Fishy tastes

Now that the meat-eating revel of Easter is over, people’s thoughts are turning towards showing up on the beach in a swimsuit. New season tomatoes are making their appearance, so what better than a traditional horiatiki salad, made with tomatoes, cucumber, thinly sliced onions and peppers, and cubes of feta cheese. A bit of olive oil and a sprinkling of oregano, and you’ve got a light, nutritious lunch.
And for something more substantial, many turn to fish.
Fried white bait or little red mullet are delicious, but not particularly slimming – the best is a whole fish, simply grilled and accompanied by olive oil beaten with plenty of aromatic lemon juice.
When fish is fresh, sauces disguise its flavor, so unless you are in some fancy restaurant, you will usually get your fish plain. And yes, cooked with the head on, seeing as the best bits are the cheeks and the nape of the neck. A lot of non-Greeks find this gross, but it’s not as gross as another delicacy, the head of the Easter spit-roasted lamb! (from which I, personally, refrain.)

 

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Having said that Greeks mostly eat their fish without sauce, I discovered that the ancients had invented a concoction called garum, a fermented fish sauce used as a condiment in the cuisines of Ancient Greece, Rome, and Byzantium. It probably originated in Carthage, and Plato was the first to describe its disagreeable ‘rotten’ smell.

The preparation of garum is described in Roman and Byzantine texts. Small fish, left whole with their intestines, were mashed with salt and set to ferment in the sun. The mixture was occasionally stirred with a stick and finally filtered through layers of fine cloth, to make a condiment used to flavor meat and game, as well as fish and seafood.
Archaeological digs have brought to light garum production plants on the coast of North Africa, Portugal and elsewhere on the Mediterranean. These were placed far from inhabited areas because the smell was horrendous! The finished product, however, was supposed to have a pleasant, spicy odor. Garum was also known as liquamen, or hallex, and prices varied according to quality.
Apparently the nearest equivalent we have nowadays is Worcestershire sauce.
How’s that for the irrelevant information of the day?

33 thoughts on “Fishy tastes”

  1. You do not have to imagine the taste of garum– there are several versions available nowadays in the Far East. I our kitchen alone we have the Philippino, Vietnamese and Thai versions, each of them made by fermenting different fish and seafood. They all smell bad but give a nice twang to stir fried food

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  2. Your doodlewash dinner looks great! I am glad you join in! Lovely work! I also gave a look to your nice Blog and Follow! 😉 I loved to travel in Greece years ago! Have a great day! Carolina

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    1. Someone commented on the post, and apparently we still have garum in the form of Asian fish sauces! I just hope they’re not produced in exactly the same way, letting fish rot in the sun. As for the reflections, I was given a hint by Shari, many thanks!

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  13. Having just been away on holiday, I’m way behind with my visits to my friends’ blogs.

    Horiatiki salad (we call it Greek salad, so I’m glad I’ve just learnt its name) is one of my favourites, though I add black olives and leave out the sliced peppers. I like to eat it with smoked salmon, but the salmon comes in small fillets, headless. Interesting that Worcestershire sauce is near to garum! I like my fish (when it’s not smoked) very fresh and sauceless. Grilled quickly in olive oil, and a little squirt of squeezed lemon is fine.

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    1. Horiatiki mean ‘peasant’ – and I forgot about the olives! Somebody commented that garum is like Asian fish sauce – but do they make it the same way, by letting it rot in the sun?

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  15. Love that you accompany your posts with your lovely art.
    The story of the fish sauce is wonderful though I’ll probably stick with a spritz of lime, a dash of fresh parsley, and a dollop of chopped garlic.
    Thanks to Charlie O’Shields from Doodlewash for introducing us.

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  19. Garum sounds pretty hideous! I actually like Worcestershire sauce now that my taste buds are wearing down a bit. Thanks for sharing, but I don’t think I’ll be trying garum any time soon. The lemon whipped with olived oil, mmmm. 🙂

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  20. Oh remember a rather wellknown blogger around the Silk Road posting about garum awhile ago! So it certainly is not in abeyance. . . . And, hello from another bod from Down Under who has found you visiting ‘the kitchensgarden’ 🙂 ! Loved the avatar!!! AS Walt Disney a long time ago said ’tis a small world after all!’ . . .

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