Species sheet · The Edible River
Milkfish
The national fish of the Philippines, boned with tweezers.
- Marinated in vinegar and garlic then fried (daing na bangus)
- In tamarind sour soup (sinigang)
- Belly grilled or in broth, Taiwanese style
- In French
- Chanos
- Scientific name
- Chanos chanos
- In the water
- A silver Indo-Pacific fish that grows up in lagoons and estuaries, farmed for centuries in the brackish ponds of the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan.
- Season & buying
- Year-round, farmed; fresh on Asian markets, in Europe mostly frozen or canned.
- Common length
- ~50 cm
- How to identify it
- Streamlined silver body, small toothless mouth
Deeply forked tail
Large eye covered by a clear eyelid
On the plate
Mild, sweet flesh, the belly fatty and melting, but laced with fine bones.
Avoid: Filleting it like a sea bass: without patient deboning, every mouthful is a trap; buy it deboned or cook it long.
In the Philippines, boning bangus is a trade in itself: the bones are pulled one by one with tweezers, and the fish is sold that way, butterflied and ready to fry.
In Umay recipes
One Umay recipe calls for it.
