I went back to the sushi joint that serves the uber fresh fish (and whale, and horse, and so on) for a nice dinner the other day. Of course, I decided to order up a platter that included that very same tasty fish as is displayed below.
Same tasty fish. Yep. Skewered carcass as garnish. Being me, I lapped it up, picked some bits off the skeleton and promptly ordered an entire squid grilled in the old school style…mmmm….. dinner that still looks like an animal….
Meanwhile, the waitress showed up to snag the fish remains, smiled, gestured to it, and offered some friendly Japanese that I figured would translate something like “did you enjoy your fish?” or “ Wow! You really enjoy sashimi!”. So, I gave her the big thumbs up, nodded enthusiastically and set upon my tentacled next course…
All was well in the land of B for a few minutes…. Until the waitress returned….
Bearing none other than the very same same fish carcass!!!
After a bit of staring in stunned silence, I quickly realized that I had mistranslated the Japanese phrase “Excuse me sir, do you want me to take this back to the kitchen, have it battered it and deep fry the shit out of it! (literally, I think that’s the technical term… or maybe it was “deep fly the shit out of it”… I’m not sure).
In any case, not wanting to admit my little bit of confusion, and in a big nod to those food chain bitch slappin ancestors, I decided to venture a bite.
It was YUMMY!!! Just as battered and way more deep fried than KFC, but without that pesky meat to interfere with the frying oil. The cartilage is actually quite tender and very tasty. So I ate it.
All of it. Even the head, backbone, fins and the rest of that fish thing.
I did leave the eyes behind, I have to say… so if any of you have ever eaten fish eyes that were attached to a live fish less than twenty five minutes prior to it arriving on your table…well… I bow to your Chuck Norrisesque awesomeness, and you can feel free to roundhouse kick both my dignity and my jugular as you see fit.
But the rest of you can shut the hell up. And remember, don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.
Today’s score…
Brent 7, Culture Shock 0.6
(I’ll give them a 0.1 for the shock value)
I’d like to close today by adding a verse to a classic song…
Fish heads…fish heads… rolly polly fish heads..
Fish heads…fish heads… fry them up… yum!
Fish heads…fish heads… rolly polly fish heads..
Fish heads…fish heads… eat them up… yum!
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The very FIRST time I ate fish, it was caught 15 feet from where I stood, smacked, cooked and then eaten by myself and others. On a dare, I ate the eyes.
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