Our Daily Bread

A walk round the fish market in Tai Po is always distressing for me, to see the 'fresh' fish, prawns and clams all cramped up in different small tanks of water. Hong Kong people like their seafood 'fresh', hence the fishmongers would keep them that way, alive and 'swimming' in their tanks! A close look will tell that many of the fishes are in fact gasping for their breath, some overturned and barely alive; some have turned color (like the salmons when they are about to die following their arduous journey upstream to lay their eggs.)  I always wonder if the fishes are suffering being cramped up with hardly any space to move/swim, let alone have oxygen to breathe! I once saw an eel being chopped into two and placed in a stainless steel pan, the two halves still slithering in its own blood, the head not sure if it still had a body! 

Is there a better way to offer fresh fish to customers? In Singapore, the wet markets sell the day's catch, spread out and displayed on a bed of ice, albeit dead; fresh nonetheless and to me, more agreeable in presentation as I don't have to feel guilty seeing a live flapping fish brought up, descaled and its entrails taken out in front of me!  

Food, glorious food...

On a similar note, what about our domestic animals of chicken, pig, goat, sheep and cow which provide us with our daily protein sustenance - if only we can have a better and more humane way to slaughter them in the abattoir  Have you seen the film, Food Inc? I can't bring myself to see it...but was told of battery chickens, conveyor belt cows being milked (and later slaughtered for meat). As for pigs, goats and sheep, I cannot provide any information here because that VCD is still lying on my shelf! I know of many friends who have chosen to be vegan or vegetarian because they strongly advocate non-violence to all living things. I have a lot of respect for them.

A family friend who is a Theravada monk once told me this: whenever we eat, the taste of the food in our mouth last only a few seconds; because once swallowed, it is food, just like any other food for the body. Why then do people go to all lengths to pay for expensive gastronomic meals cooked by Michelin Star chefs?  Hmm...food for thought...still, it vex me to have to search my mind each day as to what to cook for dinner for James?...which is what brings me to the Tai Po market...    

                                       Our bodies are our gardens;
                                       our wills are our gardeners.

                                                       -William Shakespeare-