The Fish Market

Out of respect for my language teacher I left my camera at home. I really need to start "living here" and stop being such a "tourist" when I'm out and about. But that makes for a pretty boring blog, huh?! That's no fun for you guys back home. So I'm sorry that there aren't any pictures that accompany this post. Those of you who know me well, know that I would be a vegetarian if my family would do it with me. I HATE to prepare meat! I'm the girl that would only buy boneless skinless chicken breasts at wal-mat. I'd open the bag and dump the chicken into what ever pan I was using to cook it in, careful not to touch it with my bare hands! Well....there are no beautifully frozen boneless chicken breasts here, so I've had to toughen up! Now my girls remove the meat from the bones for me....I've trained them well!---Anyway, here is my fish market story:

I met our friend at the only landmark I new of near the fish market. She walked about a mile to meet me there. As we walked together toward the market we could smell the stench a block away. As we approached the huge area where ladies were all peddling their fresh fishes, octopus, squid, stingray and everything else from the sea, the ladies were all shouting how much for their fish. Holding them high in the air so everyone could see theirs was better than their neighbors. After you made your choice, you could ask them to "clean" it for you. On the small butcher block right there, they slit each fish open, removed the insides with their bare hands and threw it on the ground, cut off the tail with one hard "whack" and carved off the head, being careful not to waste any of the meat. Then she handed me what was left of the fish in a plastic bag and we exchanged money with the same nasty hands she had inside my fish!! She even dropped some of the money down on top of the fish, picked it up and handed back it to me. At this point I didn't even want to hold the sack that contained the fish. I was completely grossed out!

Later in the day, our friend came for our 3 hr language lesson and immediately following the lesson, she showed me how to cook the fish. After I scraped the scales into the sink, we prepare it with garlic, olive oil, tomato pulp, lemon, potatoes and salt. Put this all in the oven and about an hour later we feasted! The girls mostly said..."Nasty Mom, it still has skin on it!" and reluctantly tried a bite. It was really very good. If I had ordered it at a restaurant I would have been thrilled with it, but it was hard for me to remove the images from my mind from earlier in the day.

That's my "Fish Market" story. Update: I found a stock photo that is similar to what I saw.