Fishy Business

October 10, 2008

After school on my third day of classes I went to the open market to see about getting some seafood for lunch. The market was full of women stocking up on lunch and dinner items and little stands with fresh fruits and veggies. There were also stands with the fresh catch of the day and I walked from stand to stand searching for what I imagined uncooked calamari to look like. I couldn’t easily identify any so I asked one of the vendors if they calamari. He pointed out something that looked more like a whole fish but I was clueless so I bought one and took it home for my first cooking attempt. 

It did not go well. I hadn’t looked closely at the calamari, or whole squid at this point, and hadn’t realized that the head was still in tact and I swear it was an alien, with its beady little eyes glaring at me. After freaking out a little I chopped it off quickly and hid it where it wouldn't be staring me down as I cut up the rest of it. As I was quickly trying to make it into what it looked like when I ordered it at restaurants I cut into the ink and it exploded all over the counter and freaked me out even more. If I hadn’t paid so much for the one calamari I would have thrown it away, but I was cheap and determined. I had to clean out the rest of the ink and and put out some other gross stuff that I didn’t want to identify. It was becoming very clear to me why I had become a vegetarian in the first place and I screamed “EWWWWWW” and “ICK ICK ICK ICK” the entire time until I got the 5 sad little pieces into the frying pan. 

They actually came out pretty tasty, but I will not be repeating this experience any time soon. I described what had happened to Mirna later and she promised that she would be the official fish cooker from now on. 

Our stove also has a personality all its own. You have to turn on the gas manually on our patio to get the hot water and to turn the stove on. Then you have to take a match to the burner once the gas is turned on to get the flames going. It was a little scary at first since I was not sure how close to get the match to the burner before it would light. One of the burners however, is supercharged and if you turn it on while one of the other burners is already lit, the flame will jump to it, and it will light by itself. Also, every once in a while, when you go to light it, you will find yourself engulfed in flames for a split second. A little unsettling.