Fish Eyes

When Mateo was a child his mom would make him a good hardy meal of tuna noodle cassarole. As tasty and filling as it was he would throw up everytime. He was convinced she put fish eyes in it and whenever he bit into a "fish eye" everything that went down immediately came right back up. It wasn't until last year that he foun out the infamous fish eyes were in fact bread crumbs quit contrary to our first lunch in Kisumu.

We sat down at a table covered with flies on Lake Victoria. The server brought a basin and pitcher for us to wash our hands. Moments later the largest fish I've ever seen on a platter was sat in the middle of the table and 5 of us started pulling from the fish with our fingers and some corn meal mixture called ugali. We were told we had the honors of breaking open the head. We just kind of looked at each other like, is this some sort of test. They said we could have the eyes and I just knew they were joking. Then they started questioning us on not eating the eyes. "it's very nice, it's the nicest part...it's delicious" I didn't even try to grab for it. One of our host stuck his finger through the eye socket and detached it from the fishes head. Mateo and I were both watching flies land and take off of this fish while drippey hands dove in to grab flesh and juices. Our host Edward grabbed the eye and for the next 60 seconds he was chewing away. "it's very chewy" he said.

We didn't eat those fish eyes but a dinner and lunch time staple at our compound is small fish. We believe they are minnow. They are cooked with oil and diced tomatoes and again eaten with ugali. It's the whole little fish, eyes and all starring at us from the bowl. We get plenty of fish eyes over the course of the week.