Friday, January 28, 2005

Hope that's a real tasty fish!!!

(Hat tip: Brown & Caldwell California Water News)

A Los Angeles grocery owner was fined nearly $230,000 for selling Asian snakehead fish, which can live for three days out of water, slither across land, and prey on native birds, fish and mammals. <snip> The predatory fish, which can grow to 3 feet long and weigh up to 12 pounds, were once called "something from a bad horror movie" by Interior Secretary Gale Norton. They've populated the Potomac River and other bodies of water on the East Coast.

I've read about these elsewhere. Their ability to live out of water for a short time and move across land means they can spread to bodies of water not connected to wherever they may be introduced. And while slithering across the landscape, they're not averse to munching on any critters they come across.

Asians seem quite willing to "bend the rules" in order to put their favorite dishes on the table. At a going-away lunch for a fellow employee, we all went to a dim sum place with a "native guide". (A co-worker who speaks Chinese, and can order "the good stuff".) One of the dishes was one which, in medieval Europe, was called "garbage". Basically miscellaneous organ meats, including the "lights" or lungs. I tried some, and decided it's an acquired taste.

One which I won't be acquiring any time soon.

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