I haven't forgotten that I asked you all to leave me questions, and I 'm supposed to be answering them. The sharper of you may have noticed that I was doing them in order. Most of you will be thinking "Er, what, when..." The Scarier, Duckier among you may be thinking "Fish."
Such a simple question "What's your favourite kind of fish?"
Oh, the questions are dead simple, it's the answers that are so fecking hard.
I mean, I love fish. I would happily eat fish every day. Indeed, I more or less do. Friday: Wetherspoons cod and chips. Saturday: King Prawn Delight from the curry house. Sunday, a microwave steamed salmon and pasta dish with prawns and green pesto. Today - a tuna and sweetcorn sandwich, and the almost obligatory Prawn Mayonnaise.
I hated fish when I were young. But so what - there is usually no significance arising from one's childhood. I developed a taste for prawn and mayonnaise sandwiches during Sixth Form, and in adulthood I steadily developed my fish tastes. For many years, it was salmon. I don't remember having smoked salmon until my cousin's Christmas Party in Peckham when I was in my mid twenties.
Salmon became so boring, so predictable, and, truth be told, with most of it coming off farms, so dull. I realised trout, that special treat, was much the same. There isn't many fish I haven't tried - from kippers to snapper, from salmon to swordfish, from turbot to tuna.
I don't go into a restaurant and say "Mm, I'll have the sea bass." Whether I'm cooking at home, or dining in a swanky restaurant, it's often the sauce that attracts more than the fish.
Don't tell Jimmy this, but, to me, one fish tastes pretty much like another!
