Scott and I had a bit of a cooking adventure last night.
Warning: Just thinking about our adventure makes me shudder, so if you’re squeamish, just pretend we had a salad and skip the rest of this post.
Scott was post-call but after holing up in his room for several hours, he was ready to cook something fun for dinner. He cracked open our great Thai cookbook and found a lovely recipe for coconut, lemongrass, and spinach served over fish. Beautiful. We didn’t have any of the ingredients, but I wasn’t about to let that get in the way of Scott making a yummy dinner for us. 😉
I took a break from Test Night at work, and we packed up Mackenzie and headed to our favorite Asian supermarket to get some lemongrass, coconut milk, and fish. To our surprise, frozen fish was nowhere to be found. Fresh fish was also MIA. Our only remaining option was live fish. You know, the ones swimming in the tank at the back next to the live frogs and the live turtles.
Sure, we decided. What’s life without a little adventure?
So the kind man with the cleaver weighed Fish One and Fish Two, gutted and scaled them, and put them in a plastic bag and then a brown paper bag. I was a bit grossed out, but hey, you have to kill fish in order to eat them. It’s part of the food chain.
And then. Fish One nudged Scott in the leg as we walked to the front of the store. Say what? Those poor fish were still moving!
Scott didn’t say anything at the time, just ushered Mackenzie and I out to the car. He followed at a safe distance, stashed the bag in the bag and cranked up classical music. As we were pulling out of the parking lot, I heard a distinct rustling sound come from the rear of the car. I immediately looked at Scott and I could tell from the look on his face that I had just heard Fish Two making a play for freedom. Ewwww.
He squared his shoulders and kept on driving. When we pulled into the regular grocery store where we were to get the spinach, I informed Scott that he and our fish were to go into the store to get the spinach together, leaving Mackenzie and I alone in the car. What a guy! He didn’t even protest.
When we got home, Mackenzie and I went on a walk while Scott ushered Fish One and Fish Two to the Great Sea Beyond.
I think he had last gutted a fish when he was 12, so it was quite funny to watch him figure out how to handle these fish. I told him he was training to be a surgeon, so fish surgery should be a piece of cake. He gave me a look like “Humans are easy. Fish are another matter entirely.”
But, to give him credit, he did man up and make dinner. And I’ll be the first to tell you, it was delicious.
Aside: To those of you thinking “Aren’t you guys vegetarian?” the answer is “Mostly, but we eat fish probably a couple of times a year.” Honestly, after I heard the rustle from the back of the car last night, I didn’t think I’d ever eat fish again. But I was wrong. In fact, we have leftovers so I’m just about to eat fish again, again. 🙂