bravery through cowardice upon exhaustion.

One of the maintenance guys' parents are fisherman, so I got hooked up with some lake fish to try, to see if we want to buy them to cook up for the guests.

I tried salt-roasting Mojarra, a sea-bass type fish, which looked great... Erin mentioned pure salt almost makes the fish too salty, so I subbed half for sugar (more like a cure-roast, or something)... but my presentation upon fileting was horrible. There are a ton of pin bones, and it turned into a mess. A delicious, garlicky mess.

Elsa, my awesome kitchen ayudante:

"You people only eat the filet, huh?" I say, "well, we use the bones for soup, but yeah, don't eat much else. Maybe a little cheek meat..."

"well, we eat everything. even the eye. you've never had fish eye?"

"nope. never." I sigh. Is it that big of a deal to eat a fish eye? I eat offal of other animals, but it never looks at me. After a month of working too hard, I have finally burnt out, and my body is screaming for mercy, wavering between fever, aches, and varied exhaustion. Perfect time to experiment with food. "Okay, go get me a fish head. I'll eat the eye."

photo is of Elsa after I asked her to pose, looking at my carving job in a "que paso'?!" sort of pose. She had no trouble with that.

video: shot by Elsa (no idea why it is so close-up), the end of my epic journey of self-will to actually get the job done.

**my next eating adventure, i will make sure t get the lighting right. this took place in our staff dining area, outside, at about 8pm.

texturally, like a tapioca pearl in boba tea. flavor-wise, due to the crusting, a little too salty. So, I did it. adventure of the night: complete.