pregnant fish

apparently this fish is a japanese delicacy and virtually unknown here. i've never heard of it until it was served to me at a cousin's party sometime mid last year. even then, i didn't touch it 'cos i thought it was rather ... ummm .... "fishy". a few months ago, my mom bought a pack of 12 and fried them tempura-style (instead of grilling them) and it was love at first bite for me. the fish is around 6 inches long and an inch thick (fat little buggers) and silvery in colour, quite ordinary. the special thing about it is it's chock full of roe, from tip to tail. if you bite it in the middle, and look inside, all you see is the backbone and a fat sac of luscious, juicy eggs. yep, strange but true.

as my curiousity got the better of me, i did some googling on it and found out that it's called shishamo in japanese, aka as capelin and a close relative of the smelt. these are arctic fish which are widely distributed in the north atlantic ocean. in winter and spring, capelin travel in huge numbers to the coasts of finnmark and murmansk to spawn. it is harvested mainly for its roe bearing females. pretty interesting stuff, huh? ok here's a picture i took with my cellphone. not a great photo but oh well. look at all that wonderful roe (see the right side of the photo).