VIM in Belize No Longer

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Shopping For Stephen

Today, Friday, I went shopping for fish and Eccles cakes, also known as squashed fly cakes. You see, on the weekends my son Stephen and Jeanine (his wife) eat at home with me, and not daring to guess what garbage they eat the rest of the week, I try for at least a couple of healthy meals and perhaps a healthy treat.

It’s not possible to get Eccles cakes everywhere, but outside Divine Cravings on King Street I had seen a sandwich board clearly advertising, among other things, Eccles Cakes. So I headed off there about noon, only to be shown a small white space in the showcase hopefully labeled “Eccles Cakes”. They’re in the oven right now, I was told, come back a little later. OK. Fair enough. Fish next.

Now it is not politic to spring an unexpected meal on Stephen, so I had mentioned that I was thinking of having fish for dinner. The look I got would normally have sent me scurrying for frozen pizza (not delivery) but for once I had my heart set on fish – which is quite amazing since I hadn’t cooked fresh fish during all my 16 months in Belize (mainly because they came with head and tail attached) nor in the eleven months since my return. I’m thinking of having rainbow trout, I suggested, only to be told that he always asks for English white fish when he orders fish and chips.

Now, surprisingly, Save-A-Centre doesn’t have a piece of counter space labeled “English White Fish”, and the girl behind the counter obviously didn’t have a clue. But sole was on sale and looked beautifully white. I asked about the fillets labeled “trout”, only to be told that it really was salmon and that those fillets that looked big enough to be whale were the trout. A slight case of mislabeling which I’ll check on tomorrow.

I got back to the bakery at about 4:45. Before I was even through the door I could see the proprietor’s glum face and knew there’d be a small white space in the show case hopefully labeled “Eccles Cakes”, not still but again. Looking like he wished he could conjure Eccles cakes out of thin air, he apologetically gave me a business card, told me to phone ahead any morning and he’d be sure to save some for me. Divine Cravings indeed!

Aside from the missing dessert, supper was a reasonable success, and sometime this week I’ll give DC a call.


Written solely so my friend Richard will not be able to meet me at church this week with, "Nothing new again!".