I have been given some wonderful gifts in the past, but today's really takes the cake. One of the mothers from the kindergarten rang me all excited to say that her father had caught a shark and she had seen on TV that New Zealanders eat shark all the time in the form of fish and chips so she would bring it to me. I had visions of a tray of lovely white meat that I could put in a delicious beer batter and serve with some delicious oven baked chips. A taste of home - yippee! And then she opened her boot and ..... there were 3 large WHOLE hammerhead sharks (the pictures don't do them justice!) lying there. All for me. She was so excited - telling me that in Japan they usually just throw them away..... I can see why! Considering I have never even filleted a "normal" fish and considering my mother is arriving tomorrow and I haven't even gotten around to getting sheets onto her bed the thought of trying to fillet a whole, large hammerhead shark was too much for me so I have just spent the last hour trying to off-load them on the unsuspecting neighbours. The last one has been delivered and now all I need to do is get rid of the smell from the car. I guess the fish and chips will need to wait till we make it back to New Zealand next time!
I have been given some wonderful gifts in the past, but today's really takes the cake. One of the mothers from the kindergarten rang me all excited to say that her father had caught a shark and she had seen on TV that New Zealanders eat shark all the time in the form of fish and chips so she would bring it to me. I had visions of a tray of lovely white meat that I could put in a delicious beer batter and serve with some delicious oven baked chips. A taste of home - yippee! And then she opened her boot and ..... there were 3 large WHOLE hammerhead sharks (the pictures don't do them justice!) lying there. All for me. She was so excited - telling me that in Japan they usually just throw them away..... I can see why! Considering I have never even filleted a "normal" fish and considering my mother is arriving tomorrow and I haven't even gotten around to getting sheets onto her bed the thought of trying to fillet a whole, large hammerhead shark was too much for me so I have just spent the last hour trying to off-load them on the unsuspecting neighbours. The last one has been delivered and now all I need to do is get rid of the smell from the car. I guess the fish and chips will need to wait till we make it back to New Zealand next time!
I spent five minutes looking at the picture trying to figure out what it was before reading your post. What a lovely gift. What on earth are you going to give in return for three hammerhead sharks?? Best not to encourage her though.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the hammer bit is edible??
And the day before your mum arrives. seriously. As if you didn't have better things to do all day :) And here I was thinking I might ring up and see if you were free for a cuppa. Lucky I didn't or you might have slipped a shark in my boot while I was in the toilet. Ryu would have got the blame for the smell the whole way home!
PS - on first very quick glance I thought it was a dirty vacuum cleaner :)
ReplyDeletei couldn't figure it out, either!!
ReplyDeletei thought that the shark in fish & chips wasn't actually shark? some kind of fish called shark? that's probably totally stupid (what can i say, i'm an airhead) but now i'm totally going to google it and find out.
ok, i'm back. i kinda remembered...it's flake i'm thinking of. if it's gummy shark then it's shark, but i think it may be one of those things where people call similar cuts of fish (that maybe look the same) flake. i can't remember where i read that, i could be totally off base.
ReplyDeleteanyway, i wouldn't eat a hammerhead shark. *shudders*
I'm speechless. I am in awe of your weird present attracting ability. That is all I have to say!
ReplyDeleteGod, what a marathon, I'm having nightmares imagining the butchering session, but I might have given it a try, if I had time. Visions of fish and chips...
ReplyDeleteIllahee, I've heard it called 'lemon fish' in NZ to avoid that 'shark' word, but I don't think they do it the other way around, maybe that's what you were thinking of?
Hehe, what a wonderful gift, huh? She probably was waiting for you to fillet it down in the boot!
ReplyDeleteAnd my supermarket sells shark. It's eaten in Niigata and Yamagata apparently. So when things calm down and you're hankering for some fush'n'chups let me know and I'll cool-bin (chillybin?) you down some. :)
Heather - if the offers open can you chillybin down some for my fush 'n' chups too?
ReplyDeleteWOW. Best weird present ever.
ReplyDeleteTrue though. We eat flake in Australia too which is some kind of shark, no? I am confused now by what Ilahee said so maybe it isn`t actually shark.
Should google it.
Maybe your mum knows how to fillet fish? Hope you have fun while she is there.
Definitely the most unusual present, I've ever heard! And I've never filleted a fish before either! ; )
ReplyDeletesorry for confusing! it is shark.
ReplyDeleteit's only that i once read somewhere that the flake wasn't always shark.
doesn't matter, i hate fish anyway. and sharks are high in mercury, right??