Beast Feast

This weekend some of us went to a fantastic open air market and bought some goods to cook a scrumptious lunch. Our Norwegian friend insisted on purchasing whole fish from the poissonerie. She attested that she knew how to cook whole fish. I, on the other hand, wouldn’t know what to know what to do with a whole fish unless its vacationing owner left me a full direction manual with pop-up illustrations. Upon arrival to one of our houses with a panoramic view of the city, I quickly assigned myself the position of “vegetable cutter.” Meanwhile, my fearless comrades punctured and decapitated three white-fleshed fish. I don’t know how they did it. I was the kid in the back of the room in Biology during the frog dissection. The vegetarians and I got to do an “alternative assignment” in which we traded in scalpels for colored pencils and designed 2-D models of the tiny beasts which our classmates were poisoning and dismembering. I always opt for art in lieu of a reptile holocaust. Never mind my history with sea urchins and water-dwellers, the meal was cooked, and it turned out deliciously. Never underestimate a Scandinavian’s conviction to be courageous. The result is quite flavorful. That lunch was a memorable beast feast.