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SKATEING TO DINNER

8/12/2014

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Posted by Monty
Carol fishes most days.  Usually she will catch something, usually too small to keep.  Yesterday, while fishing off the dock, she got something that doubled her rod over.  Almost all of her line was out before I could get to her and adjust the drag on the reel.  She fought the beast for at least five minutes.

Now, Carol is used to freshwater bream, perhaps a small bass, crappie, or, at worst, a catfish.  She now has line on her rod that is at least three times the breaking strength she is used to.  She has never fought a fish for over a minute and a half.  This, evidently, was Moby Dick.

So, after a battle of the Titans, she landed...a skate.

It's a member of the ray family and what I used to call a sting ray in my youth, complete with the barb on the tail.

Then, she landed two more.  She decided she was tired, and done fishing for skates.

Turn the page.

A few weeks ago, a couple bought one of the boats on our dock that was for sale.  Vadin and Katrina are from Russia, and here on visa to do exactly that.  As they are without a car, we have offered them rides into town to provision, run errands, etc..  Very nice couple.  She speaks English, he is more limited.  I know zero Russian.  At some point, it came up that they have caught and eaten skate.  In this part of the globe, it is pretty much a throwaway fish, but as they were fishing as well, down the dock, we decided to offer them our catch.

They not only accepted, but invited us to dinner.  As it turns out, skate is considered a delicacy and very expensive in Europe and Russia.  Vadin butchered the catch on the dock and disappeared into his boat.  "What can we bring?" we asked.  He pointed to each of us,  "Just you, and you."

We had skate soup and fried skate, and rice with some sort of something on top.  I don't know what it was, but it was very good.  It turns out that Vadin is an excellent cook, and knows a little something about presentation as well.  He and Carol discussed spices, with Kat translating.  The only thing that was unclear was Vadin's "Special Georgia Spice".  (That's not the state, but the country.)

At any rate, we had a marvelous evening and their Endeavour center cockpit is a beautiful boat.  Hopefully we can return the favor very soon.  Carol has promised to treat them to a "Southern United States" meal.

Hopefully, no international incident will result.

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