Fish

Samak

Appears in

Published 1986

About

‘A remedy for a man who is “tied” by his enemies, and made impotent. He must go to a quack, who will say: “There is something written against you that has been eaten by a fish in the sea. I can release you from your trouble by obtaining the fish for a fee!” The quack finds a fish, writes a curse, perhaps on a piece of bread, puts it in the mouth of the fish and delivers it to the patient. The latter will be cured.’¹

In some parts of the Middle East fish is still believed to have magical properties. Tunisians in particular believe it to be highly beneficial. The day after their wedding, couples are encouraged to step over a large fish as an assurance of happiness and a protection from evil. Today, the shape of a fish has become a symbol. Embroidered on material and carved in metal, it is believed to ward off the evil eye. In Egypt, one felt compelled to eat fish for the first meal in a new home. In Persia, fish is eaten on New Year’s Eve to cleanse the people from evil, while Jews display the head alone in the centre of the New Year table in the hope that Jews will always be at the ‘head’.

The medieval cookery manual of al-Baghdadi gives a few recipes for fish, both fresh and salted, but without specifying any varieties. Even today, recipes for fish can often be applied to any of a number of varieties. When asking which fish should be used for cousbareia, sayyadiah or blehat samak, I was inevitably told ‘any fish you like’ or ‘any fish will do’. Nevertheless, certain fish are more suitable for a particular dish, if only because of their size and oiliness. Their distinctive flavours and affinities also make them natural favourites for certain methods of preparation; but it is always possible to substitute a similar one if a particular kind is unobtainable.

These recipes were, of course, originally evolved for fish from the Mediterranean and neighbouring seas. Most popular are the red mullet, called barbunya by the Turks and Sultan Ibrahim by the Arabs; the grey mullet; a fish called morgan or arous, which is the French daurade, and whose closest English equivalent is the sea bream; the sea bass, called loukoz; and the sole, called samak Moussa after Moses (because of its thinness it is said to have been cut in half when Moses separated the Red Sea). Turbot, cod, sardines, tuna, John Dory, gurnard and swordfish abound in the seas of the region.

Of the freshwater fish, a type of trout called chaboute is fished in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. It is usually smoked over a fire to make masgouf, a popular Iraqi speciality. Carp is a Turkish freshwater favourite, and shad is a popular fish found in the rivers of North Africa. However, fish from the Nile are considered hardly fit to eat as they are impregnated with the strong taste and smell of the Nile mud.

Ever since ancient times, salted and dried fish has been known in all parts of the Middle East. This was originally done to preserve the fish so that it could be stored and taken on long journeys, or sent to regions far away from the coast. Today, it is prepared in this way primarily because people like it so much. Methods vary in detail but are basically the same. The fish is washed and cleaned and split open. It is salted inside and out and left to dry in the hot sun, or else it is buried in the hot sand or mud for a few days to ‘mature’. The result is called fessih.

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