We Are Way Off Basa

For lack of a better word, the sudden influx of basa across the Indian subcontinent is plain rubbish. It is as if our oceans, seas and rivers don’t have enough treasures of their own. We need to dig into our culture, explore our waters before we even think of taking from others. We have so many kinds of fish, so many that are still not known; seafood is abundant in our own country, so why import? We need to invest a lot more in the sustainable farming of our own fish instead of merely becoming passive instruments of profit for suppliers in Vietnam exploiting the waters there, and vendors in India hungry for cheap fish.

Putting aside the case for the rich variety of seafood in India, my aversion to fish farming is it kills the water and corrodes the fish. Also, the profit-making schemes involved in importing them—the frozen basa sent to India in tonnes tastes obnoxious, to say the least. It feels like rubber and has no taste whatsoever. Perhaps that is why Indians are taking to it. We Indians intrinsically don’t like the strong fishy taste. So to satisfy our elitist self about fine dining on fish we are consuming the tasteless basa which has filtered into our markets. Some of the best restaurants in our country are serving basa now. Shocker: places in Bengal are serving basa—the land and people known for their fish! 

Having said all this, I must add that I’m not against basa. Personally, I don’t enjoy its muddy taste which comes with many river fish, but its skin has just the right amount of oil when cooked well, and its lack of bones makes it easy to eat. Basa is best for Asian cooking, when used to make broths. On its own, it has no taste (steamed basa would be a disaster), and additional flavour—a lot of it—has to be added in any basa dish. To think of basa as a fine dining delicacy is impossible, though it is popular for fish cakes and fries where the batter has plentiful spices. But it has to be fresh at the least. Given a choice, would you rather eat fresh paneer or a frozen block? With basa, the choice is exactly that. Also, when we have our own variety of catfish, why go for basa? Personally, I like my fish fresh. I want to know that it was swimming in the morning bef­ore it came to me in my kitchen, only then can justice be done to the fish and a delectable dish be presented to the customer. So how then can I not think that imp­orted basa proliferating in India is anything less than a terrible epidemic?

As told to Stuti Agarwal

Chef Gaggan Anand’s ‘Gaggan in Bangkok’ was Restaurant magazine’s No. 1 in Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants.; E-mail your columnist: pr@eatatgaggan [DOT] com