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Pineapple fish
20 April 2004
What’s the difference between a fish and a pineapple? The terrible truth is, I do not know. I have a cream china dish that must be meant for a mould, because it has scalloped sides and a design cut deep into the bottom, that would obviously stand out proud from the mousse or blancmange or whatever when it was turned out. I took the dish out this morning (in order to put chocolate coffee beans in it, if you must know, for my desk; those of us who no longer smoke, we need some kind of treats to keep us working) and glancing inside I thought, “I wonder what this is really meant for, what dish do people make that’s moulded and flavoured with pineapple?” - and then, because I’ve owned this dish for years and never had that thought before, I looked again and remembered that I’d always previously thought the design was a fish and the dish was meant for fishy mousses and pâtés. Look, it’s not very clear, okay? But it’s deeply rounded and clearly scaly, and at one end it branches out into a sort of fan; and that could be the tail and scales of a fish, and today’s revelation is that it could equally well be the leaves and scales of a pineapple. If there is a pineapple fish, I want to hear of it now, today...
© Chaz Brenchley 2004
Reproduced here by permission of Chaz Brenchley, who asserts his moral right to be identified as the author of this work.