A cat’s heaven

“Get it over with,” was The Family’s verdict. “Let’s go to the beach and sea the fishing nets.” The fishing nets were much less impressive than icons of tourism have any right to be, but just before you reach them is heaven. At least a cat’s version of heaven: a sea food market with all the wonderful catch from boats pulled up between the shore nets. Everything you want is there: lobsters, squid in its own ink, octopus, shark, shrimp, shark!

A large fraction of the people at the beach were examining the fish with interest, but it didn’t look like much was being sold. There was much I couldn’t recognize, so I sent off the album to my family, large parts of which have dedicated their lives to fish. After the clamour died down there were IDs for four varieties of fish: small pomfret, rays, blue runner and the pearl spot. The many varieties of edible marine arthropods that you see in these photos remain unidentified down to the species. Sea food fans, if you have any further IDs, please leave them in the comments to the photo. Otherwise just enjoy, like the cat in the chair.

Unsustainable fare

The squid sauteed in butter and garlic that you see in the featured photo is one of the most unsustainable plates I’ve eaten recently. First, it breaks our resolve to go with traditional sustainable fishing practice which says no seafood before the end of the monsoon. I told myself that the monsoon has been weak. But the fact is that the coastal fish spawn at this time whether or not it is a good monsoon; that’s the reason behind the resolution. Then, eating that much of butter is totally unsustainable. My indicators are good enough that I need not swear off butter, but that amount! Not very soon again. That said, I did enjoy it.