Seafood Time Traveling with Herklots & Lin’s 50 Common Marine Food-Fish of Hong Kong (1962)
In 1962 Herklots and Lin published the 3rd edition of “Common Marine Food-Fish of Hong Kong with 15 European and 18 Chinese Recipes” was published and I have managed to get a copy (yippee!). But what has changed since 1962? Are these fish still common? Do foreign residents in Hong Kong still not eat more than 3-5 different varieties of fish? I am going to find, cook and eat one fish from this book every week to find out. So here is my fishy to-do list taken from the book with updated scientific names (some changed since 1962), their WWF recommendation and which ones I have eaten already. Its already clear that these fish are not as common as they were in 1962. I have had to rule out four fish already, because WWF Hong Kong considers them over-fished or unsustainably sourced. But that still leaves 46 fish to try. Check out my weekly posts on the fish of the week or click on the name of the crossed-out fish to find out more!
| No. | Common Name | Current Scientific Name | WWF says | I say |
| 1 | Gizzard-Shad | Nematolosa nasus | ||
| 2 | White Herring | Ilisha elngata | ||
| 3 | Hilsa Herring | Tenualosa reevesii | ||
| 4 | Golden Sardine | Sardinella aurita | ||
| 5 | Mackerel Scad | Decapterus lajang | ||
| 6 | Pompano | Trachinotus blochii | THINK TWICE | THINK TWICE |
| 7 | Crevalle | Carangoides malabaricus | ||
| 8 | Black Pomfret | Parastromateus niger | AVOID | |
| 9 | White or Silver Pomfret | Pampus argenteus | THINK TWICE | |
| 10 | Chinese Mackerel | Scomberomorus sinensis | ||
| 11 | Korean Mackerel | Scomberomorus koreanum | ||
| 12 | Hair-Tail | Trichiurus lepturus | AVOID | |
| 13 | Drepane | Drepane punctata | ||
| 14 | Grey Mullet | Valamugil cunnesius | ||
| 15 | Japanese Sea-Perch | Lateolabrax japonicus | ||
| 16 | Sea-Bass | Lates calcarifer | ||
| 17 | Spotted or Longfin Grouper | Epinephelus quoyanus | THINK TWICE | |
| 18 | Banded Grouper | Epinephelus awoara | ||
| 19 | Red-spotted Grouper | Epinephelus akaara | AVOID | |
| 20 | Mud-Grouper | Epinephelus brunneus | ||
| 21 | Dory-Snapper | Lutjanus fulviflamma | ||
| 22 | Red Snapper | Lutjanus sanguineus | ||
| 23 | Head-Grunt | Pomadasys argenteus | ||
| 24 | Common Thick-Lipped Grunt | Plectorhynchus pictus | ||
| 25 | Chicken Grunt | Parapristipoma trilineatum | ||
| 26 | Red Pargo | Pagrus major | ||
| 27 | Red Sea-Bream | Dentex tumifrons | ||
| 28 | Black Sea-Bream | Acanthopagrus berda | ||
| 29 | Yellow-Fin Sea-Bream | Acanthopagrus latus | THINK TWICE | |
| 30 | Gingko Fish | Gymnocranius griseus | ||
| 31 | Golden-Thread | Nemipterus spp. | THINK TWICE | |
| 32 | Pearly Lentjan | Lethrinus nebulosus | ||
| 33 | Common Lentjan | Lethrinus haemetopterus | ||
| 34 | Yellow Croaker | Larimichthys crocea | THINK TWICE | |
| 35 | Slate-Cod Croaker | Protonibea diacanthus | ||
| 36 | Japanese Croaker | Argyrosomus japonicus | ||
| 37 | Spotted Sand-Borer | Sillago maculata | ||
| 38 | Macao Sole | Cynoglossus sinicus | ||
| 39 | Large-Scaled Tongue-Sole | Cynoglossus macrolepidotus | ||
| 40 | Chinese Brill | Tephrinectes sinensis | ||
| 41 | False Brill | Pseudorhombus arsius | ||
| 42 | False Halibut | Paralichthys olivaceus | ||
| 43 | Spotted Red-Mullet | Upeneus tragula | ||
| 44 | Thread-Fin | Eleutheronema tetradactylum | ||
| 45 | Parrot Fish | Scarus niger | ||
| 46 | Green Wrasse | Choerodon schoenleinii | ||
| 47 | Horse-Head | Branchiostegus japonicus | THINK TWICE | |
| 48 | Flat-Head | Platycephalus indicus | AVOID | |
| 49 | Flag-Fish | Goniistius zonatus | ||
| 50 | Conger-Pike (Eel) | Muraenesox cinereus | AVOID |