Sushi Dog

It's been a long time since I've seen *really* fresh mackerel. Many years ago Ron used to go out mackereling, but they all but disappeared and we went away and nobody bothers much any more, certainly not on a commercial basis round here. Today Ron went over to Downderry, not to go fishing, but found that there were mackerel about, the sea conditions were ideal, and everybody who had a small boat on the beach had dug out their fishing gear and gone out to play. So he came home with a bag full, a present from a friend, still with their beautiful iridescent green and black markings - a wonderful surprise for supper.

Although we eat a lot of fish, it's mostly from supermarkets and cleaned and filletted before we get it, so it was the first time in many years that I had to actually process them myself. Not a problem; I wasn't sure whether my wrist/swollen fingers would manage, but actually I found it quite easy, heads and tails off and filletting (they'd already been gutted, of course), and grilled with a bit of grated cheese on. Delicious!

Dog was watching the process with quite intense interest, and Ron suggested I offer him a mackerel head. Not a good idea, I thought; he'll make a mess on the carpet, at the very least. But I was overruled and a head was put on a dish for him. After a couple of minutes tentative licking (and taking it out of the dish to play with on the carpet, the little ******) he suddenly decided it was edible and crunched it up, then came looking for more! The rest of the fish heads disappeared faster than the speed of light, and he then turned his attention to watching Ron very, very carefully to make sure he didn't drop any of the cooked bits on the floor!

In our fishing days we had cats, not dogs, and they used to turn their noses up at mackerel heads, cooked or raw. I remember, however, a day when we were given a salmon - I foolishly left it in the kitchen sink from where it was stolen by one of the cats and guarded ferociously when I tried to retrieve it. I think it's the only time I remember being growled at by a cat. The most I managed was to grab it and divide it in two so the cats could share.