I would like to have some information from my shopping experience, to share with everyone to avoid buying the wrong thing when shopping.
On the market today, the Pangasius family has five common types: catfish, basa and grouper (farmed), pineapple and catfish (nature). They have the same shape, making it difficult for housewives to distinguish.
To avoid being cheated, buyers can base on the following characteristics:
- See the beginning. Pangasius head is short, vertical; the hollow between the skull bones is shallow, narrow but long; mouth slightly distorted; maxillary teeth wide, visible when closed. Pangasius head is big, wooden, rafted, horizontal; hollow between deep, wide but short skull; Wide mouth in the middle, closed mouth without teeth … ho. Big-head grouper, slightly rounded, lower jaw slightly broad, upper jaw protruding.
- See beard. They have two beards. The lower beard is about half the head length, the lower jaw is about 1/3 of the head length. Two pairs of beards are longer, reaching the eyes and gills. The beard on the grouper extends to the pectoral fins, the lower beard is shorter …
- See generals. Basa fishes are short, slightly flattened on both sides, round ribs, big bellies, dorsal surface is light brown, white belly. Pangasius has a long body, a small belly, a dark blue back, held up to eye level to see silver light, sparkling in the back. I howler fish flatter, but the biggest grouper belly, dorsal dark gray face, gray belly.
- Anatomy. The fiber of basa fish is small, regular, white in color; The belly has two large fat zones, shaped like grapefruit, white. Pangasius meat is big and fat is not white; Particularly Pangasius farming stew has yellow fat, has a bad smell, if the ginger warehouse, the smell is stronger. However, if cutting out each circle, it is difficult to distinguish the species of the Pangasius family.
Basa fish is currently kept very little, because it has to be raised upstream of Tien and Hau rivers for up to six months to harvest. While Pangasius farming is kept downstream and only raised for four months, the US still accepts Pangasius fillets as Basa fish. Particularly, grouper has not been exported, only sold in the country, so it is not worth the price, although grouper and basa meat are much better than Pangasius meat.
Particularly, cotton fish and pineapple fish have not yet been propagated and raised, so rare in the popular market, high price of meat is very good, so it is less afraid of mistakes. Due to wild caught, pineapple and cotton wool sizes are not as uniform as farmed fish. The shapes and colors of pineapple fish and cotton wool are very similar. Dorsal surface is light gray, flesh and fat are white, especially pelvic fins, caudal fin, dorsal fin, pectoral fins white, but on the outer side is yellow, different from the fins raised.
According to SGTT