Fish Heads, Fish Heads, Rolly Polly Fish Heads

We have found a place called Double Harvest (www.doubleharvest.org) here in Haiti. This organization grows produce, raises tilapia, and chicken eggs. It is only about 20 minutes away so we are working with them to purchase these items for our kitchen. It is a great thing since it is close to us, cheaper than the grocery store, and supports the great organization of Double Harvest. So this morning we called in our order for this week; 2 crates of eggs, 30lbs of tilapia, and 5lbs of tomatoes to be ready for pickup. It wasn't ready when we got there several hours later. Not really a big deal or a surprise. Thats how Haiti rolls. We are OK with that. We had to wait while they actually caught the fish from the holding tanks and weighed them.

During this time it dawned on me that these were live fish. With heads, and bones, and fins. I needed them to be dead fish with no scales, heads, fins or bones. Then I realized I don't know how to get them from live to dead. I typically like to be a little farther removed from my food source.

Then we waited while they picked the tomatoes. Nice fresh tomatoes. Then I spewed Coke all over the inside of the truck. Apparently I have bronchitis (don't worry, I started some antibiotics today) but sometimes I just start coughing and can't stop. That happened today, right after I took a drink of Coke. Anywho... we loaded up the stuff from Double Harvest and brought it back to NVM.

And I feel the need to mention I saw no less than 6 guys and 1 woman peeing on the side of the road during our drive back. Not that this is abnormal, but I just thought I would mention it. When we pulled up to the gate at our campus all the kitchen and cleaning ladies were looking over the ditch into the "river" that flows alongside the road. I asked what they were doing and they informed me that they were watching a lady because "she is crazy and not right in the head" and they thought she might fall in the water and drown. Ok, whatever. Then they found out we had fish and got all excited about having fish for dinner. They immediately ran back to the kitchen to help unload groceries and wanted to have lemons for the fish. I told them I didn't get lemons and that I was going to coat them in a parmesan breadcrumb crust. Their response, "Why would you put bread on a fish?". Luckily they were more than willing to take the fish and prepare them. After a little while I walked back outside under the tree where they were deboning/descaling the fish and noticed all the heads were still on them. The conversation that followed was quite something. Mostly because my Creole is rudimentary at best and their English is non existent. But I really wanted the heads cut off the fish. They really didn't want the heads cut off. Apparently they eat the heads here. Uh, Yuk! So we came to a compromise, I think. They are cutting the heads off half the fish (for the Americans) and leaving half the fish with their heads (for the Hatians). I really tried to impress upon them that most Americans do not like fish heads with little beady fish eyes staring up at them from their dinner plate. And we definitely DO NOT eat fish heads. They thought I was nuts. And they still weren't cool with the breadcrumbs. So they put them in some lime and lemon juice water. I am interested to see how they get cooked. I'll let you know how the fish turns out!

***Update***

The fish was AWESOME! Jolina and Lovely (the ladies who guted the fish) ended up de-heading all the fish. But they asked if they could take all the heads home to eat later. I didn't see a problem with that... I sure didn't want the fish heads for anything, so I told them to go right ahead (pun totally intended). We ended up sprinkling them with Adobo seasoning and then pan frying. Delicious!

Kacie and Jolina fry up the fish

The finished fish :)