Of Fish and Other Sea Creatures

Food Rule Number 24:

“Eating what stands on one leg [mushrooms and plant food]is better than eating what stands on two legs [fowl], which is better than eating what stands on four legs [cows, pigs and other mammals]”

Michael Pollan, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manuel, 2009.

Michael Pollan adds to this rule and includes fish and other seafood which majority are legless creatures which contribute to a good diet.

Being from a landlocked country, I plead ignorance with regards to the ocean, marine biology and anything sea related. I use this excuse when convenient.

Then, I moved to Bra and met people who know their seafood. Unfortunately for us as students, Bra is a two hour drive from the coast. The seafood that is found  in Bra has travelled a long distance to get to you. This brings about questions of freshness, and this limits the choice that is available. Your cooking experiences reflect what you learn through the Slow Food philosophy. This means that you are willing to try out new things, and innovation becomes a reality more than a philosophy. For example on Fridays, my Thai friend wakes up early and heads to the fish market to get her free salmon heads from the vendors. I had no idea what she was going to do with them until one Friday afternoon I stopped over for an early dinner and before me was a platter of a slowly baked salmon fish head! Chopsticks in hand, spicy flavourful dipping sauce of chillies, garlic and other Thai seasonings, I from the landlocked country devoured that fleshy fish head.

Armed with added knowledge about fish heads, I thought this was the pinnacle of all fishy knowledge. But alas I attend UNISG. Contrary to popular belief it is not a cooking school. You do learn about cooking but not trained to be a chef you would think that your close family members would remember that. My dear mother knows very well that I enjoy cooking but I’m not a chef. Nonetheless I received a desperate email about two months ago that my mother had been given some “sea creatures”. She took them home, alive and they were wiggling their antlers and legs all over the kitchen sink. To bring them to their death, she mustered up courage, stuffed them in a plastic bag and threw them into the depths of her freezer.

Upon hearing about the fate of the “sea creatures” who turned out to be either crayfish or crawfish I assured here that they were food, just in an alive state. I consulted a few of my classmates who knew a lot more about seafood  than I did. I also consulted Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking for a classic recipe. Her instructions on dealing with live lobster (or other crustaceans):

If you object to steaming or splitting a live lobster, it may be killed almost instantly just before cooking if you plunge the point of a knife into the head between the eyes, or sever the spinal cord by making a small incision in the back of the shell at the juncture of the chest and the tail.

It was too late for lobster wisdom from Julia Child, but nonetheless I sent the recipes and instructions. I expected to hear back from my mother saying that she had prepared the seafood and what she thought of them. Alas, she had not. They would  stay buried in the depths of the freezer until I came to visit, and then they would be cooked, by me.

That’s what I did. After a day or two of rest I asked about the “sea creatures”. I retrieved them, heated and salted some water and boiled them. You must know that I have never cooked such kind of food. We (I made Mother assist me in the cooking that she was supposed to have done) removed the fleshy meat from the tails. Rich in flavour only seasoned with salt it tasted like it had been doused in a buttery sauce.

An instant hit with my family. At the end of the meal, Mother considered that on her next ‘fishing’ trip she would come home with a lot more of these delicacies and try the other recipes.

Mission accomplished, crayfish or crawfish whatever they maybe, cooked, enjoyed; I think I am now more knowledgeable about crustaceans. I have considered eating more of them while I am here, nearby the ocean where they are in abundance, and this way I can get closer to eating wisely by following Michael Pollan’s Food Rules.