All at sea

Last Sunday I bought a fish (see picture to the left) at my local market for my husband who grew up on the coast and who would eat fish every day of the week if he could, whereas I on the other hand, grew up in the Australian bush* where eating fish and chips or fish fingers** was pretty much the extent of my seafood diet, and consequently. I can take it or leave it, but because I love him, I buy him fish (how unromantic is that?).

This time I remembered to record an image and make a note of its name while I was still at the market because based on previous experience, I knew the Tagalog name would disappear from my memory banks during my walk home if I did not. According to the vendor, I had purchased a banak, a deep sea fish from Palawan (Php300/kilo). Later through a search on the Internet I determined it was a sea bream. 

I do not recognise this fish at all, and I don't think it is available in Japan but even though I have learned more about Japanese fish since I was a newly-wed and felt squeamish looking a fish in the eye (and I am proud that I can at least recognise shake, karei, saba, sanma, buri, suzuki, maguro now) there are many that stump me, and I would not be surprised if someone told me, "that is X, you know". It may even be a fish that my Abrolhos Island diver friends would be familiar with.

The week before I had bought this mystery fish (to the right) and even though I conscientiously repeated the name several times and I even had a witness with me who turned out to be totally unreliable, afterward I could not for the life of me recall what it was named. I believe it begins with the letter K but have had had no luck finding online any Filipino fish with a K initial. I even tried Google image search which initially showed me a lot of pictures of cake until I entered the word fish in the search box. Then it just showed me other fish but none were the same colour even. Think Google needs to sharpen its search skills somewhat if it wants my repeat business. 

I really would love to know the name because this fish was quite tasty and only had a medium-amount of bones. Many fish found in the Philippines have more bones than the fish eaten in Japan, which makes them less fun to eat. I steamed it in a saucepan with sinigang soup which is made from tamarind and has a sour taste (see here for a recipe, but I must confess I used a supermarket packet). 

Now if I were in the blog business, I would offer an awesome prize such as a week-long holiday diving at one of the top 10 dive destinations in the Philippines but since I am just a regular Joe(di)-blow, all I can offer is my gratitude. Please could someone identify this fish for me and put me out of my misery? I hate being all at sea...

UPDATE: We have a winner, scroll down for the answer ***

   * rural town but not the desert

  ** known also as fish sticks
*** kitang