Cha Ca Style Snapper

Serves 4

Once someone described a classic Vietnamese dish of turmeric fish with dill to me, I tried to research it online and began to conjure an idea in my head of how I thought it would look and taste.

When I was lucky enough to travel to Vietnam, I especially wanted to check out

Cha Cá Lã Vo. ng—finally I would get the chance to eat cha cá, this dish I had formed an obsession over. When it arrived, I couldn’t help but feel . . . well, disappointed. Pieces of fried fish, still sizzling in a pan with oil, were seasoned with the faintest hint of turmeric and dill. I didn’t get any of the punches of herbs and spices that I had been imagining in my mind for so long. I didn’t get the delicate freshness of the fish itself.

I’ll admit I was upset. It was not delicious to me, and we were seated in a snoozy

upstairs dining room away from the bustle of the restaurant, so it wasn’t a lot of fun, either.

But that quiet room also gave me time to think. And I realized that the letdown was

something that I had created for myself. All that buildup and assumption-making on

my part. The fact is that the cha cá could have been spot-on perfect, but it just didn’t line up with what I had been hoping for. Who am I to say what this dish, created in a culture I don’t really know, is supposed to be like?

Having that experience of trying the real thing gave me the context and the

understanding to work on a recipe inspired by cha cá—one that was entirely my own, while still using the framework of the classic dish.

After lots of tinkering, this is the recipe I landed on, one that does feature the

flavors I wanted. I borrowed the technique of using yogurt in the marinade, which helps amplify the turmeric and dill. And we roast the fish instead of frying it, to let these delicate flavors really shine through.

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Cha Ca Style Snapper

Ingredients

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