a tribute to the bad movies i've slept through

Fish Story

I love the taste of fish, from the disgusting fish sandwiches at McDonald’s, to a nice big serving of sushi. But in my experience, fishes that live in rivers or the sea are small: if you don’t know what I am talking about, take the size of your little finger and the size of both your palms joined lengthwise at the fingertips, and this is the range I have in mind. So when there is no ocean nearby, the fresh fish served everywhere abounds with tiny bones that I am insanely worried about choking on to the point where I have given up eating fish when back home – something my parents and brother, who were born and grew up by the Danube, have never identified with.
Turns out my friend V. feels the same way about fish, so while on our girls-only vacation by the sea we decided, as some sort of harmless dare, to order fish for dinner one night and, to make the endeavor more manageable, to eat it with our fingers. The delicious smell of fried or grilled fish coming from every shack around gave us a big push in that direction. Not knowing what most names on the menu meant, we picked a fish at random and ordered a big drink for our other friend Z., so she would be patient with us. We were each served four slim fish, maybe slightly more than five inches long, heads, tails and all else on. And so we dig in, ripping out fish heads with our fingers and tossing them aside, gently and methodically feeling each little piece of whitish meat for hidden bones, chewing slowly and carefully despite our immense hunger built up by an endless day of sand, sea and mouthwatering smells, taking gulps of cold beer holding the mugs with our greasy hands, stopping now and then to ward off an occasional mosquito or to make a joke about the absurdity of the situation, and most of all, with the persistent sensation that despite all efforts, a treacherous bone has slipped by and settled in our throats. In conclusion, victory was silently declared, not over a giant fish in the solitude of the ocean but two platefuls of tiny ones in a most crowded beach resort, and dinner ended up being delicious. On the walk back, I bought an ice cream, which I happily ate while chatting with my two girlfriends.

posted by Dora @ 1:57 PM