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Fish Tales 3(3)
Interestingly, fermented fish sauce was also a great favorite
of the Romans. Apicius cited it over 2,000 years ago in his cookbook,
calling it garum and liquamen. The taste for it died out in Europe with
the end of the Roman civilization...except for natives in that tiny Roman
outpost of Great Britain. Worcestershire sauce, of all things, is based
on salted anchovies. No wonder you see the occasional bottle of this famous
British sauce in Chinese restaurants.
FISHIFIED:
Fish have were widely regarded as aprodisiacs in classical times, perhaps
precisely because of their association with the sea. Aphrodite, after
all, was said to have emerged from sea foam where Unanus' genitals had
fallen. And a 17th century French physician believed that observable over-the-top
sexual ardency during Lent was a direct result of eating large quantities
of fish and shellfish.
By contrast, here's an early poem by William Carlos Williams that reflects
on the ur-nature of fish, their sport for man, the industry we've created,
and the pure spookiness on an individual level of our uncomfortable culling
of these powerful alien beings:
William Carlos Williams poem: "Fish"
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