I once shared a fish with a former co-worker at a Japanese restaurant. That's how it started out, anyway.
We weren't having a meal together, just a fish. A whole, but not large fish.
Without much ado, he plunged the pointed Japanese chopsticks into the middle of the fish and attempted to break it up.
It was a heart wrenching moment.
Because, of course, it spelt the end of a perfectly good fish.
It didn't help that he then proceeded to pronounce the fish unfit for consumption because it wasn't fully cooked.
But back to the wrenching of my heart -- that's just not how a fish is eaten.
I'm big fish fan -- I can scale a fish, gut it, cook it and eat it. Never tried my hand at fishing, though. I like it raw, steamed or grilled. My favourite candidates for the steamer are the golden pomfret and cod. For sashimi, I am partial to swordfish.
I've met a fair number of people who avoid fish because they don't want to deal with the bones. It's little wonder, if they massacre a fish dish like my former co-worker did. That, and perhaps sheer lack of patience.
Surely, surely, by simple deduction, anyone can tell that making a messy hole in the middle of the fish isn't going to make the bones disappear. It will, in fact, just make the bones embed themselves in bits of flesh they're not supposed to stick in.
You can actually eat a fish, with chopsticks, without needing to pick out bones. All you need is the simple knowledge of where the bones are likely to occur in a fish. And you can gain said knowledge by mere observation.
I s'pose, though, if a person was brought up on fish fingers and fish fillets, tackling a whole fish would be a challenge. I hope none of you think peaches come from a can. You don't really have much of an excuse if you're Singers-born and bred.
With my affection for fish, it's with much dismay that I found this out:
How Not to Save the Fish By BRYAN WALSH
Enjoy the grilled salmon on your dinner plate — it may not be on the menu for long. As the demand for seafood continues to rise, fueled in part by the now global appetite for sushi, we're in danger of fishing out the oceans. Once-teeming fishing territory like the Grand Banks off the eastern coast of Canada have gone fallow, and highly coveted species like the Atlantic cod and the bluefin tuna are becoming increasingly rare. An influential study published in 2006 in the journal Science predicted that if fishing around the world continued at its present pace, fish stocks would begin to decline, resulting in the final global collapse of wild fisheries, which could possibly happen as soon as mid-century.
Not to absolve myself of responsibility, but I couldn't help but wonder how much is being wasted making those de-boned fish fillets. I recently saw on the news just how much is wasted at a sushi joint. Fishes are purchased whole, but only the choice portions are carved out. The rest head for the dumpster. That adds up to 20 tonnes of fish wasted every month at a local sushi chain.
The information was from a story about recycling food waste.
A couple of co-workers who had been exclaiming over the amount of food being wasted followed up by heading off to lunch and leaving piles of leftovers on their plates. Applause, please.
