Re: The wonderful herring
Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2007 5:44 am
Not a fan of the noble rollmop meself, but I appreciate other herring
products such as kippers, and roe [soft vs. hard?]. No fish has so many
different ways of presentation/preparation...
Same group [Clupeoids] as sardines, shads, anchovies.... as a whole they
probably underpin the food-economies of more nations than any other
major protein source. They swim right up the major Indian rivers, feeding
millions; there are freshwater mega-schools of them in the Rift Lakes
[ntaka, they're called in Lake Malawi], where they are trawled directly
and also form a crucial link in the growth of larger species which are then
eaten, like the Nile Perch; they follow el Nino in massive shoals, feeding
the northern South American nations; they get slaughtered in the billions
by the Jap trawlers infesting the Southern Ocean. Australia? Yep, they've
got some. The US? Yes, even some freshwater ones. They're everywhere
[well, no, not in me toilet-bowl. Almost everywhere, then]. Wars have even
been fought over them. There's even a so-called 'false herring', which in
fact is a....herring. Not so false, then, eh? Red herrings we all know about,
but don't eat green herrings because they're probably gone off.
The smallest are about an inch long; the largest, the wolf-herrings, are a
yard long and rapacious predators. There was a bloke at the Natural
History Museum, Peter Whitehead, who used to specialise in their study.
He was a bit mad, but then aren't we all?
Yes, I like herrings. Good eggs, they are, and utterly fishy [fishy in a good
way, not the usual way].
products such as kippers, and roe [soft vs. hard?]. No fish has so many
different ways of presentation/preparation...
Same group [Clupeoids] as sardines, shads, anchovies.... as a whole they
probably underpin the food-economies of more nations than any other
major protein source. They swim right up the major Indian rivers, feeding
millions; there are freshwater mega-schools of them in the Rift Lakes
[ntaka, they're called in Lake Malawi], where they are trawled directly
and also form a crucial link in the growth of larger species which are then
eaten, like the Nile Perch; they follow el Nino in massive shoals, feeding
the northern South American nations; they get slaughtered in the billions
by the Jap trawlers infesting the Southern Ocean. Australia? Yep, they've
got some. The US? Yes, even some freshwater ones. They're everywhere
[well, no, not in me toilet-bowl. Almost everywhere, then]. Wars have even
been fought over them. There's even a so-called 'false herring', which in
fact is a....herring. Not so false, then, eh? Red herrings we all know about,
but don't eat green herrings because they're probably gone off.
The smallest are about an inch long; the largest, the wolf-herrings, are a
yard long and rapacious predators. There was a bloke at the Natural
History Museum, Peter Whitehead, who used to specialise in their study.
He was a bit mad, but then aren't we all?
Yes, I like herrings. Good eggs, they are, and utterly fishy [fishy in a good
way, not the usual way].