One fish, two fish. Red fish, blue fish.

Lo siento all I’ve been writing about lately is food… but my señora’s been getting creative. Besides, the bulk of my real Spanish experience is at home. And when I’m at home, my señora feeds me. The other part of my Spanish experience is from walking the streets for hours a day. But that’s more of a passive experience. You have to be there.

I sat down to lunch today and saw a bowl filled with a lot of potatoes, some broth, a big green chili, and two white round disks of fish that still had skin and bones intact. I looked at it incredulously, and for the next five minutes while my señora was still in the kitchen I picked off the skin and bones until I was sure there were none left. Though I must’ve looked horrified, the fish was surprisingly mild, and really good. Patatas en blanco, I think it’s called. When I decided I liked it, I asked what kind of fish it was, and she started explaining that it was a big fish, with a big head. Then she gets up and retrieves the leftovers from the refrigerator. A head, some more disks, some skin. Oh, that kind of fish. The raw kind.

My señora sat down and started eating. I don’t know what happened to all her skin and bones, but next thing I know I look over at her and she’s sucking on the big bone that was in her piece of fish. I must’ve given her another horrified look, because she starts laughing, laughing, laughing… “Estoy chupandola como un gato (I’m sucking on [the bone] like a cat).”

She asked me if we eat fish in America. “Yes,” I was trying to say, “yes, but it’s different.” Here it’s common to see smoked pig’s legs hanging in all the restaurant windows; they just shave the meat off while the little black cloven hoof watches. I think if I grew up here I would be sucking on the fish espina like a veteran; my sisters might even be sitting right next to me doing the same. Who knows, maybe with a big plate of nuts alongside? ;-) But to come here as a 20-year-old; I wonder if I’m young enough to embrace this, or if I’ll spend six-months here and come home still thinking that eating these kinds of sea creatures prepared in this way is a little weird and gross.