ปลาจาระเม็ด

[stonybonytony]

Does anyone know the English name for this fish (if there is one)?

[meadish_sweetball]

Pomfret, possibly.

http://images.google.com/images?q=Parastro...sa=N&tab=wi

There are also many hits for 'butterfish' and 'pompano' but I am not convinced they originally referred to the same fish.

[DavidHouston]

Domnern-Sathienpong has the following entries:

ปลาจาระเม็ดขาว - silver pomfret (Pompus argentenus)

ปลาจาระเม็ดดำ - black pomfret (Parastromateus niger)

ปลาจาระเม็ดเทา - Chinese silver pomfret (Pampus chinensis)

[sbk]

And a delicious fish it is, I might add. Pomfret is the correct word in english, and the white pomfret (silver I am presuming is the same fish) is quite expensive.

[DavidHouston]

And a delicious fish it is, I might add. Pomfret is the correct word in english, and the white pomfret (silver I am presuming is the same fish) is quite expensive.

I had never heard of the word "pomfret" before as an American food fish. So I looked in the dictionary. One dictionary has "

pomfret

n : deep-bodied sooty-black pelagic spiny-finned fish of North

Atlantic and North Pacific; valued for food "

Well, Thailand is neither in the North Atlantic nor the North Pacific. Next, from Merrian-Websters comes:

1 : any of a family (Bramidae) of usually deep-bodied spiny-finned oceanic fishes some of which are used for food

2 : a silvery deep-bodied marine food fish (Pampus argenteus of the family Stramateidae) of Asia

There we go! The second definition must be what we have here in Thailand.

Look also at http://www.answers.com/topic/stromateidae-1 and http://www.answers.com/topic/american-butterfish where the term "butterfish" is introduced. The word "sheepshead" is also associated with this fish; we do have sheepshead in the Gulf of Mexico. When we are in Houston, Bui makes น้ำยา for ขนมจีน with sheepshead fish. Anyone who sees its protruding front teeth would understand why the name was given to this species.

And, finally, this page should put all questions to rest, especially how it looks when cooked: http://www.answers.com/topic/pomfret-1 .

SBK, how is it cooked where you are?

Edited January 21, 2009 by DavidHouston

[sbk]

steamed or fried, its nice in gaeng som if you like gaeng som.

[kriswillems]

I just ate it 2 days ago. On the English/Thai menu it was called butterfish.

It was not as good as is should be because it was frozen, so the taste got lost. Next time I better go to a restaurant that sells fresh fish (that has not been frozen).