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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!

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