Something fishy goin’ on | June 4

There’s something fishy goin’ on here, my blogging friends–something fishy. Besides the food–which does have fish in it. A single fish in it. [Not single as in unmarried, though–single as in one fish. One G-I-A-N-T fish that’s been cleaven. Cloven. Cloved. Cleaved. Claved? ~sheesh~ Chopped in half.] The something fishy goin’ on in a suspicious kind of way is what’s going into the pot that I can’t identify. Mostly spices. And that white, shimmery, gelatinous-looking, smooshy thing that’s about the size of a tennis ball. I don’t know what that is either. [I begin fervently praying the “please don’t let that be served up on my plate” prayer. I’ve said that prayer a lot this trip. I can’t possibly be the only person at the table praying that prayer.]

If you have an adventurous palate and a penchant for travel, maybe you should get over here.

On a side note, China is ~5,963,275 square miles big. The US is roughly 5,823,870 square miles big which makes us very nearly the same size. Population-wise, however, is an incredibly different story. China = 1.4 billion people. US = 316 million people. That means that 1 out of every 4 people on this planet live in China. 1 out of every 20 people live in the US. Wow, huh?

Each province or municipality has a signature dish that offers a remarkable and creative blend of ingredients. The spice combinations and methods of cooking vary as much as the kinds of meat used. So far as I’ve been able to determine, here’s what you can find meat-wise on a dinner table somewhere in China: fish, lamb, beef, shrimp, crab, frog, dog, duck, donkey, chicken, goose, starfish, mutton, pork, yak, and a long list of insects [I think they are considered a delicacy–especially in the larval stage–blargh–I haven’t seen anyone munching on a bug, though. It’s probably something the Chinese travel commission wants the world to think they eat so that tourists grab the fried/barbecued morsels from vendors and give the natives a good laugh as well as decrease the surplus population of insects] including but not limited to scorpions, beetles, ants, centipedes, silkworms, and cicadas.

Here’s a video that might make your day. The scorpion beasties have been beheaded, skewered, and placed in a container where they wait until they are chosen and consequently fried.

Eeeww.

I couldn’t do it. Nope. Nope. Nope.

Back to the something fishy.

We took a trip through the Hubei Province to try one of their signature dishes which can best be described as fishy, steamed, and soupy.  It’s a pretty likeable combination.

We walked into the spacious restaurant and selected a private room instead of finding a table in the main dining area. It was a hot day [104 degrees of melty] and the separate rooms had individual air conditioning units. Boom-a-chicka-lawka-needa-that.

This is the pool in the middle of the restaurant with the contenders swimming about. There are actually three different kinds of fish to choose from. Don’t ask which one is which because that would be a no-can-do-ski. One of them is called a Big Head fish. That’s the one who won the chance to be in our pot.

To maintain the premium freshness factor they snuff them out right smack dab there.

They quickly chop that fish in half and place the pieces in the gi-nor-mous pot of simmering spices, onions, and unidentified objects.

This is the fish head side of the pot.

This is the fish tail side of the pot.

That white, shimmery, gelatinous-looking, smooshy thing in the upper right section of the photo–next to the tail–is the unidentified frying boiling object.

Here’s the best photo I could snag of the halved fish.

[Above the pot was beginning to be a very hot spot.]

By now, the room smells delicious. Dee. Lish. Us. The aroma is divine and mouth watery with nary a whiff of MSG. [Our hosts made double-double sure.]

Yum.

[Just not that white thing that came from inside the fish that I don’t want.]

fyi: Fish head meat is the most tender.

Apparently.

Verification is impossible. Except that I was served a spoonful of something that wasn’t sugar and told it was the most delicious part of the fish. [We could learn a thing or two about hosting from our Chinese friends. They give the guests the best of everything they have to offer. Everything. And how do you turn down a gift–because that’s what it is–when it’s offered? You don’t.] So, I accepted it with a smile and a glad heart. A glad, praying heart and learned that it wasn’t the liver. It was fish head stuff. [Not that liver would have been any less formidable.]

I couldn’t eat all of it. Couldn’t. But I ate some of it to thank these kind people for giving us their day and giving me their favorite part of the fish and for simply being generous.

[It wasn’t horrible. But–BUT–the texture slayed me.]

Now–this is how I know that someone else was praying the same ‘please don’t let that be served on my plate’ prayer as I was.

The soup was delicious. The fish was delicious. The bread they brought to soak up the divine mix of spices was delicious. I had room for one more little ladle full of this fishy, soupy stuff.

~sigh~

Everyone had a bowl to place the things in that you’re not supposed to eat–even by local standards. Things like bones, parts of the fin, cherry stems, cherry pits, and all that.

It’s where I placed the parts of the fish head that I just couldn’t eat.

For example, an eye.

Yeh. An eye.

I was the lucky recipient of an extraordinarily well-steamed and boiled fish eyeball.

[It’s in the lower left hand corner of the pic–surrounded by fish bones.]

I was all kinds of thrilled that it was in the bowl and not somewhere else being digested. ~grin~

There was also a jubilation about the obvious absence of the other eyeball.

Jubilation.

Skipping would have been in order, but it was too, too hot.

By the way–I’ve learned that the something fishy white, shimmery, smooshy thing was a bladder. Not a potty bladder–a buoyancy bladder.

Here’s a little tidbit of information [for those of you still reading this] I found on Wikipedia about fish bladders that you might find informative interesting entertaining.

“In some Asian cultures, the swim bladders of certain large fishes are considered a food delicacy. In China they are known as fish maw, 花膠/鱼鳔,and are served in soups or stews. Swim bladders are also used in the food industry as a source of collagen. They can be made into a strong, water-resistant glue, or used to make isinglass for the clarification of beer. [What is it that beer doesn’t understand?] In earlier times they were used to make condoms.”

And that it a most excellent way to conclude a blog.

Boom.