Skip to main content

Fresh fish


I ate a fish, on the beach. Just a slab of fish on a plate. It was great.

It was grilled, of course, and slathered with a delicious sauce. And I was going to say I ate all of it, but that wouldn’t be true either. Lerry (Cameroonian girl) looked at me strangely a few nights earlier when I was eating bar (a kind of fish) with rice and dodo (fried sweet plantains, mmmm) at Hot Spot, and asked “Why don’t you eat the bones?”

Ummm, because a) I’m a wimp, and b) I’m Canadian, so it’s not really standard practice anyway?

This is a big step for me to just be eating fish like this, all fishy looking and all. But it was really good, especially at dusk on the beachfront at Limbe. We went up to the crude grill, picked out our fish from the selections given, then they were thrown on the grill and served up to us with a roasted plantain (mmmmm!) later. I tried to be more responsible this time and eat at least some of the bones, but only some. And I couldn’t bring myself to eat the head; I’m sorry, but that’s just too much. That’s where I draw the line. Fish on a plastic trencher I can do — I even ate shrimp on a skewer, shell, legs, tail and all! Also deliciously roasted with delectable sauce. But sorry, still not culturally adaptable enough to eat the bones.

*Post script: the thing on a skewer is calamari — so they say. It was really tender, melt-in-your mouth, and fat-like in texture; nothing like the rubbery calamari I've had before. So either it's just different, it's the real stuff, or it's not calamari at all. The sauce is good old spicy Cameroonian pepe. Sorry the shrimp didn't make it on this photo.

Comments

Tom said…
Fish bones aren't too bad. I've only eaten one (smallish) head which was quite toasted and crunchy. If you get a shrimp with a head, however, try not to eat the brain; it's really bitter. At least, the one I had sure was.

Keep up the awesome blogging!

Popular posts from this blog

Our pensions for ICE? Stop it now!

A campaign from LeadNow with a few spicy sentences from me. The CPP is funded by the wages of 22 million people across the country, LeadNow says, and the Investment Board has a responsibility to ensure those savings are not used in ways people fundamentally reject. Dear Mr. John Graham, CEO of CPPIB, and CPPIB board members, I am writing as a contributor to the Canada Pension Plan—one of millions of people whose wages fund this plan and whose future depends on it. This is our CPP, and it must answer to us. I am horrified that CPP investments include companies linked to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In effect, the people who pay into CPP are having their own money used to help fund Trump-era immigration enforcement and the harms associated with it. Canadians are appalled by the actions of ICE. What a betrayal you would use our own money to fund these bullies violating human rights.  CPP is not abstract capital—it is our deferred wages. Contributors should not ...

Biking in 2025

According to Strava, I did 587 bike rides covering 3,807.3 km in 2025. Additionally, I did 81 walks covering 238.2 km in 2025. For comparison, in 2024, I did 643 bike rides covering 3,824.7 km and 75 walks covering 260.4 km. Neither of these were “normal” years for me as I spent 3 months in Europe both times.  2024 includes a few days of tourist traipsing around Istanbul and a 30 km walk from Amsterdam to Utrecht in solidarity with the people of Gaza. In 2025, I did an epic 70+ kms of biking around North Holland, but otherwise went absolutely nowhere many days, living at a retreat centre where my work was just steps away from my sleeping quarters. By contrast, in 2023, it was 761 bike rides covering 4247.4 km.

June 12

It's the Friesens' appointment with US immigration regarding Joshua's citizenship today. Please pray that everything will go smoothly, all the proper permissions will be granted, and that all of the following paperwork will fly through their respective channels so they can have this settled already.