Fish Heads…

When in Rome; do as the Romans do. When In India, eat fish heads. This is supposedly the best part of a fish and I imagine an honor to be served a fish head. I ask every time “you actually eat this?” and each time I get smiles with a “yes!” Since it’s served in a curry sauce and sort of broken apart, I just take my right hand and smash the meat off the bone and mix it with my rice and vegetables and put it in my hand and shovel it in my mouth without looking or thinking. In the back of my head, I believe this fish is looking at me eat its head. While I haven’t seen an eye in my fish head yet, I know they are in there. Sreeshti loves fish eyes and each time she picks it up and looks at it and pops it in her mouth. I have to look away. I haven’t been served a fish yet where the whole fish is there and I see the eyes. I have been served a whole fish that was fried so much that the eyes could not be detected. Ufffff, I’m not sure I will ever get accustomed to fish heads but something tells me in 5 years I won’t think twice about it. For now, it’s new, strange, weird, unfamiliar, different and well, foreign!

Auntie told me a story about her childhood where she didn’t want to eat fish head and her mother told her if she didn’t eat the fish head her brain would be tired in the morning. Each morning she didn’t eat her fish head, she was tired the next day. The thoughts we have in our mind limit us to our potential; they limit us in our behavior, they limit our ability to adapt to changes in life. Each time I eat fish head my stomach hurts the next day. My stomach isn’t sick, I don’t have diarrhea, or throw up; I just feel icky. Is this due to my stinking thinking or is the fish head actually not agreeing with me? Such a deep question at 2:30am in the morning while I can’t sleep.

I asked Auntie if she ever ate monkey brains. While she wasn’t grossed out on the matter she said no in a very matter of fact way, they eat monkey brains in the North. I asked her if she ate octopus and she said NO NO NO. Chandana ran out of the room screaming NOOOOOOooooo. I said ok, that is how I feel about fish heads. While I don’t think it is something I want to eat and I have never eaten it before, I am eating it but my brain is screaming NO. I proceeded to ask if they ate frog legs and goat testicles, each one answered with a NO! It helped me finish my fish head knowing they were thinking about eating frog legs heheehehhe.

My inquiring mind goes to the internet….

Fish eyes, especially mackerel family, contain rich quantity of DHA and EPA which are very rare unsaturated fatty acid. The most beneficial property of these natural substances are their abilities to stimulate human brain cells, improve memory and thinking power, and also very helpful in preventing memory decline, high cholesterol and hypertension diseases. The common notion suggested that eating certain animal parts would strengthen similar body parts of ours, and this has also be proven correct by clinical experiment where fish eyes are concerned: They can help to reduce the deterioration of eyesight.

Auntie’s Ma was correct

Life is full of strange oddities. My friend Ric sent me a piece of art work this morning just before I was about to post this so I will share it with you. I wonder if he ate fish head yesterday. LOL