Ever since we came to the USA, we always visited Golam Produce
Market in Ann Arbor to buy our favorite Kolkata fishes. The quality of the
fishes, hilsa, koi, katla, pabda, rohu, tyangra, and the like, sold at Golum is
excellent. In fact, the of quality and freshness of the fishes sold at Golam
surpasses the standard of that of Kolkata. However, recently I don't know what
happened, the owner, who was a middle-aged man from Bangladesh, sold the
business to a man from Middle East. Now I have little idea if people in the
Middle East eat fishes and even if they do, they surely don't devour the same
variety of fishes that we Bengalis do. That I was not wrong in my assumption
was proven this time when I visited Golam with the new owner at the helm. When
I asked for hilsa, the new owner, to my amusement, pointed in the direction of
some giant pomfrets, the size I have never seen earlier, making it evident that
he didn't have any idea of hilsa or how it looks like. As I became sad worrying
if the new owner was going to supply the same quality fishes sold by the
previous owner and was contemplating to make a quick run out of the shop, I was
moved by the hospitality of the new owner and his team. To the best of their
efforts, they set to searching for the fishes I asked for in their inventory,
and save for hilsa and koi, they got me rohu, pabda, and tyangra. They also had
other variety of fishes such as white fish, kingfish, and red snapper, but
since these three types of fishes are not commonly consumed in West Bengal, I
have little familiarity with them. However, once in Goa, I had an awesome red
snapper curry and though a few times I tried to cook red snapper at home
following the style of cooking fishes observed in Kolkata, those undertakings
did not turn out satisfactory. So I was in search of a good recipe of red
snapper, and I found the recipe of Red Hot Chili Fish Curry at NDTV
by Joey Matthew. Though the original dish was prepared using coconut oil,
I used white oil in preparing mine. Also, I tried to avoid adding too much
chili powder into my dish. I used two teaspoons of chili powder instead of two
tablespoons. I also boiled and ground the kokum.
