Butterfish. A slippery, shimmering, silver seafish with rich, soft white flesh. It is found off the Atlantic coast of the United States, where these were caught. It is good grilled or fried and may be smoked. Fish for market weighs up to 200 g (7 oz).
Chinook, also known as Quinnat salmon, is the largest of the Pacific salmon, with the most intense flavour. The flesh has large flakes and high oil content. Coho is smaller and has paler flesh. Sockeye, also known as king salmon, has a four year life-cycle which contributes to the meatiness of its flesh, which is dense and velvety and turns deep red before spawning. It is considered good for tinning purposes. Pink is leaner and milder in flavour and is the favoured salmon in the United States.
Golden Sixthread Tesselfish. A silvery estuarine fish which shoals around reefs, rather similar in appearance to a grey mullet. It is a bottom-feeder, feeding on small crustaceans and bottom-living organisms, adding to its own flavour. It is sold in Bengal and Bangladesh fresh, frozen, dried and salted.
A variety of green, bumpy pear raised by Charles Henry Packham in Molong in New South Wales around 1896 as a cross bnetween Uvedale's St Germain and Williams Bon Chrétien and introduced into the United Kingdom early in the 1900s. If grown in the UK it is picked from late September to early October and eaten a month later. It has pale yellow flesh with a slightly musky flavour.
A slow ripening pear, green, firm and lightly russeted, ripening to a clear yellow over a period of weeks. Very soft, succulent flesh. Smooth and sweet with the acidity of pear drops. It is a fine dessert pear.
In November, when the monsoon rains ease, rodents come down from the higher ground to pick off rice shoots. Many Cambodians had no alternative but to eat paddy rats under the Khmer Rouge but now they have become sought after in rural areas and have even become a fad in cities. They are now often trapped in the paddies, using sweet potato as a bait. The rat produces lean, low-fat meat which is said to taste similar to pork or tangy partridge - quite a range of flavour there. Certainly the outbreaks of bird flu which have occurred in China and South East Asian countries in the last few years have helped paddy rat meat to become desirable. It is a versatile meat, like chicken, which may be grilled, fried, curried or, most popularly, prepared by cutting off the head and feet, marinating and then boiling. Small animals may be threaded onto skewers and grilled. Whilst I have no objection to eating meats of the rat family, it is said that paddy rats, like other "bush meats" such as snakes, lizards or monkeys, are unlikely to be washed before processing and may carry disease.
Straw mushroom. A sought-after species of edible mushroom cultivated throughout East and Southeast Asia and used extensively in Asian cuisines. Straw mushrooms are grown on rice straw beds and picked immature, before the caps open.
