You set off on a cold clear morning with no more than a quick coffee or tisane, not concerned with food, for there are treats to come. You are going to the local town market and like to be there early to enjoy certain rituals and to pick up the choicest fruit vegetables and fish etc, but you will probably have been beaten to the best by the locals who seem to have done their essential purchasing before dawn.
Rather like seabirds circling and diving over a school of fish the locals will be bunched around anything that is a bargain or of exceptionally good quality........this applies to all the products in the market ranging from very cheap second hand clothes to organic fruit and vegetables; culture biologique, as the French put it.
At the clothes stands the local women are already tossing and pulling the piles of shirts and sweaters apart and you often have to force your way through some very determined characters if you are to get a look in. I have found good silk shirts and other stuff for around 75 cents per item.
My friend wants to linger, but I am anxious to enjoy my first market treat of the day........I slink off to the shellfish stall and after a brief chat with the oyster man he opens six oysters for me which I devour much to the horror of passers-by who shudder at the thought of the cold slimy things slipping down their throats so early in the morning....I am in heaven and happily accept a free oyster thrown in.. I pay him two dollars and slip off to the favourite cafe for a small chardonnay to wash them down. I then start the rounds starting with the fish market.....here again the 'seagulls' are circling, jostling for the beautiful and sparkling fresh sardines, anchovies, the special offers on the under sized examples of normally expensive fish such as the sar, the pagre, the daurade, and other members of the bream family....the North African ladies are picking over the grey mullet and saupe (another bream) for the fish cous cous....I am looking for something to grill and ogle the stiff silvery loup de mer (sea bass), the marbre (striped bream) and the langoustine (dublin bay prawns), but they are way over the price I want to pay for fish today so I settle on two gold grey mullet and have them cleaned but not scaled....later I will grill them, as they are, over charcoal and vine clippings and they will taste every bit as good as sea bass!
Back to the cafe again where I meet up with my friend and we have a small glass of wine each and a spring roll from the Vietnamese stall....this is delicious in extreme; we leave our bags in the cafe and go shopping and tasting...a sliver of a new cheese at the cheese stall, a snippet of charcuterie, some untried olives in anchovy brine, some segments of the new clementines a tatse of vegetable pate at the organic stall and so on, still a few bonjours to complete. At the far end of the marche are what we call the 'little people' for they are indeed smaller and older than the other vendors..... these are the peasant farmers and smallholders who grow and sell their own produce...unlike the others who buy from wholesalers. We buy eggs that are free range and not uniformly brown, perhaps a bunch of sorrel or chives and anything that looks good and fresh. In our northern sentimental way we feel for the chickens, rabbits and ducks cooped up in tiny cages waiting for the finger that by pointing seals their fate. On to the bread stall and here again we are offered a slice of something, but not feeling in the mood for sweet things refuse and buy a log of crusty rye bread that has been baked in a wood fire oven. We collect our (by now) heavy baskets and trek back to the car which is parked what seems like half a mile away. On the way out of the market square I pick up a bunch or two of parsley, coriander or mint from the North Africans who, it seems, have the monopoly, it all smells wonderful!
Had this trip been in the summer months we might have spent time listening to buskers or whatever was happening in the square, but now its quite frosty and too hard on the fingers.....I know I've done it. So it’s back to the grilled fish and other good things until the next time when we will repeat the familiar, but still magical rounds of this living showcase of the simple but very good life.
Grilled Grey Mullet en 'chemise'
a delicious and underrated fish
Have your fish monger clean but not scale the fish. An ungutted weight of approx 400 grams or 300 grams per person;.....Lightly salt the gut cavity and place on a preheated griddle -- medium heat...... Sprinkle a few dried herbs such as thyme, rosemary, green aniseed or fennel on the griddle half way through cooking approx four minutes per side. Sliding a spatula downwards turn the fish over, the scales on the cooked side should be brown and slightly burned. Sprinkle a few more herbs on the hot griddle (the smoke perfumes the fish and helps disguise the smell of cooking fish).
When done, turn off the heat and leave the fish for a few minutes on the griddle. Now place the fish on the work surface and gently remove the 'shirt' of skin and scales which should come off easily. Put the fish on a warm plate and put a pat or two of green herb butter on it and voila add a few vegetables such as steamed carrots and green beans, lightly tossed in olive oil and lightly fried garlic and serve.
For a larger fish allow 7 to 9 mins per side.
A good tip:
Take a small bottle of virgin olive oil, pour a third of it into another container, then stuff the bottle with a good handful of dried chilies that have been broken up and the juice of one lemon mixed with two teaspoons of sea salt. Now add three crushed cloves of garlic and four bayleaves, shake well and store for at least one week. After this, pierce a few holes in the top of the bottle cap and keep refrigerated. Shake before sprinkling on your cooked fish.
--Kevin Ayers [April 2, 2008]
Photo: Leif Karpe
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Kevin Ayers’ new album, The Unfairground, is out now on Gigantic Records.
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