While I'm guessing you already know dried fish is a thing, you may not know that dried fish is really, really a thing. I'm not talking about historically; I mean right now.
Dried
fish is an especially big thing for Filipinos. And if, like me, your spouse is
from the island nation, dried fish will impact you in two ways. First, you'll
be eating dried fish in some fashion. Secondly, you'll be bringing home a
large, well-sealed package of dried fish on the plane every time you fly back
home from a visit to the islands.
The
other day, Desiree scored a few packages of dried fish—which she's been craving.
Fortunately, I truly like fish in my diet, so I'm pretty excited about trying a
few dishes with the dried fish. The only
weird thing about the dried fish is the eyes.
When I scooped up a handful of some really small fish for a closer examination, I found dozens of eyes
staring up at me.
A
Handful of Tiny Dried Fish
Desiree
Holding a Dried Fish
—Mitchell
Hegman
One day I was walking down a street I had walked many a time. Next to the sidewalk in the middle of the street was a cement block. I never noticed it on my walks. This day the top of it was bathed in a silver light that was instantly eye catching. I though it was a cool piece of street art that someone had taken the time to paint the top of this block in silver. But, no-no. It was not silver paint. It was hundreds of very tiny fish lined up carefully on the block to dry. You see, Filipinos don’t dry the fish in ovens or kilns (at least not the non-commercial dried fish), they dry fish the same way they dry newly harvested rice. It’s all put out in the sun, and unlike Montana they sun shines bright and hot here. The sun here dries food and kills all the nasty germs at the same time. It’s too bad the sun doesn’t also kill the smell, though.
ReplyDeleteI like seeing things being done naturally like that. Surprisingly, the dried fish we received are not particularly strong in odor. Not near as bad as I expected.
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