Clem's Soup Made With Imported Frozen Bombay Duck
 
  Back In Kuching, Sarawak, one of my favourite soup meals was Bombay Duck, or known locally as Ikan Lumek. It is a very soft boned marine fish which can be eaten unboned. This fish (Harpadon nehereus) can be found in a wide range of habitats across ranging from the Bay of Bengal to the South China Sea. Indeed I saw fresh Bombay Duck by the street in Fuzhou, Fujian Province this past February:


Fresh Bombay Duck for sale in Daming Food Street, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China

My favoured story of how this fish took on the semblance of poultry in its name, is through the corruption of the call by Marathi-speaking fish vendors: "Bombil tak" which means "here is the Bombay fish".

I was pleasantly surprised to come across frozen Bombay Duck in an Asian grocery shop this week. Despite being told long before by my Dad that this fish is best cooked from fresh product (not frozen, which was why there was never frozen Bombay Duck in our household), I just had to try a pack of this frozen Bombay Duck imported from China because this fish is just not available fresh in Sydney (as far as I know).


Frozen Bombay Duck in Sydney, imported from China
 

I cooked the thawed fish in the same manner as I have always done in Kuching (see here) but the result was disappointing because the texture of the fish was mostly not soft and tender like the fresh product (some retained their soft fragile nature but not enough buy a second lot for soup - it might be different fried). Here is the cooked dish anyway:
 

  


Soup made from imported, frozen Bombay Duck, with bean thread

www.clemkuek.com

 

11 May 2026
 

 



Created by Clem Kuek