative Chuang Tzu / Zhuangzi (ca. 3rd c. BC), my favorite Chinese writer of ancient times.
I suspect that 鯭 is a Cantonese name, inasmuch as the cuisine from that southern realm features many piscine species not familiar to outsiders. Digging (!) deeper, I discovered that the real name of the 泥鯭 in English is "mottled spinefoot" and that its Linnaean designation is Siganus fuscescens. (Wiktionary)
Cant. nai4 maang1 / Mand. níměng
Wikipedia has articles on:
The English Wikipedia article on 泥鯭 redirects here:
Siganus fuscescens, the mottled spinefoot, black rabbitfish, black spinefoot, dusky rabbitfish, fuscous rabbitfish, happy moments, mi mi, pearl-spotted spinefoot, pin-spotted spinefoot, stinging bream or West Australian rabbitfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a rabbitfish belonging to the family Siganidae. It is found in the Western Pacific Ocean.
There is much more that could be said about this odd fish, but I'll mention only that the spines of some of its fins have venom that, while not usually lethal, can be very painful.
Returning to the two exotic dishes, if the mud sticks / clogs in your throat, try this entry from the same restaurant to swallow it down:
This one is a bit off-putting because of the "intestine", but if we render it as "Mandarin duck chitterlings" it sounds perhaps somewhat more palatable, particularly to southern ears (chitlins or chittlins).
The method of cooking is called:
Cant. bou1 zai2 faan6 / Mand. bāozǎifàn 煲仔飯
煲仔飯
"clay pot rice"
Afterword
In previous years, around this time, we have written about the "mud / schlump season", which is especially meaningful to people in Hanover, New Hampshire and the heartland of Russia. See "Selected readings" below for some of the reasons why. Lord knows we've had a bitterly cold winter here in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania (we're hoping and praying for Punxsutawney Phil to come back out of his groundhog burrow), but almost no accumulation of snow, so there won't be much mud in the spring, whereas the folks up in Hanover, New Hampshire and Moscow, Russia are getting ready for the big thaw that comes with duckboards and wooden planks to cross the muddy paths (I've seen archeologically preserved ones from earlier centuries) — part of the yearly cycle.
Lexicographical resources
for 鯭 — (Cant.) 泥鯭, a kind of fish that lives in turbid water
Selected readings
- "Braised enterovirus, anyone?" (7/16/08) — clay pot cooking
- "Chinesey Japanese in a Hong Kong restaurant" (10/2/21)
- "Mud season in Old English" (4/1/20)
- "Mud season in Russia: Putin, Rasputin" (3/31/18)
- "Schlump season" (3/21/15) — virtuoso, classic treatment of the subject
- "Spring mud" (11/25/18)
[Thanks to rit malors]
jhh said,
February 25, 2025 @ 1:37 pm
A 4 minute video on "mud skippers" from BBC (via YouTube):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAQuoH_fOWM
Victor Mair said,
February 25, 2025 @ 2:29 pm
@jhh
A thousand thanks for that video on "mud skippers". It means a lot to me (see the o.p. about the passage from Chuang Tzu).
Victor Mair said,
February 25, 2025 @ 2:46 pm
From Alan Kennedy:
I did not know that "piscine" is a word in the English language.
A piscine is where I swim when in Paris.
Mduck said,
February 25, 2025 @ 3:16 pm
One should bear in mind that no real mandarin duck is involved in that mandarin duck intestine dish. Mandarin duck is just a metaphor, a common metaphor in Cantonese for putting two different objects of different colors or shapes etc. in pairs.
Michael Vnuk said,
February 25, 2025 @ 5:45 pm
We need a fish expert here. However, my reading about the fish mentioned includes the following:
(1) There are three totally different fish mentioned: mudfish, Siganus fuscescens, and mudskippers (from jhh). All are commercially fished or farmed in places, so perhaps they could end up in a Hong Kong restaurant. More work needs to be done to determine which fish is the dish.
(2) The many common names for Siganus fuscescens do not include 'mud' and the description of its habitat and life in Wikipedia does not suggest much mud, so I wonder about its identity.
Tom Dawkes said,
February 25, 2025 @ 5:54 pm
@Alan Kennedy. PG Wodehouse uses 'piscine' in "Right Ho, Jeeves", chapter 1.
– "The gentleman who came to the flat wore horn-rimmed spectacles, sir."
— "And looked like something on a slab?"
— "Possibly there was a certain suggestion of the piscine, sir."
— "Then it must be Gussie, I suppose. But what on earth can have brought him up to London?"
https://www.online-literature.com/pg-wodehouse/rightho-jeeves/1/
Victor Mair said,
February 25, 2025 @ 6:19 pm
@Michael Vnuk
I'm glad you brought up the question of the identity of the mud fish mentioned in this post. Before I finished writing it, I had become convinced that there were more than one species involved, but I didn't want to divert attention from the main thrust of my little language essay and get entwined in an ichthyological inquiry.
Jenny Chu said,
February 25, 2025 @ 11:24 pm
@Mduck, that has always been my problem with reading menus. I may know every character and every name of every ingredient, but when I read the menu I need to come up with some third-level interpretation of "two phoenixes alighting" or "the emperor fainted" or "toad in a hole" which render me baffled
Chas Belov said,
February 26, 2025 @ 12:16 am
I have rarely seen chitterlings for intestines on Chinese menus in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Philip Taylor said,
February 26, 2025 @ 6:00 am
Tut tut, Jenny — "Toad in the hole", please ! (No amphibians were harmed in the posting of this reply).
Tom Dawkes said,
February 26, 2025 @ 7:51 am
@Jenny Chu
I wonder if you were thinking of the Turkish menu item " İmam bayıldı" = "The imam fainted". See, for example, https://vidarbergum.com/recipe/imam-bayildi-turkish-stuffed-aubergines/
cameron said,
February 26, 2025 @ 9:31 am
at Italian restaurants you'll sometimes find "strozzapreti" listed among the pasta options, and I've seen some quite literal English translations of that one
Victor Mair said,
February 26, 2025 @ 10:05 am
Strozzapreti (Italian: [ˌstrɔttsaˈprɛːti]; lit. 'priest choker' or 'priest strangler'[1]: 152 [2]) are an elongated form of cavatelli, or hand-rolled pasta typical of the Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Marche and Umbria regions of Italy as well as in the state of San Marino. The name is also used for a baked cheese and vegetable dumpling, prepared in some regions of Italy and on the French island of Corsica.
Etymology
There are several legends to explain the name, primarily based on the anticlerical sentiment of the region.
One is that gluttonous priests were so enthralled by the savory pasta that they ate too quickly and choked themselves.[1] Another explanation involves the azdora ('housewife' in the Romagna dialect), who "chokes" the dough strips to make the strozzapreti. The azdora would express rage (perhaps triggered by the misery and difficulties of her life) and curse the local clergy, resulting in a pasta that could choke a priest.[3] A third states that wives would customarily make the pasta for churchmen as partial payment for land rents (in Romagna, the Catholic Church had extensive land properties rented to farmers), and their husbands would be angered enough by the venal priests eating their wives' food to wish the priests would choke as they stuffed their mouths with it. The name surely reflects the diffuse anticlericalism of the people of Romagna and Tuscany.
Another possible explanation is that following Sunday Mass, it was common for the priest to visit homes of the villagers and enjoy dinner with them. The more pleasant experiences for the priest would entice them to come back to that particular home more frequently. As a means for the family to let the priest know that he might be overextending his welcome, they would serve this pasta which had later earned the name strozzapreti. Another origin story is that the pasta resembles a clerical collar, commonly referred to as a "priest choker".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strozzapreti
EVD said,
February 26, 2025 @ 11:27 am
@Prof. Mair
“The actual existence of such bizarre fish has transfixed me because I previously knew about them only from a memorable passage in the work of the highly imaginative Chuang Tzu / Zhuangzi (ca. 3rd c. BC), my favorite Chinese writer of ancient times.”
Would it be possible for you to point out which particular paragraph or chapter is related to this creature?
Phinixis said,
February 26, 2025 @ 12:08 pm
Are “Mandarin duck chitterlings” really made of mandarin duck's intestines? If not, what are the ingredients?
Victor Mair said,
February 26, 2025 @ 2:31 pm
@EVD
"When springs dry up, fish huddle together on the land. They blow moisture on each other and keep each other wet with their slime." See ch. 6, "The Great Ancestral Teacher", p.53 of Victor H., Mair, tr. Wandering on the Way: Early Taoist Tales and Parables of Chuang Tzu (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998; first ed. New York: Bantam, 1994).
It is remarkable that the talented woodcut artist, Daniel Heitkamp, created an illustration for this very passage (p. 54) that depicts three fish clustered together on the land and looking very much like some of the photographs of "mudfish" that I've seen on the internet.
Also available as Zhuangzi Bilingual Edition, translated by Victor H. Mair (English) and Minci Li (Modern Chinese) (Columbus: The Ohio State University Foreign Language Publications, production of the National East Asian Languages Resource Center, OSU, 2019) — this is actually a trilingual edition, since the 736 pages volume also includes the original Classical Chinese version.
Yves Rehbein said,
February 26, 2025 @ 4:36 pm
To call these "legends to explain the name" is so classy, much better than "folk etymolog". Although the take on azdora sounds like it implies one, or why does "housewife" have to be translated?
-suppa-raetii seems a good guess. Raetia was a Roman province next to Germania superior.
struzza seems to be borrowed from Lombardic (WT) and might be akin to German strotzen, if related to Drossel "throat" (DWDS), in Electrical literally a "choke". This makes sense for a roll in view of the idiom jemandem den Hals umdrehen (cf. umdrehen, note by the way hals, collum "neck" per se from PIE *kʷel- "to turn"). Serbo-Croatian štrȕca "loaf of bread" also implies Austrian German Strutzen (WT). I am not confident about these at all, just my pinch of salt.
Chris Button said,
February 27, 2025 @ 1:58 pm
A study of the variety of Chinese characters used for different fish names could be quite illuminating.
Philip Taylor said,
February 28, 2025 @ 1:51 pm
I wonder whether Garrick Mallery's "Mud Puppy totem" might also refer to a mud-dwelling fish (see John deFrances' Visible Speech, p.~39).
Alvin said,
February 28, 2025 @ 6:19 pm
The so-called "mandarin duck intestine" 鴛鴦腸 typically refers to two types of sausages – 臘腸 and 膶腸, both of which are 臘味. I don't know what they are really called in English, all I can say is that 臘腸 is made of meat and 膶腸 is made of liver.
Anonymous Historian said,
February 28, 2025 @ 8:03 pm
If anyone can make mud into a tasty meal it's the Cantonese.