The one thing I love about being in East Asia maybe the most is the food. Everything fresh, everything made on the spot, and everything made in front of your eyes. I foundation this cheeky little place where a dude was holding a one man show in preparing the best stuff on his bbq right in front of your eyes.
Much love for this red snapper guru!
Yeah you see that right, no place to move for the guru in his own little mini kitchenette, but he doesn't need any more space. He knows exactly what he needs and where he wants everything to be!
It all starts with the outside
The guru has a little fishy tank outside where you also can choose from clamps, crabs, squid and tiger prawns. One thing I have learned in a previous trip is that you can spot the freshness of a fish by looking at his eyes. If they are nice and dark, this one is probably caught today. But if you see one with hazy eyes it means he will probably end up in fish stew tomorrow and you will end up with a belly ache.
It is worth it to check out what you really want to have.
I saw some other people walking around with the snapper of heaven so I decided to go with that one.
I also really liked how the crab looked and thought about this for a second but eating crab takes time and a lot of attention as you have to break every part of the shell separately, and that felt like a bit too much for my brain to handle at the moment.
After choosing the red snapper the guru started presenting his skills. Okay maybe somewhere in the back was another person who did the dirty work of descaling and degutting before little fishy came back.
But once back the guru started stuffing the fish with a mixture of oil, thai basil, garlic, red pepper and onion that I saw him making there on the spot.
Rub it in but also put in in his belly and fold it into a banana leaf and afterwards into aluminum foil.
With military precision he holded to foil to not let any steam and juice escape.
This took around 15 minutes of bbq time and the bbq was right next to the guru so he was standing in the heat the whole time. It never seemed to bother him...
In the mean time he was chopping veggies there and making a little dip saus with also lime juice and it was just pristine.
Watching the guru unfold the foil felt like an unboxing video!
Et voila! The snapper of joy was ready and the whole package also with little pineapple chunks in the veggies was awesome.
Wow what a fishy experience just outside this little market stand in the Middleton of no where. And this...is why I would go on a holiday just to go food tasting haha!