Ngakijou (Guntea Loach) is a small elongated freshwater fish of Manipur with a distinctive horizontal stripe that runs from the nose to the base of the tail.

Eaten either deep fried, or cooked, it is really tasty. It is only smoked and used in kangsoi. i love the preparation which is called ngakijou eromba (at least that is what we call it at home) – i will post the recipe one of these days.

Fried ngakijou

Smoked ngakijou

It seems to be getting harder to get ngakijou in Imphal – everytime i go home, i beg Ema to cook it for me but somehow, it is seldom available. i just hope it does not go the way of nga-nap which seems to have completely disappeared from the ngayonbi’s (fishwife) stock.

Ngakijou (Gutum)

We got the frozen ngakijou (in the picture above) from the Bangaldeshi shop. It is called gutum in Bengali. However, only once have i seen it in the fish market in Calcutta. Seems to be another ‘bangal’ fish!

In the rest of the world, this fish seems to be treated as a decorative fish to be reared in aquariums. At least that is what the result of my google search suggests!