Fish Tales

On Chinese New Year's Eve we ate dinner at a member's house and it was an extravagant meal. I tried a few things and was sticking to them, but ventured out to a dish that looked like celery and shredded chicken. It came highly recommended. I took a bite and quickly realized it was celery and fish. It wasn't too bad, so I just added some spicy soy sauce to it and kept eating. I noticed one of the pieces of shredded chicken had a black dot. I thought, what is that? I then noticed there were two black dots, and that all of the pieces of chicken had them. Yeah, not chicken. Each was a skinny little fish. I was glad I only figured that out near the end of my serving.

After the dinner, there were New Year's treats served. I went straight for the brightest, shiniest packaged candy. I was almost positive it contained a sweet hard candy. I opened it to find a small grainy cube that looked like bouillon. I popped it in my mouth and found that it was in fact a spiced fish cube. I didn't try another.

Tonight for dinner there was an assortment of delicious dishes including one plate containing three fish, cooked whole with bones, eyes and all. I explained to Justin that I can usually tell whether I'll like something by the look of it. He asked what on the table I'd like. I said, "Everything but the fish." He asked "Why? Because it has eyeballs?" and continued "You can't judge a fish by its eyeballs." For the record, I did try the fish, and it was good. Okay, so I was wrong. Maybe I shouldn't judge a fish by its eyeballs.