Only appearing in the floating season, from September to November every year, freshwater dolphins, also known as Western dolphins, currently cost up to nearly 45 $ /kg.

Along with Linh fish, freshwater dolphins are specialties of the floating season. However, dolphins are abundant in large upstream rivers such as An Giang, Dong Thap … where the water flows strongly and less downstream. Fish is used to process many different delicious dishes such as braised lattes, braised with lemongrass and chili, braised, grilled, cooked with sour soup, and served with seasonal vegetables such as dandelion flower, water lily, lotus root…

Western dolphins have a beautiful appearance, thanks to the combination of deep red in the tail, orange fins and a blue-light blue body. A kilo of fish in the middle of the season is currently priced from 750,000 to 800,000 VND, about 35-40 fish. However, at the beginning of the season, the price increased to about 1 million VND.

Freshwater dolphins have no clues related to ocean dolphins or dolphins in the Mekong River in terms of species, shape and size. Westerners call them dolphins simply because the “squeak” sound is somewhat like a pig when caught out of the water.

This fish was once an ordinary wild product in the West, but now it has entered high-class restaurants. Ms. Lan Anh, in charge of the Khe Viet restaurant system (Nguyen Thi Dieu, District 3), said that diners in the city prefer dishes made from freshwater dolphins such as batch cooking, braised… “Because it’s a seasonal fish, it’s only been on the market for about two months, so it’s a strange dish, which is chosen by many customers. Fish meat is sweet, fragrant, fatty skin, less bones… easy to eat, and suitable for the majority of people. Approx. It will take about a month for the dolphin material to run out, customers who want to eat have to wait until next year’s flood season,” said Lan Anh.

Currently, freshwater dolphins have been raised in cages by some households in An Giang on the Hau River, in areas with clean water and strong currents. However, the output is not much because this fish has not been artificially reproduced, people who want to raise have to buy seeds from Cambodia but the seed source is quite rare. Seeds brought back must be nurtured for about 4 months, then brought to the raft to take care of 3 more months before they can be sold on the market.

Photo:Internet