fish maw

Fish maw is the commercial term for the dried swim bladders of large fish like croaker and sturgeon. It has has no fishy taste and absorbs the flavors of other ingredients. It is graded according to sex: male bladders are better than female ones.

I belong to a  food group , Home cooked delight though I m a terrible cook. The theme for today is fish maw, and I told them I have no food photo but I have a funny story. I googled and found fish maw may be from the croaker fish I ate last Sunday.

The above photo was taken at the end of 1973. The little boy is Henry who is now the head of WWF , 

World Wildlife Fund: WWF - Endangered Species Conservation

https://www.worldwildlife.org/

Malaysia and Indonesia.

The story goes, Dad was a Senior Education Servant. The fish monger was his friend and he gave mum some wet unprocessed fish maw. He told mum to string it in a bamboo pole and dry it in the sun. It rained as it has been in Auckland the last few days, and the fish maw started to smell. Dad threw them in the garden.

The next day, Henry pick it up and brought it into the house. Mum smelt it and the bad odor was gone. After drying it, the fish maw was ok to eat. We enjoyed the fish maw and thank Henry for it.

These days, eating shark fins are frown upon and fish maws are substituted.