Dedicated to Bernard Newton
It started out like any other day. I was out of food in my
house, not a remarkably unusually situation, so I walked to the market. In stock:
potatoes, tomatoes, and dried fish. I bought some of each. Satisfied, since it
was a Sunday and I didn’t think the market would even be open, I returned home
and asked my foster family (a new family, different from my host family) how I
could cook the fish. They said, “where did you buy this?! That fish is not good
for eating. It will give you a rash.” They whisked away my dried fish and
brought out some of their dried fish, apparently superior, although it didn’t
look any different to my untrained eyeballs. They de-headed and de-scaled it
for me, and gave it to me along with instructions on how to cook it and a bit
extra to dine on the following day.
They turned out to be sardines, so salty
that I could still taste them in my throat after downing a pot of plain white rice.
Luckily my family had chosen that day to take pity on me and deliver me a bowl
of beans, as they do sometimes when they sense that my cooking is going to
result in a disaster. The next day, I gave the remaining fish back to my family
for them to enjoy. They laughed and said, “next time, buy fresh fish.”
I learn new things every day.
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