Don’t give a child a fish but show him how to fish.
— Mao Zedong, founder of the People’s Republic of China.
Many consider the empurau fish (mahseer) as more expensive than gold. I consider it ‘aquatic gold’ — a pricey, edible and tasty one at that.
The last time I purchased this fish was in Julau; weighing about a kilo plus, it cost RM86, which was considered very expensive in 1989.
But it was on sale at the right time, namely after a handsome mahjong win among friends at the local club on a Sunday.
One of the losers, Ah Heng, who ran a restaurant, offered to prepare the fish, steaming it lengthily. My spouse, who was in a school about 2km away, was very happy when I called from the shop — iPhones were unheard of then.
The empurau now fetches between RM600 and RM1,000 per kg for a restaurant dish in Kuching, according to sources but perhaps cheaper in Kapit, whose rivers and streams are known as favourite habitats of the “king of the river”.
Indigenous to Sarawak, the empurau is the most expensive edible freshwater fish in Malaysia, perhaps globally. The difficult-to-find reputation and slow growth rate of the fish make them even more sought-after, adding to the hefty price.
Although much of the Western world doesn’t consider carp a delicacy, large empurau are prized for their rich, delicate flesh, and firm texture. The fish get their unique taste from a diet of a particular local fruit that falls from trees into the rivers.
With only two dishes to sample (the one in 1989 and another in Kapit circa 2013), I can describe the taste as creamy, savoury, a little sweet, with hints of wild fruit. It is for this reason that customers with the purchasing power do not mind spending thousands of ringgit for a dish.
Due to such demand, the Iban in the Sarawak jungles, who once caught the fish frequently for their own consumption, are now fishing them solely for profit.
Empurau and other valued fish such as semah and tengadak which are native to Sarawak are under threat by unregulated fishing.
Catching a mature, 5kg empurau is akin to hitting the fishing lottery. The same goes for the semah and tengadak.
Empurau are members of the tor tambroides species found throughout Southeast Asia, also known as kelah or belian in the Malay language. The species can be found in Thailand’s Chao Phraya and the Mekong Rive r that runs through several countries. What makes the empurau in Borneo special — and more valuable — is its diet.
The last time I tasted tengadak (also in Kapit) was in 1982 while I was on a trip to observe teacher trainees in a good number of primary schools, including SK Nanga Pelagus at the foot of the famed Pelagus rapids.
Up the Balleh, Matnor (a lecturer from Kedah) and I went to SK Nanga Mujong, ust below the majestic longhouse of Datuk Seri Temenggong Jinggut Atan (now deceased) whose son Datuk Justin was then Kapit MP.
That sole tengadak dish was sponsored by a local headmaster during our lunch at a restaurant in Kapit town. During our Elvis show in Kapit 31 years later, a retired teacher sponsored a semah dish for at least RM250.
The semah is also very nice but nothing new to me as in our Melupa River, I used to catch many (using a fishing rod with the green grasshopper as bait) albeit a smaller version called tengas between 1965 and 1974.
In trying to catch tengas, one has to go down to the river and throw the bait over knee-deep fast running water. This fish only takes the bait under running water, not the still water of pools which are usually deep.
In many river basins — tributaries of the mighty Rajang included — a few of rivers have been put under the Tagang System. This is a method used to conserve aquatic life. Perhaps originating from the Iban word ‘tagang’ (prevent or prohibit), this is also a ‘controlled fishing’ system that has been recognised by the Agriculture Department and serves as an eco-tourism product be it in Kanowit’s Sungai Sebatu, Serian’s Kampung Terbat Mawang or elsewhere.
Related communities are allowed to do the fishing in these rivers under the ‘tagang’ scheme at certain intervals. Now, regulated fishing is the order of the day.
Nevertheless, that doesn’t lower the market price of empurau, semah and tengadak as well as other species.
