hot and sour steamed grouper

One reward in travel for me is expanding my experience with cuisine of different parts of the world. Often I come home with new perspective or just ideas for new recipe. Sometime I recreate a dish that I enjoyed during a trip. At another I take what I experienced and incorporate into dishes I already know (a sort of fusion).

My recent trip to Thailand is particular rewarding and I came home with a few dishes under my belt. Well literally too as I ate too much there. Amongst the great dishes I ate is this hot and spicy steam grouper I had while in Phuket Town. The cooking method is very similar to that of Cantonese cuisine of Southwest China (I have a post on this). The main difference is the garnish that are used - making this a Thai version of steam fish.

While at my fishmonger wanting to buy a dungeness crab I saw she has some live groupers. I bought the grouper instead of the crab. I have been itching wanting try my hands on the Thai method of preparation. I brought the live fish home and clean it myself. I also bought some manila clams to make a soup based on tom yum goong.
this beautiful fish is about 1.2 lb - a nice size for this dish

 preparation of other ingredients

 20 minutes later... - note the Thai service including melamine bowl and Thai flatware

this tom yum goong also has a few clams; I added the clams to make up for the headless wild shrimps; when the summer comes and I can get live Pacific pink prawns I can make the best tom yum goong; for now I either add mussels, clams, or crab to make up the flavor lost with headless shrimps; you don't need canned chicken stock to make very good tom yums; in fact using chicken stock ruin the essence of what tom yum is

from the appearance to the taste I achieved near identical reproduction of the one I had in Thailand. I used the stainless steel oval plate I brought back from Bangkok to serve this dish.

this one I had in Phuket Town

you can eat this fish with just the spoon - I also use a pair of chopsticks to get every bits of the meat including the cheek

only a cat can do a more complete job eating it - I saved the juice for making another tom yum goong