Facing my Fears and Fabricating Fish

Something about fish eyes totally freaks me out. Over the summer when my sister and I were traveling in Spain I managed to accidentally order a whole grilled fish that wouldn't stop staring at me from the plate. I couldn't handle it and ended up trading dinners with my sister. Today that fish came back to haunt me.

We started out by watching Chef Chris demonstrate how to properly fillet both round fish and flat fish. Then we were each given a flounder, a bass, and a mackerel to try filleting on our own. All the fish had bright, shiny eyes and every time I had to touch a fishes head, I shuddered a little bit on the inside.

The first two fillets I produced were pretty bad. It's important not to hack at the fish and tear at the flesh by sawing at it (which is of course what I immediately started doing...I'm sorry fish). By the time I finished my last fillet, I was just getting the hang of following the bone and making one smooth cut from the head to tail. Creating a beautiful fillet is going to require a lot of practice but now that I know the theory and have tried it a few times, I can keep practicing on my own. Tomorrow we are using all of the fish bones and heads that were left over to make a white fish stock.

And I have to kill a lobster...