Ca nien Cá niên
Cá niên is a mountain-stream fish caught in the rainy season, usually grilled whole and dipped in hand-pounded chili salt with lime. The meat is white, firm, sweet, and not fishy, with few bones.
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Vietnam Airlines calls the meat white, sweet, firm, not fishy, and low in bones. ZaloPay calls it firm, fragrant, and not fishy.
How to enjoy it
Vietnam Airlines: the usual plate is the whole fish, gut included, grilled with salt and chili, or grilled over an open flame. Also a turmeric braise, fried crisp, or a sour soup with lá giang. The rainy season it prints is lunar months 4 through 8, when the meat is fattest.
ZaloPay: grill until the skin colors, and dip in hand-pounded chili salt with lime. It says the fish is a rainy-season catch, not a year-round one, in Trà Bồng and Ba Tơ.
The provincial introduction on the Trương Quang Trọng ward site spells it cá niêng.
Where to try it
Sơn Hà, Trà Bồng, and Tây Trà on Vietnam Airlines. Trà Bồng and Ba Tơ on ZaloPay. Not the city center.