Pickled fish fever sets in, in Cape Town
- Cape Town residents are looking forward to indulging in the iconic pickled fish over the Easter weekend.
- There has been little to no fresh snoek available for purchase by residents.
- Traditionally, the fish needs to soak in onions and vinegar for about two to three days and is indulged with hot cross buns.
Nadeema Jacobs of the Cape Town Fish Ladies in Hout Bay cackles when asked on Thursday if it was too late to make pickled fish for the Easter weekend.
“No, this is the right time,” she says, taking a few minutes out of one of the busiest days of the year for the famous fishmongers.
Her own pickled fish was already marinating nicely in its tangy sweet and sour curry sauce, ready to be shared with friends and family, in a tradition as Capetonian as the minstrels.
For her and the other fish sellers it’s one of the busiest times of the year, but also exciting.
Customers come and pick out a nice fish for themselves, with loud advice on what is best for children who have left the nest and are bringing it into their own homes for the first time.
She recommends a nice yellowtail, or kabeljou, red snapper, snoek, or hake to be covered in spices and onions.
The flavours will be pulled into the fish as it “lies in” nicely until served.
She pauses as the tries to describe the measurements for the recipe she has followed so many times by instinct and love for her own family.
“Bay leaves, fish masala curry powder…” she says warmly, stopping suddenly.
“But, you must be careful with the vinegar. It can be a bietjie sour. You must remember to put some sugar in so that the vinegar is not so sour,” she chuckles.
Asked if the pickled fish was only for Catholics who will be ending Lent, she laughs at the absurdity of the question in a city where cultures complement one another just like the spices in the fish.
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“No! It’s not just for Catholics. Most of the Muslims and Christians buy here.”
Supermarkets have already set out their punnets of pickled fish for those who have to rush off to family functions, swopping the punnet for an old ice cream tub in the car to avoid the judgment of those who made their own.
And if there is a lull in conversation with aunties, the inevitable debate starts: do you have your pickled fish warmed up, or cold?
“I prefer mine hot,” says News24 journalist Lisalee Solomons.
Patronella Du Toit, prefers hers cold.
“You have got to let the fish lay in the juices for about four to five days. My fish has been soaked already since last Sunday evening.
“Hy’s al deur getrek (it’s already pulled through),” she says of the delicate aromas and flavours.
Du Toit says she’s not a fan of hot cross buns and raisins as Easter fare, but makes sure she has prepared at least three big bowls of different kinds of pickled fish.
“My favourite is the snoek one, but the snoek was so expensive I could only afford to buy one. I paid nearly R300 for it,” she exclaims.
“But it was a lekker big dik (fat) one, so I don’t mind. My hands are already yellow the way I worked the fish into the bowl with the onions.”
The tradition evokes memories of family, togetherness, and in the case of one person who did not want to be named: “[It has] lekker onions that make you poep (fart) all day.”
Wendy Solomons says the Easter weekend for her family is special as it symbolises the sacrifices made by Jesus, in reference to the crucifixion and resurrection that Christians marked.
“We plan on having fish till Sunday. I don’t want to see any other foods. If visitors come here, they will only get fish,” Solomons says with a giggle.
In the meantime, while the fish was soaking, she got busy with changing curtains, mopping floors and rearranging her living room for the Easter weekend.
She says:
Shamiela Petersen said Easter weekends for her are all about “togetherness” and tasting everyone’s fish dish.
“Look, I am the best-pickled fish maker let’s not deny that,” she says with a hysterical laugh.
“But my recipe will remain my secret that was passed down to me by my late mother. What I can say is that there is a bit of a very strong tang to it, and I don’t add lots of vinegar. I measure it strategically.”
She uses up to 12 onions to make about four big bowls, but insists it’s all about “the right spices”.
Rosaline Berenice Arendse says her family is not big on pickled fish, so she only makes about two bowls for the weekend for her and her husband.
She says a dash of honey is important in the dish.
Zainie Misbach, owner of the popular Bo Kaap Cooking Tour, and a walking library on South African food, tells News24 that a spice masala was used by the Cape Malays as far back as 350 years ago to preserve fish for the Dutch East India Company’s sea voyages.
But it wasn’t just for seafarers, it was a long established tradition already brought to the Cape by the slaves yanked away from their families in Indonesia to toil for the Dutch East India Company, and the political exiles who resisted their birthplaces being colonised who were banished to the Cape.
They became known as Cape Malays and brought with them a range of specialised skills like millinery, cobbling, masonry, and delicately fragrant cooking.
And, the art of preserving fish for long journeys, by frying it dry with masala, then adding onion and vinegar to preserve it.
Misbach explained that Catholics did not use spice and masala in their cooking.
Fast-forward to Misbach’s teenage years and memories of Muslims picnicking at Macassar, to the east of the city over Easter.
Up to 100 families would pitch tents and camp near the river, to celebrate Sheikh Yusuf at the Kramat in Faure, which forms part of the circle of Kramats in the Western Cape.
And, of course, with four days out in the open, they needed to pack food that would not spoil.
“Now what is going to last for four days?” asked Misbach. “The women would bake bread, and make pickled fish and they would pack the fresh bread and the box of pickled fish for the picnic.”
As the Apartheid government blocked more and more recreational spots for people they called coloured, Misbach said there were not many picnic spots to go to, but there was always the Easter camping at Macassar for the people of Bo Kaap and District 6.
“That’s where everybody met,” she said.
“We used to joke: pickled fish and camping – that’s where you were conceived,” she laughs.
Her daughter-in-law brought her a portion of pickled fish on Wednesday night, and Misbach declared it delicious.
For local small scale fishers, the rush to buy fish and get it pickling, is also an opportunity to bring some much-needed cash home.
Fishermen in Kalk Bay told News24 that these past few days they have seen an increase of people coming to buy fish, but there are not a lot of fresh fish to be found.
Director of Kalk Bay Fisheries, Sameeg Hendricks, was in agreement that the popular snoek had been very scarce.
“We thought this year we’d catch an abundance of fish, but I think as the weeks grow by, we’ll start seeing fishermen catch more fresh fish,” said Hendricks.
Fisherman Ismaiel Fortune said he has been fishing for over 40 years and high in demand at Easter is snoek, yellowtail, kingklip and crayfish.
The prices for fish range from R150 to R200 per fish but if you buy in bulk, it is about R400 a box, depending on the species.
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“Fish has become more expensive than meat. And because there is a scarcity of fish, we’ve been catching lots of crayfish in the meantime. Thank goodness we have permits for that. Residents seem to be opting for the crayfish since they are not able to get the fresh snoek or yellowtail,” he said.
West Coast fisherman and co-founder of the Abalobi Fisheries Nico Waldeck (said it has not been a good year.)
“On Thursday our men went out to catch fish and we only caught about five for the whole day. Usually, over the Easter period we catch tons of fish, this is our livelihood and we love it. It’s just sad that not much fish are swimming near our boats,” he said.
Snoek currently sold in the R200- R350 range due to the limited amount of snoek on in Saldana Bay and Lamberts Bay areas.
The fishermen said they thought now that the lockdown had ended after two years, they would go back to catching tons of fish and start rebuilding their livelihoods since the pandemic crippled their wages.
Waldeck said:
Masifundise researcher and project officer Maya Nangle said fishers tend to sell their catch within their communities, and the rush before Easter weekend gives them some respite from the unresolved quota allocations process for small scale fishers which is still being reverified by the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry.
Nangle noted that traditionally the women used to process the fish before sale, but the fish is increasingly being sold directly to customers, and these women have had to find alternative livelihoods.
This year the snoek run was late too, so there would be a little less to put in the purse than usual, and a wider search for just the right piece of fish to start smothering in spices.
