Yep, that’s lil’ ole me, waiting for my lil’ ole clam tidbit.
Okay, today I wanted to share with you my FAVORITE food: fish.
Well, I’m a kitty, aren’t I? But mama and papa’s fish market is just heaven. They go there and get coques for spaghetti alle vongole (the coques are the closest thing to little clams that you can find here) and they get biologically-raised shrimp from Madagascar, the proceeds from which go to help childrens’ schools, and mama gets little green crabs for soupe de poissons because it’s just not the right taste without the little crab essence. Now here’s the hard part: how to sex a crab? If they had shown me that box with all the crabs in it, I would have picked out the females immediately and there’d be no discussion. But it’s not as easy as you think. First you have to turn them over and look at the underparts. Then you have to know what the female underparts LOOK like and then you can separate the girls from the boys. This is how the girls look:
Courtesy of Lina Cabellos
This is a boy crab:
How to identify a Green Crab
Green Crab (Carcinus maenas)
- Count the spines between and beside the eyes
- The carapace is orange, green or mottled in color
- The size (adults no larger than about 10 cm across) and boxy shape
Reprinted from http://www.pwsrcac.org/docs/d0044900.pdf
But here’s the good news!!! The green crab have made the list of 100 of the most invasive, destructive crabs in the ocean and can be harmful to certain aquatic environments, which is why they are on the hit list. But mama is happy, because every time she buys those little suckers and plunges them into boiling bouillon, she sheds a tear and say, “I’m sorry, little crabs, but this will be over in a split second” and then she puts on the lid and they’re GONE, GONE, but now that she knows they are screwing up the environment in lots of places, maybe she won’t feel so terrible when they take the plunge. Too bad it’s the females who are sweeter…but that makes sense to me.
It’s a helluva soup, I have to say. She gives me a little bowl and man, that is one good fish soup!
Here are some of my favourite fish at our market. Maybe one day you’ll see them, too.
These are the ones to use in fish soup. One has a deadly spine, but the fish sellers take them off so no one gets stuck.
We live in anchovy heaven. We eat them marinated and fried and grilled and any way we can get them. Me, too. Good for the pelt.
Sweet little squid called sepions that make a beautiful black risotto or a pasta sauce because of their ink. Hell to clean, mama says, but she does it.
Only one half of the fish counter and there is ANOTHER building with shellfish!! That’s where the kitties hang around outside…
The coques are on the left. So sweet and so good sautéed with garlic and hot peppers and then mixed with spaghetti and fresh parsley and a squeeze of lemon over all. I get these de-shelled for me because mama doesn’t want me throwing the shells all over my food area. Reasonable.
Well, that’s our market and we making a trip tomorrow! Maybe I’ll choose this baby:
OOPS–too big to handle for this little kitty.
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