21/7 Ian - Unfinished fishy business (part 1)

It really is all about the fish over here. That blasted BBC documentary said it. Bourdain-san said it. Everywhere you turn, fish is in your line of sight – pictures of fish, fish on your plate, fish in ponds, dried fish, prepared fish, fish in vats ready to be swiftly dealt with, sliced and diced according to your needs.

Here are a few fishy pictures to illustrate the point. The fish in the tank are the infamous fugu – in a restaurant window in Toyko. You choose your poison (literally) and the licensed fugu chef has off with its head, then slices and dices for your delectation and delight, carefully removing the bits that kill you. We didn’t go for this – not because I was scared to try – it was more about the fact that we would likely be presented with the recently deceased little chap to eat, except that they aren’t actually that little, and we feared the volume of fugu sushi we would be expected to consume.

The fish in the pond are obviously koi, in a pond in the famous Japanese gardens at Okayama. Note how many there are though, and there are a good few out of shot. At approaching two feet in length for some of them, you’re quite literally looking at thousands of quid’s worth of fishy action, right there.