Gone Fishing

 We got a call from P'Nung about a week and a half ago asking us if we wanted to come out and get some of the fish from her pond. It loses almost all of its water during the dry season. It had been a couple of years since we had done this, but we could still remember how great the fish tasted! So we were excited to get over there, spend some time with her and the boys, and see what kind of fish we could get.

 This year we had a better setup. I was the designated picture taker while Pawn and Rusty got down in the water to use the net. The net worked a lot better than the baskets we used a couple of years ago.

 I'm not sure how this happened, but we got the boys away from the t.v. and games to get out and help us. They did a good job and seemed to enjoy it.

 Since they only needed two people for the net, they employed a third person to guide (scare) the fish toward the net. This really increased the catch.

 Unfortunately the fish were really small, and we didn't catch as many as a couple of years ago.

I think you can see the fish in Rusty's hand. Haha! I wasn't exaggerating when I said they were really small.

 We always find a few treasures. This year there were several crabs, but I think Pawn was most excited about this frog. I'll have to ask her if she ever cooked it.

After they finished up catching the fish, it was time to get ready to cook. Rusty and Pawn gutted the fish. I didn't think you wanted a picture of that.

  

I worked on pounding the spices to season the fish. I had lemon grass, galangal, tumeric, peppers, and possibly some other stuff that I can't remember.  We were sitting on the ground working under a nice shaded area that had a nice breeze. A nice breeze is often hard to find!

 

P' Nung doctored up the fish. I love how she arranged them so neatly!

 

They wrapped up the fish in banana leaves and placed them over the fire. Unfortunately we had to leave and didn't even get to eat with P' Nung and the boys. We went home and pan-friend the fish, but for Rusty and me they were more trouble than they were worth. They were so small it was too hard to pick out the bones. We spent a lot of time picking out the bones for just a couple of bites from each fish. The flavor is good though, but I will wait for some bigger fish!

On the way home we snapped a picture of this mango farm. I have never seen trees so loaded down with mangoes before. The workers were working hard to cover the fruit with plastic bags to protect them from birds and squirrels. P' Nung said these were for export. They have many acres of heavy mango trees.