Bonga Fish

Bonga, shawa, agbodo: names for one small, bony, smoky fish

Bonga is Ethmalosa fimbriata, known in English as bonga shad. FishBase describes a fish of shallow coastal water, lagoons and estuaries that sometimes swims up the lower stretches of rivers. A typical adult is about 25 cm (10 inches) long, and the largest reach roughly 46 cm. Nigeria is one of its main fishing countries, alongside Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Cameroon. One Nigerian fish guide gives size names, calling small fish yoyo, medium ones efolo and large ones agbodo, and agbodo is also used for the dried product.

Shawa is a common name on packs, but it is a loose one. Some recipe writers and grocers describe shawa as herring or smelt. A label that says bonga, bonga shad or Ethmalosa is a clearer sign of what is inside.

How smoked bonga gets so hard and dry

The FAO's report on using bonga in West Africa says hot-smoking is the most popular way to process it. The fish go over the fire whole, ungutted and unscaled, laid in rows and turned often. There are two products. Lightly dried fish are smoked for about six hours and keep only a few days. Hard-dry fish are smoked for three to five days, or over repeated firings, and can last around six months. A study of southern Nigerian markets reports that bonga is smoke-dried for two to five days over a hot wood fire, and that vendors keep re-smoking unsold fish.

That explains what arrives in the bag: brittle, dark, smoky, with skin that peels away and a full set of small bones still inside.

Cleaning smoked bonga, step by step

1. Cover the fish with very hot water. Sources give anything from a few minutes to an hour for very dry fish.
2. Drain, then rinse under running water to wash off grit and ash. Throw away the soaking water.
3. Peel off the skin. It is already dry and comes away easily.
4. Break the body open along its length so the backbone and ribs show.
5. Lift the meat off the bones and shred it, checking each handful by touch, because the small bones are easy to miss.

If the soak runs long, put the bowl in the refrigerator rather than leaving it on the counter.

Efo riro: where the fish goes, and when

Bonga rarely stars in a dish. It works as a seasoning that you can also eat, and efo riro, the Yoruba spinach stew, shows the pattern. In one well-known version the fish is shredded first, the pepper base cooks until oil rises to the top, and half the smoked fish goes in at that point so it flavors the sauce. The rest is folded in with the vegetables for the last few minutes. The cook points out that efo riro is nearly water-free, so the fish should add flavor without making it soupy.

Banga soup takes the opposite approach for its smoked fish: it goes in last and simmers only two to three minutes in the soup's own heat, so it keeps its texture. Cooks also drop bonga into stewed beans and the usual soups. Small yoyo are floured and fried and sold as street food, and some cooks mill deboned bonga to a powder and keep it in a clean, dry jar to use as a seasoning. Efo riro is eaten with a swallow, and our 2 lb pounded yam flour is in stock now.

Bonga against the other smoked and dried fish

Choosing a good fish, and when to walk away

The FAO's shelf-life figures give you a way to judge. Hard-dried bonga is meant to last for months, so it should feel dry and stiff from head to tail. A fish that is bendy, greasy or damp was probably dried less and is less likely to keep. Smell it: smoke and fish are right, sour or musty is wrong. Look at the thick part behind the head for white fuzz, and at the folds for ash and grit. Color should run from golden to deep brown, and heavily blackened patches look burnt rather than smoked.

Because the fish is eaten with its skeleton in the pot, be careful with children and with anyone eating in a hurry. Bones are the main reason cooks shred and pick through the meat before it ever reaches the soup.

Keeping it

Hard-dried bonga does not strictly need a refrigerator, but in a humid kitchen a sealed bag or container, kept away from stove steam, protects it, and the freezer is an option once the pack is open. Moisture is the enemy. Fish you have already soaked and shredded is perishable: refrigerate it, cover it, and use it within a few days.

Waiting for bonga: what Notify me does

Bonga is not listed for sale yet. Add your email with Notify me on this page and you will hear when that changes; the product page should then say which fish and form you are getting. For now, the dried fish and seafood category lists everything else on the way, and if you cook efo riro or stew with a lot of seasoning, the ground crayfish page covers the other ingredient that usually goes into the same pot.