Something for a Windy Day...
I received this email from a reader yesterday. Thought you may find it interesting.
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Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2007 23:37:13 -0700
Subject: Something that may amuse you or your friends!
To: drjball@msn.com
Dear Dr. Ball,
You may have heard of this but I believe most people haven't...and most of those would probaby consider what I'm about tell you as 'revulsive'.
Most people like 'pretty' things and try to keep their distance from 'ugly' things. With that said, I bring up the subject of Oyster Toads. Like most of us bay area fisherman, I've caught my share of those little big-mouthed creatures and usually the hook is all the way down in its internals. As such, I usually just use a pair of heavy scissors and cut open one side of its gills....allowing me to remove my hook. The toad gets thrown into the water and I have a slight degree of 'sentiment' in that I chose to kill it to keep my hook.
Well, anyway.....usually everytime out (especially in slack tide) I manage to catch a few of those critters...but this season while preparing to do away with one, I'm looking at his nasty features and thinking along lines of, "Yeah! It may be ugly ...but I'll bet that its mother might thank of it as very handsome. Early this past Spring,...in the course of trying to retrieve my hook I ask myself, how do I know this fish is worthless. The only thing I know of it (besides its legend of eating oysters and threatening mouth) is that when I'm catching them I usually move on to another place hoping for better fishing.
This Spring, however, instead of throwing it overboard, I decide I'm going to see what this critter tastes like. After all... I've never heard of them being poisonous or the like. I then throw him into my icebox and upon arriving home a few hours later, I'm taking fish out of my cooler and one of my grown daughters ask me "what on earth is that thing". I tell her and then I remove its tail from right behind its gills and take it in the kitchen. There...for reason of caution I guess...I decide to remove its brown mottled skin. That is no problem...for with just pulling at it with the tip of my knife, the skin almost just slides off of the fish. I then rinsed it, rolled it in some flour and egg batter, and put in in a sauce pan of canola oil. Within minutes, it resembles any other fried fish I've seen. I take it out and allow it to cool and then cut off about a half-inch of its tail. All I can say from that point is that 'it proved itself to be one of the tastiest morsels' I've ever eaten. Something like 'battered shrimp' but much sweeter. Every bit as good or better than a taug or a cobia. My daughter then tries it and falls in love with its taste.
Since then, my daughters have made me promise to keep any 'oyster toads' and they're the first fish that gets eaten upon getting home. I did later tell a friend that is truly a 'died in the wool' fisherman of what I had done. He grinned and said, "Pretty good! Wasn't it? He then goes on to say that he too had never much spoken of it in the thought others would think something was wrong with his mind. There really was no problem with it at all excepting that each tail made you want more...and the tail doesn't have much more than a bite or so and its gone. No problems with the bones....something like eating a 'blowtoad'...mostly just a spine.
Now I'm at the other side of the spectrum....I no longer tell other people, not because of how people might perceive it, but rather the fact that if enough people learn of its great taste and the little 'critter' might soon be seen listed on the 'endangered list''. Now, every time I come home from bay area fishing, my daughter's immediately ask me if I have any 'oyster toads' for them to enjoy....and as soon as they see I have a couple of them...big smiles runs across their faces,.
By the way, the Oyster toad is always the only fish in the ice-box that is still alive even after being in ice for a long number of hours. Hope you found this tid-bit of information interesting and/or amusing....even if it sounds somewhat weird. I guess the lesson reinforces in me the old adage that 'people shouldn't judge others soley on the basis of their looks'. Along another line, I now no longer feel guilty about wasting the life of a ugly little creature known as the Oyster Toad in that that little critter pleases my taste buds very well.
Thanks for your time! Jerry of Prince George
I received this email from a reader yesterday. Thought you may find it interesting.
________________________________
Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2007 23:37:13 -0700
Subject: Something that may amuse you or your friends!
To: drjball@msn.com
Dear Dr. Ball,
You may have heard of this but I believe most people haven't...and most of those would probaby consider what I'm about tell you as 'revulsive'.
Most people like 'pretty' things and try to keep their distance from 'ugly' things. With that said, I bring up the subject of Oyster Toads. Like most of us bay area fisherman, I've caught my share of those little big-mouthed creatures and usually the hook is all the way down in its internals. As such, I usually just use a pair of heavy scissors and cut open one side of its gills....allowing me to remove my hook. The toad gets thrown into the water and I have a slight degree of 'sentiment' in that I chose to kill it to keep my hook.
Well, anyway.....usually everytime out (especially in slack tide) I manage to catch a few of those critters...but this season while preparing to do away with one, I'm looking at his nasty features and thinking along lines of, "Yeah! It may be ugly ...but I'll bet that its mother might thank of it as very handsome. Early this past Spring,...in the course of trying to retrieve my hook I ask myself, how do I know this fish is worthless. The only thing I know of it (besides its legend of eating oysters and threatening mouth) is that when I'm catching them I usually move on to another place hoping for better fishing.
This Spring, however, instead of throwing it overboard, I decide I'm going to see what this critter tastes like. After all... I've never heard of them being poisonous or the like. I then throw him into my icebox and upon arriving home a few hours later, I'm taking fish out of my cooler and one of my grown daughters ask me "what on earth is that thing". I tell her and then I remove its tail from right behind its gills and take it in the kitchen. There...for reason of caution I guess...I decide to remove its brown mottled skin. That is no problem...for with just pulling at it with the tip of my knife, the skin almost just slides off of the fish. I then rinsed it, rolled it in some flour and egg batter, and put in in a sauce pan of canola oil. Within minutes, it resembles any other fried fish I've seen. I take it out and allow it to cool and then cut off about a half-inch of its tail. All I can say from that point is that 'it proved itself to be one of the tastiest morsels' I've ever eaten. Something like 'battered shrimp' but much sweeter. Every bit as good or better than a taug or a cobia. My daughter then tries it and falls in love with its taste.
Since then, my daughters have made me promise to keep any 'oyster toads' and they're the first fish that gets eaten upon getting home. I did later tell a friend that is truly a 'died in the wool' fisherman of what I had done. He grinned and said, "Pretty good! Wasn't it? He then goes on to say that he too had never much spoken of it in the thought others would think something was wrong with his mind. There really was no problem with it at all excepting that each tail made you want more...and the tail doesn't have much more than a bite or so and its gone. No problems with the bones....something like eating a 'blowtoad'...mostly just a spine.
Now I'm at the other side of the spectrum....I no longer tell other people, not because of how people might perceive it, but rather the fact that if enough people learn of its great taste and the little 'critter' might soon be seen listed on the 'endangered list''. Now, every time I come home from bay area fishing, my daughter's immediately ask me if I have any 'oyster toads' for them to enjoy....and as soon as they see I have a couple of them...big smiles runs across their faces,.
By the way, the Oyster toad is always the only fish in the ice-box that is still alive even after being in ice for a long number of hours. Hope you found this tid-bit of information interesting and/or amusing....even if it sounds somewhat weird. I guess the lesson reinforces in me the old adage that 'people shouldn't judge others soley on the basis of their looks'. Along another line, I now no longer feel guilty about wasting the life of a ugly little creature known as the Oyster Toad in that that little critter pleases my taste buds very well.
Thanks for your time! Jerry of Prince George
)
