Boy, a Friday @ Gilmart, and I knew I should have been paying attention. For the first time since April of 1982, and for only the second timein myn lliving memory (meaning since say I was four) I have eaten fish. No code frases here - that type of animal w/ scales and gills and lives in the sea? yeah, totally by accident today - I ate some.
In the past year, the idea of fish eating has slowly been made a possibility - I was gonna to Gallo: "Maybe scupper three scales off of that stinky thing yr eating there and let me see if it vomits me". I was gonna 'toe in the water' it. Brave me.
But the idea to take a big bite of fish and wash it down w./ Pepsi - Who says i'd do that because I'd never/I never. However, it looked like pork -and Polish pork is tasty. So, i got some, forked off some hunks while trying to figger out why it didn't taste as good as pork normally does. Then, the hidden fact slowly came out. Say, that's fish, rite? Nah - it's Pork!! nah - it's fish!!
I'd finished by then- it tasted, uh, ok, but nothing special.
But the far more relevent deal is that I am not sick. Like I said before, I haven't eaten fish - for all practiacl purposes - EVER. When little, I got to hating the stuff for reasons unknown, and three decade passed betwist meals. My Dad, old Irish peasant/fisherman/Catholic that he was, did the fish thing every Friday, Lent or not. He got this horrid version of dried out salted ocean fish that poeple brought over - I'm not making this up- in their suitcases when coming back from visiting the 'Old Country'. When we went, we'd bring - again, no lie - cans of vegatables and fuits and such - in our suitcaes. Ireland used to be so poor. So, every Friday, each Friday, Dad would take these paper like whitish powder powdered "sheets" of fish - for lack of a better term - and fry up the stinking messes. That horrod smell would fill up the whole kitchen and we would have to shut that room off from the rest of the house.
In the past year, the idea of fish eating has slowly been made a possibility - I was gonna to Gallo: "Maybe scupper three scales off of that stinky thing yr eating there and let me see if it vomits me". I was gonna 'toe in the water' it. Brave me.
But the idea to take a big bite of fish and wash it down w./ Pepsi - Who says i'd do that because I'd never/I never. However, it looked like pork -and Polish pork is tasty. So, i got some, forked off some hunks while trying to figger out why it didn't taste as good as pork normally does. Then, the hidden fact slowly came out. Say, that's fish, rite? Nah - it's Pork!! nah - it's fish!!
I'd finished by then- it tasted, uh, ok, but nothing special.
But the far more relevent deal is that I am not sick. Like I said before, I haven't eaten fish - for all practiacl purposes - EVER. When little, I got to hating the stuff for reasons unknown, and three decade passed betwist meals. My Dad, old Irish peasant/fisherman/Catholic that he was, did the fish thing every Friday, Lent or not. He got this horrid version of dried out salted ocean fish that poeple brought over - I'm not making this up- in their suitcases when coming back from visiting the 'Old Country'. When we went, we'd bring - again, no lie - cans of vegatables and fuits and such - in our suitcaes. Ireland used to be so poor. So, every Friday, each Friday, Dad would take these paper like whitish powder powdered "sheets" of fish - for lack of a better term - and fry up the stinking messes. That horrod smell would fill up the whole kitchen and we would have to shut that room off from the rest of the house.
Fish Stink. So I feel that that is one of the reasons I haven't eaten fish until tricked for 30y. Unless it's that 1972 story of being on the rocks near the strand in my Mothers village. Guys uses to fish out into the open w/ rods and reels, and when they got a catch - they'd keep it fresh by putting the flipping fish in one of the tidal pools created by the retreating ocean. I remember feeling so sorry for the poor little doomed things.
I've always blamed either of those stories for my decades of fish leave alone. Todays meal? Well, I'm not sick yet. I've always felt that maybe my longtime w/out fish was not a matter of taste of fashion - it may have been a matter of health. In years past, when I passed on fish, I always wondered if my passing was some way of my body telling me that I mite have some sorta reaction from the stuff. So far? Not dead.
2 comments:
The same sort of thing happened with one of my brothers. With him it was 30 years + and now he loves the things. I think it was some fresh grilled calamari he stole off my plate in Slovenia while I was moaning about how awesome it was. So, maybe prepare to be a convert!
Just remember there's no way whatever sea creature you're eating is grosser in general terms than a pig, and no way they're any cleverer or more deserving of life than a pig, and pigs are delicious.
I wonder if what your Dad was eating was an Irish version of baccala -- preserved, salted
cod. Would he soak it to bring it back to life (not literally like your boy Jesu) or just cook it all dried out?
If you want to take another baby-step on fish eating I would recommend some sea scallops wrapped in bacon -- fish and pig and as long as the scallops are fresh I can't see you not liking. Also, in season Halibut pan-roasted with fennel,carrots and artichokes.
By the way, you have any brussel sprouts for me?
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