Machh bhaja Machh bhaja In West Bengal, Tripura, Orissa, Assam and Bangladesh, fried fish or Māchh bhājā is a common delicacy eaten as a snack or fritter to go with a meal. Riverine fish like "bhetki", "topshey", "aarh" and "pābdā" (Ompok pābdā), and anadromous fish such as hilsa are commonly fried in Bengali cuisine, Oriya cuisine and Assamese cuisine. The oil used to fry the fish may often be used as a dip. Fried fish roe (e.g. of hilsa) are also often eaten this way. The fish is often deep fried such that fish bones become crispy and edible, as is the
Hilsa kelee 35,483 t landed in 2008. Hilsa kelee Hilsa kelee, called the kelee shad, fivespot herring and the razorbelly, is a species of shad native to the coasts and estuaries of the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific, generally in tropical waters. It feeds on diatoms and dinoflagellates, and any other small plankton that it can trap in its gillrakers. Some individuals can reach 35 cm, but most are around 16.5 cm. "Hilsa kelee" is currently considered the only species in the genus Hilsa, although other species have been included in the genus previously. The species is commercially fished, with 221,899