June 16

I saw this fish at the store and couldn’t resist. I hardly ever buy fish, let alone fish on the bone. Once I had it though, I didn’t know what to do with it. My biggest concern was the bones. Whenever I see things with bones in them, I think back to our time in China. We were in Kunming and vaguely sick for a couple of days. We had been confining ourselves to hostel food but on our last night there, my boyfriend decided he had to have the “Crossing the Bridge Noodles” soup, a dish that we heard was a quintessential dish of Yunnan province. On top of that, soup is basically his favourite food in the world, so it was a no-brainer.

It came steaming hot and filled with various unknown chunks of meat, noodles, vegetables and tofu. I didn’t have any because of the meat but after only a couple of spoonfuls he also had to abandon the dish. He had swallowed a bone (or piece or cartilage, we’re still not sure) and wasn’t choking but it was stuck. I googled various remedies but all I could come up with was that he had to wait or choke down a ball of rice or bread. It looked so painful and took a whole day to get better. I was terrified we would have to go to a local hospital, not be able to communicate with anyone and experience unconventional medical practices which I happened to have heard interesting stories about the day before.



All of that being said, I had not considered my aversion to bones before I bought this fish. I knew that I wanted to prepare it in a way that we could eat it stress-free. I decided I would poach it, something I hadn’t done before, to ensure that the meat was juicy and would flake easily off of the bone. It worked out pretty well. I definitely searched through diligently, pulling it apart with my fingers, carefully feeling for anything. It all paid off and we ended up with a light and very tasty dinner that was easy to prepare.

Basically, all you have to do is make some flavourful poaching liquid, simmer it until the flavour comes together, poach the fish for 10-12 minutes and you’re left with moist, flaky fish that you pull apart gently (removing all bones) and toss in a tangy yogurt sauce that is easily served over some greens for a super light dinner or heartier lunch.