It's still alive....!?
I took the day off work and went to a restaurant with my Grandad, not just because I like hanging out with old people, but because for Christmas we both got vouchers to go to a Fish Cookery School.
The first part was all about how to tell if fish is fresh, and how you are allowed to poke stuff at the fishmonger's as sometimes you need to know how firm it is to work out how old it is. It was a bit disgusting, I had blood all over my hands from a skate wing, and then I held a whole hake which was about as big as me and had very sharp teeth.
Next off we tried some oysters. I was a bit shocked to find out that when you eat them they are still alive, as they move when they get poked with the fork. I ate it though, and even gave it a good chew, although to me it did just taste like a big salty piece of goo rather than something worth £3 a go.
Down in the kitchens, we learnt how to make about 10 dishes, which we then ate. My favourites were taramosalata, (which I have never really liked from the supermarket so that was a nice surprise) and tuna cerviche.... ahhhh I ate this in Easter Island, and it is one of the yummiest things ever. My Grandad wasn't too impressed as he doesn't like raw fish. Pah!
I also ate some shellfish, again something I have never really tried before, as generally I don't like eating things that don't have a spine. I think I could get into muscles, but cockles and clams didn't overly appeal to me. However we did make a very nice dover sole with butter and herbs. I also made a baked sea bass with garlic that was very yummy, and I will be forcing my mother and sister to eat instead of fecking cod and broccoli *again*...
What was really interesting though was that nothing took more than about 20 minutes to cook, and generally there was very little technique involved, just throw everything in a pan. Although one of the blokes made mayonnaise from scratch in about 5 minutes, which I thought was pretty impressive even if no one else did.
The other people on the course were cool, and it was quite interesting talking to them about different places they had been to (a couple had been travelling to loads of interesting countries so that was fun getting all the good tips). I came away feeling quite ill though, as I have never eaten so much fish in my life. I haven't had any dinner tonight, and to be honest I would be surprised if I ate again this side of Easter...
Then this evening another trip to Twickenham to attempt to learn Spanish. I am massively out of my depth now, not because I find it hard but because I am too lazy to remember all the stuff. If I sit down with the books I can do it, but just not off the top of my head. Which is kind of important in exams and stuff. Feck.
The first part was all about how to tell if fish is fresh, and how you are allowed to poke stuff at the fishmonger's as sometimes you need to know how firm it is to work out how old it is. It was a bit disgusting, I had blood all over my hands from a skate wing, and then I held a whole hake which was about as big as me and had very sharp teeth.
Next off we tried some oysters. I was a bit shocked to find out that when you eat them they are still alive, as they move when they get poked with the fork. I ate it though, and even gave it a good chew, although to me it did just taste like a big salty piece of goo rather than something worth £3 a go.
Down in the kitchens, we learnt how to make about 10 dishes, which we then ate. My favourites were taramosalata, (which I have never really liked from the supermarket so that was a nice surprise) and tuna cerviche.... ahhhh I ate this in Easter Island, and it is one of the yummiest things ever. My Grandad wasn't too impressed as he doesn't like raw fish. Pah!
I also ate some shellfish, again something I have never really tried before, as generally I don't like eating things that don't have a spine. I think I could get into muscles, but cockles and clams didn't overly appeal to me. However we did make a very nice dover sole with butter and herbs. I also made a baked sea bass with garlic that was very yummy, and I will be forcing my mother and sister to eat instead of fecking cod and broccoli *again*...
What was really interesting though was that nothing took more than about 20 minutes to cook, and generally there was very little technique involved, just throw everything in a pan. Although one of the blokes made mayonnaise from scratch in about 5 minutes, which I thought was pretty impressive even if no one else did.
The other people on the course were cool, and it was quite interesting talking to them about different places they had been to (a couple had been travelling to loads of interesting countries so that was fun getting all the good tips). I came away feeling quite ill though, as I have never eaten so much fish in my life. I haven't had any dinner tonight, and to be honest I would be surprised if I ate again this side of Easter...
Then this evening another trip to Twickenham to attempt to learn Spanish. I am massively out of my depth now, not because I find it hard but because I am too lazy to remember all the stuff. If I sit down with the books I can do it, but just not off the top of my head. Which is kind of important in exams and stuff. Feck.