Mullet, not bad. Hadn't had it often.



I enjoy salt cod – usually salt my own at home. Keeps for an absolute age. I like to cook it as the Spanish do, in an absolute pool of olive oil, with sliced peppers and masses of garlic. Works well with boudin noir too (or black pudding, obviously, although this isn't as moist as a boudin).



Trout's lovely when it's not the farmed stuff.

In one small part of Mark Kurlansky's absolutely excellent book "[iCod - A biography of the fish that changed the world[/i", he describes an aspect of the trade between Newfoundland and the West Indies.

Molasses from the West Indies would be taken to Newfoundland and a very cheap cure of salt cod was taken back to the West Indies to feed slaves.

To this day, there is a Newfoundland tradition of ferementing molasses and distilling into rum ... and West Indians still eat salt cod (as in saltfish and ackee).



Way back, before Columbus, the Basques were bringing huge amounts of salt cod back home and not telling anyone where they got it.

The amounts meant that they couldn't have been drying it on the boats and must have been landing it somewhere for drying before brining it home.

Cabot (I think) reported seeing fleets of Basque vessels on the Newfoundland Grand Banks when he was exploring the area, so they were certainly there before he was.

So, it seems possible, maybe even likely, that the Basques were regularly sailing across to Newfoundland and landing fish there looooong before Columbus "discovered" that continent.







EDIT - inadvertent use of brining there, I meant bringing.

Although brining might also have been appropriate, as it happens

Not in the UK, but in the US they call it Sea Bass to differentiate it from the, er, Freshwater Bass that they have there.



Now ... an interesting thing was told to me by an American colleague. Where he lives (can't remember where

) a dam was built across a river up and down which Sea Bass roamed.

Many were trapped in pure freshwater as the dam was completed.

They thrived.

Thanks, I'll bear that in mind when next I'm fishing for bass in the sea in Europe









You missed this bit then?



"In the US "sea bass" is actually the [url=http://archive.greenpeace.org/oceans/piratefishing/toothfish.htmlPatagonian toothfish[/url"

What I'm saying is, basically, Sea Bass is an Americanisation brought over here.

A bit like how a muffin is now what used to be a bun.

And what used to be a muffin is now an English muffin.

And what I'm saying is that it isn't an Americanism at all, the phrase "sea bass" was introduced to UK consumers by Keith Floyd. In the UK the word "sea" is superfluous.

Ah well in that case I'll continue to call it Sea Bass out of respect for Keith Floyd, purely for the fact that he called Fern Britton "an old tart" while giving her a hug on Breakfast TV some years ago.

I readily agree the word "sea" is superfluous.

And I'm happy to accept that Keith "chuck a couple of bottles of wine in and let it simmer" Floyd popularised the term.

But having been introduced by Keith Floyd doesn't mean it's not an Americanism.

Didn't know that.

Even KF was right occasionally then.

A memorable morning, GMTV (or whatever it was called then) were doing a cookery slot at about 8am one morning and they had an outside broadcast crew at Floyds own pub in Cornwall (???), cut to Fern Britton on site to introduce him in the bar and its clear that Floyd is already seven parts ed and as she speaks to camera he steps behind her, gives her a big hug and shouts in mock surprise "Fern!! Come here you old tart..."



Cut back to Nick Whatisface and Anne Diamond who look suitably shocked and then move quickly on to the next item.

BBC's Saturday Kitchen Live are currently preparing what they are referring to as Sea Bass.

Where do you get one of those machines to make potato spaghetti?