I love to eat fish, I could eat it most days. Perhaps not so surprising considering my paternal grandfather was a fishmonger. My love of fish, however, dates way back into my childhood when my maternal grandmother and I would call into the fishmongers, who looked a bit like a codfish to me, at the end of the weekly shopping trip. Every so often, as a treat, she would buy some sprats which she would coat in flour and deep fry for our lunch when we got home. Many years later, when we lived in Spain for a short while, fish was so cheap and easily come by it became one of our staples. We would regularly take the girls to the local fish market in Fuengirola where we would buy whitebait, sardines, herring and; Netti’s favourite; squid. At six years old she was able to prepare and cook, with supervision, her own squid, including removing the ink sacs. She loved to swish them around in the sink and did burst an ink sac once; we were cleaning up ink for days! On Saturdays we went up to Mijas and whilst the girls were in art class, we would wait in a nearby hole in the wall café where I would treat myself to a couple of plates of crispy whitebait.
Such is my penchant for fish that whenever we holiday near lakes, rivers or the coast I will hunt out the best fish and seafood restaurants we can afford. A few of which have provided us with many a culinary delight and some great memories: picking my fish, a red mullet, from the tank, in a shack overlooking the beach in Crete; choosing from the catch of the day whilst sitting on wobbly, plastic garden chairs in a shed on the beach in Fuerteventura; tucking in to a a huge bowl of moules marinère in that little café in Calais; the very expensive crab sandwich at a harbour café in Cornwall; that earthy tasting, fished from the lake today dish in a restaurant on the banks of Lake Garda.
Trips to the Far East have provided their own unique memories, from a fish sculpted out of fish, each scale a tasty morsel of battered local river fish in Guilin to jellyfish in Singapore. And we will never forget Penang, with its eye-watering fish soup, sold at a grubby stall at the summit of Bukit Bendera; picking at sea bass wrapped in foil, in the middle of the night market and sitting at a village roadside a hundred yards from our 5 star hotel eating giant butterfly prawns; served by a little old guy who looked like Peter Lorre in the Maltese Falcon; out of what appeared to be the garage cum loading bay for the shop next door.
Back home I can still satisfy my needs now that many supermarkets have a fish counter with a fairly good choice. We have also found that Aldi are quite good for frozen fishy things like raw king prawns and un-battered squid, both good for making a seafood paella. My only gripe with the supermarkets are the prices they charge, unless I happen to drop on a good offer. We are also lucky to have a reasonable fish market fairly locally where, although I can get even better value, it can still be pricy. I am constantly on the lookout for a fishy bargain so you can imagine my delight when I recently spotted packs of three full sea bass for under a tenner in the Sheffield Costco. I brought them home and vacuum packed each one separately; Paul doesn’t eat fish like this; and popped them in the freezer. We also have the local “factory” shop which sells food seconds (mishapes) from big retail stores and pub chains. We often get some very tasty, battered fish bites, which are handy for when we have the grandkids. Not that I don’t sometimes enjoy them, slathered in ketchup!
For those of you who enjoy cooking and eating fish as much as I do, check out some of my favourites.