Baked Catfish

Baked "Ca Nuong" - This dish is my dad's favorite - catfish steamed in the oven, with onions and healthy amounts of Tony Chachere's seasoning. He invented it in Houston, where he first resettled after the refugee camps. He had a fish fry to go spot, learning the ways of cajun catfish taste preferences while learning the ways of this corner of America. To me the dish represents his experience at the time. A bit of Saigon, and South Houston. A bit of Gulf Coast of the USA and a bit of the Mekong River. Two flavors of space and history, brought together due to the end of wars in Vietnam, and the beginning of his life in America. The dish now is our family go-to every time I come home to visit from wherever I have landed - Ohio, Wisconsin, Hanoi, New Jersey, and lately, Philadelphia, PA.

-Nancy