Mario Puzo’s other book is not what I had in mind when I started putting together this post. But the blood soaked board, the price on its head, all seemed rather suggestive. But the Sicilian speciality I’m talking about here is swordfish, called spada locally. I had it eventually, but not in the three days we spent in Catania, where I took a first tour of a Sicilian fish market. The price was a little higher than what other fish cost, but not by too much. Rather than a handwritten note, fish mongers prefer to advertise their catch by placing its head on display. I can think of little that is a more spectacular advertisement than this.
If you want to draw a parallel to Mario Puzo’s book, do not look at the fish market. Pay attention instead to the rapid depletion of this migratory species of the Mediterranean. Traditionally this fish was hunted from a boat called a Feluca. This had a tall mast from which the fish was spotted, and a long boom on which a harpooner stood to spear the fish with a trident. The crisis started when these boats were replaced with driftnets. They are now banned, but draglines are used instead, and most of the catch is of fish which are too young to have spawned. Knowing all this, we ate swordfish only thrice in the two weeks that we spent on the island. The least we can do is not to eat a dying species of fish too often.
Don't hold your breath 