Plaathuu is not Horse Mackerel! Did you know that?

Actually, this is not a horse mackerel (Aji) but a kind of, SIMPLY, mackerel (Saba) though it looks much more like a horse mackerel.

Scientifically speaking, Plaa Thuu (ปลาทู) belongs to scombridae family, which mackerel also bilongs to, while Japanese Aji (horse mackerel) belongs to Carangidae family.

I bet that lot of Japanese believe that the "plaa thuu" is the horse mackerel (Japanese Aji) I found it today that they are not horse mackerels after I had spent 20 years in Thailand and had eaten the fish more than 100 times, I guess.

I think that, for westerners, it doesn't matter at all, (for them they are "mackerels" anyway, they can't tell ) but, for Japanese, this is a big surprise because, for us, a horse mackerel (Aji) and a mackerel (Saba) are two totally different things, and the Plaa Thuu looks so like the horse mackerel (Japanese Aji)!

I think that Koreans might understand this feeling.

By the way, I like the subdued color of the fish. They were deep-fried and had kept in the frig for a day before I took the picture.

Cheers

#身辺雑記 #English