As you probably read in my recent blog post, I had made a fish bosou. I had a friend who commented that my fish bosou looked dry. It's only looked dry because I just only finished making them. During the fermentation, there's a clear, yellowish liquid that began to flood the jar. I was told by another friend that it's normal. Well, after waiting the compulsory fermentation period of two weeks, and lusting for it every other hour, I finally get to taste my very precious fish bosou.
The fish was soft and tear easily with a spoon. There's no need to pick the bones as you eat, because the bones produced exciting popping sounds as it crushed between your molars. But there's only one setback, and I'm not sure where the root of the problem came from. The fish tasted like lemon-lime flavoured fish! God! It's so sour that it induced winks out of me. It's such a mistake because to make up for the sourness, I scooped up more vegetables than fish, which was never my intention. I didn't labour hours in the kitchen just to have vegetable bosou did I?! My friends were as baffled as I was when I told them.
I stopped eating the bosou for a few days because I fell ill, and when I do feel better, I felt like I can't return to eating acid as my side dish. At least, not at the time. So the fish bosou jar sat where I last left them: In the coolest part of the house.
Last week, I felt like eating bosou again so I took the jar out and scooped and scooped for the fish, but there were none?! Where's the fish that gave me so much grievances for weeks when I was looking for ingredients? I thought I had a fish's more worth of meat in there. Again, I put the jar back where I left them.
Last Tuesday, I sat with the same friend that commented that my fish bosou looked dry, and told him of my experience and asked him if it melted away. He said, 'Of course it melted away, it's an acidic environment'. Please be also noted that I never told him that the fish was extremely sour.
I thought to myself, well, what happened? Wasn't the point of bosou-making was to be able to keep the meat for a long time?
First round of bosou-making: FAILED.
But it doesn't really matter. There's always a room for learning. I'm going to try making a second batch soon.
