Tale of Two Fish & Suicidal Lobsters on Little Corn
Good day,
Rarely is it that I write about two fish let alone write twice in a day, that said change is all there is. Today started as any other and a dinner was being prepared in our minds from early in the morning. A gent named “Dangerous Dave” aka DD left on a mission to pick up some fresh fish, he succeeded. Above is a yellow tail (delicious) and Jack aka may of local peoples favorite. That jack is HUGE fyi.
The cost was C$200 for both the fish. It was 180 but DD had no change and there we are. Not long after this local gent who usually ushers people to hotels from the port shows up with several pounds of foul smelling lobster. A local gent I trust reassures me that everything is fine and it’s just been “on ice for 3 weeks”. “On ice” means what you think, not refrigerated. That got me a little worried and only bought them as I said I would and I’m a man of my word. That’s not to stop one from doing the only reasonable thing possible, immediately reselling them to anyone with interest.
While this is happening a young boy of about 9 is busy cleaning the fish. Instead of doing it myself, I’d rather go down to the beach and give some kid a job for 20 minutes – a little modern day micro philanthropy if you will. There aren’t that many jobs on the island and you constantly see people doing odds and sods of sorts for others. Considering there is no ATM on the island, cash is most certainly king.
Not long after the tails are cooking, I still had about 3/4 pound I was going to fry to h3ll and back but somehow ended pitching it into a pasta. Suffice to say 3-4 pounds of this “wonderfully questionable” lobster meat was cooked and the entire place stank. This one vegetarian lady was most distressed including a gent from the UK who drank too much the night prior and looked ready to gag.
Interested to see how this lobster experiment develops. Decided the yellow tail was too much for the dinner party and swiftly sold it for C$70. For dinner there are 5 people on this large Jack Fish which so far has cost a whopping C$140 including the clean. That’s slightly more than $5US, FYI. Is that not incredible? Am I dreaming or is possible in this day and age to buy this type of thing? What’s crazy is that it’s cheaper to stay a month somewhere and live like a king then visit for a week outside of the local scene.
This is a somewhat typical day around here and if you ever find yourself in an area with fisherman, tell them to come by and always buy whatever they bring. They will keep coming and fresh seafood amongst a sea of tourists is as easy to sell as it is to buy ice from an Inuit. Once you remove the location requirement from your income, the world is your oyster or in this case monstrous jack fish and suicidal lobsters.
Dinner should ring a total of $2 each and will be cooked by a character this blog is familiar with “The Spanish Man With a Broken Leg” (SMBL) from Las Penitas. His leg is now healed and he’s touring with his girlfriend. Just when you think things are good, your Spanish chef shows up with an unhealthy appetite for seafood. My first question was “where have you been all month”!?
Tips hat,
