How to Greet the Spring

For centuries people have believed that fish should be eaten (1) because it is a brain food and (2) because it is easily digested and (3) because it is bloodless and therefore suitable for religious fasts. Aside from these reasons, it has always been true that, in times of peace at least, fish is usually plentiful and more than usually good.

Now, however, with all the waters of the earth troubled and suspect, fish as a food has become a rarity. Even the gulls are starving, and the fishermen are fighting or in prison camps, and the people who once “had a kipper to their tea” ... it is only to be wished for that they have found other adequate if less delectable substitutes. [From what I have heard, the exotics in English fish stalls, everything from whale to toheroa, were one of the heaviest crosses British cooks had to bear, during the long war (and “peace”) years.]