Chhuya Pangush Fish Fillet 1kg

Pangash fillet is cut from a large catfish, so what you get is the flesh off the frame — no central bone, no fine bones running through it. Occasional stray bone fragments can survive any filleting process, so it's sensible to check a young child's portion, but this isn't a fish where bones are part of the eating experience at all. That's the entire reason to buy it over anything else in the range.

Partly, and it depends what you want. Next to tengra or katla it has little flavour of its own — nobody buys pangash for its character. But mildness is a genuine advantage when you're the one deciding the flavour: batter, spice, marinade, sauce, all of it lands cleanly because the fish isn't arguing with you. If you want a fish that tastes of itself, buy something else in this range. If you want a fish that will do whatever the recipe asks, this is the one.

Pangash is farmed at very large scale in Bangladesh, grows fast and yields a lot of flesh per fish, which keeps costs low all the way down the chain. That's a production fact rather than a quality signal. The value gap is actually wider than the shelf price suggests, because you're paying for edible flesh here rather than for a whole fish you'll partly discard.

Both are mild, boneless and versatile. Tilapia is slightly firmer and a touch cleaner in flavour; pangash is softer and cheaper, at BDT 550 per kilo against roughly BDT 700 for the tilapia fillet in this range. For frying, cutlets or anything battered, pangash is the value pick. For a dish where the fish is served in visible pieces and you want it to hold shape, tilapia has the edge.

It's the best choice in this range, for the obvious reason. No bones means no picking through a plate, no anxiety, and no negotiating. The mild flavour also suits children who reject stronger-tasting fish, and fillet cuts easily into fingers or cubes for tiffin. Cook it through, let it cool before packing, and check the portion as you would with any fish.

Three things cause it. Cooking it wet — dry the fillet thoroughly first. Cooking it too long — fillet needs two to three minutes a side, not the ten a whole fish takes. And moving it around the pan, which breaks soft flesh apart. Get it dry, get the pan properly hot, and leave it alone until it's ready to turn once.

This is where pangash earns its place. Batter-fried with chips, breaded cutlets, fish kabab, fish fingers, Chinese-style with garlic and spring onion, grilled with lemon and black pepper, folded into a creamy pasta, or in a sandwich. None of those work with a bony deshi fish, and all of them work here.

It depends how the fillets were cut, and no count is published. As a guide, a kilo of fillet is six to eight adult servings — considerably more than a kilo of whole fish, because none of it is waste. For most households that's three or four separate meals if you portion it before freezing.

Overnight in the refrigerator is best, and fillet needs less time than a thick whole fish. If you're using the cold-water method, check it early — a thin fillet can go from frozen to fully thawed and slightly soft faster than you expect, and over-thawed pangash is difficult to handle. If you plan to cube or slice it, catch it while still firm in the middle.

Check it at the door and confirm it's frozen right through. If it's soft, torn or leaking, contact Metromart Online support on WhatsApp (01805552413) or Messenger straight away with a photo. The published Returns & Refunds policy covers admin-cancelled orders rather than delivery condition, so support is the route to a resolution.