• 

  The weird fish are known as armoured sea robins. They look like extra-terrestrial life forms.

• 

  Fish sellers who have never seen such fish before call them "dragon fish."

Enlarge

SINGAPORE: A large amount of weird fish resembling a cross between an armoured car and an alien have turned up in Jurong Port.

A 35 year old fish seller said that he had once eaten fish like that when he was 10 years old. His father had cooked it for him, and that had been the only time he had seen such odd-looking fish, until now.

The stall owner, Lan Lijie, said that he had gone to Jurong Port at 1 am last Friday (the 25th) to buy fish. When he got there, he saw a crowd of people talking loudly. Curious, he had gone to see what the fuss was all about and recognised the fish he had eaten as a young boy.

"When the people there saw the fish, they said the fish looked odd. Some said the fish resembled dinosaurs, while others thought they looked like alien life forms. Even 60-70 year old fish sellers who had been plying their trade for decades said they had never seen fish like that. Actually, the fish also looks a little like an armoured car."

Lan said that most people didn't dare to buy the fish because of its odd appearance. Even if they did, they only bought one. "A single armoured sea robin weighs between 700g to 1 kg. I bought a hundred of them."

He added that he had sold about 20kg of the fish the very next day. In 3 days time, he had managed to sell about half of what he had bought. He had to introduce the fish to each customer, because most were afraid to buy it on their own initiative. "They all said that it looked very ugly, and wondered whether it could really be eaten."

He said that the fish might have come from Indonesia or India. "I cooked one the very day I bought them. Its' flesh is different from that of normal fish, its' very smooth. The head is a shell, and the gluey bits inside can be eaten."

Lan believes that the fish would taste equally good if steamed or cooked with niuhuang (a kind of Chinese herb). "This kind of fish is really very interesting. The scales on its' body can't be scraped off with a knife. They are like a shell and have to be plucked out."

2 more weird fish turned up at another market. A fish wholesaler named Chen noticed them among his stock. Each fish had two "swords" at the front and a pointed tail at the end.

He said that he had never seen such before even after 50 years in the fish wholesaling business. Other fish sellers had no idea what kind of fish they were either, and simply referred to them as "dragon fish."