Seafood @ MindSay

Dixie currently feels:

Sick

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I came home today, baked myself a chicken and bacon stuffed crust pizza - and ate it whilst I watched The Weakest Link.

 

I shouted out all the answers I knew, and I never got one wrong.

I felt rather intelligent, especially when the dimwits on the telly got wrong what I'd shouted out right.

 

Anyway, I think I've either ate too much pizza, or drank too much Sprite.

Maybe it was the dodgy ice cubes I put in the Sprite?

 

We buy bags of ice - dad likes to have ice with his cider on his nights in.

But the ice smells like seafood.

I have this really awful feeling that the ice is recycled, having already been used in seafood displays...

 

Eeewww...

I really hope not.

 

I fell asleep on the sofa at half 6.

Dad came in and fell asleep on the other sofa.

 

When I woke up, I turned over - and I rolled into a nice warm patch where I'd been laid.

I have a really high core body temperature - I'm ALWAYS warm.

I'm sat here in a room with no radiator on, in a towel, with wet hair - and I'm still warm.

 

It's not fair - I'm on a heavy flow period, and I've leaked a little on the front of my jeans when I was asleep.

Oh how the feminine cycle radges me so.

 

I fell asleep because of my lack of sleep.

For the past week, I've been satying awake until 5-6AM, talking to Emily or playing on my DS.

I'd wake up exactly 8 hours later, either at 1 or 2PM.

 

Last night, I couldn't sleep.

I laid awake with my DS, listening to some Fire of Glory recordings Emily had done.

 

Not that she has a boring voice - but when people read to me, I always nod off easier.

When I was little, I listened to stories on cassettes.

 

I still like to. :)

 

 

Ah, the sleep habits of some people. :D

So I was looking into the big ol' fish-tank the other week and I noticed that one of my newly aquired yabbies (fresh water cray-fish) seemed to be MIA. I assumed that it had been KIA because let's face it there are four very large fish in that tank and we all like a little lobster now and then don't we? Well yabbies are like little lobsters ... very little lobsters. I thought nothing more of it. Oh silly, silly me, I should have known this would be just the beginning of something bad shouldn't I?

 

I was cleaning the lounge-room the other day and happened to notice a large black 'creature' sitting on the floor under the TV cabinet. Now, I see these things as only an experienced spider hunter can. If there is a small, black "Thing" in a place where there shouldn't be one, my highly trained and skilled eyes will pick it up in an instant. I spotted what I assumed was a spider and prepared to go in for the kill. I went and got a piece of paper towel to carry out the corpse, of what seemed to me to be the biggest, blackest spider I had ever seen. That's when I got the shock of my life! it was Number 5!

 

 It seems that yabbies are a little nomadic; They like to crawl out of the river or dam they live in and go off exploring new territories. Well, Number 5 had done just that. He/She/It had somehow hefted him/her/itself out of the tank and shimmied (I guess) onto the floor and gone walk-about. Unfortunately, in the confines of my house, in the driest continent on Earth, there wasn't another dam or river to be found and Number 5 met his/her/it's death on the plains of my old carpet, underneath my TV cabinet.

 * Pause for silent prayer* 

More unfortunately, I now have the knowledge that at any given time, in the middle of the night, in the darkness and the quiet of my house, there may be a small black crustacean crawling about on my floor. Clicking its tiny crustacean feet, panting it's tiny pant, focussed, determined, UNSTOPPABLE!

 

I find myself counting the little creatures in my fish-tank every day now. I count them all, every one, twice a day. I do the roll-call at wakeup and at lights out. Not that I'm afraid mind you, no not at all afraid. *twitch twitch* 

You can tell it's summer time when you go to the store and see all kinds of foods that you don't see the rest of the year.  Colorful fruits and vegetables, exotic seafood and fish, and my palate is just bursting wanting to sample everything . . . why can't Whole Foods be like one Giant Costco on a Saturday morning???  Anyways I decided to come up with a list of my favorite eats, no matter the time of year or time of day, or how good or bad they are for you.  And the winners are . . .

 

Carne Asada.  The thin cut not the big fat kind loaded with guacamole and sour cream

 

Grilled, blackened whitefish, any kind it doesn't matter.  Oh so tender and oh so good

 

Homemade spaghetti with spaghetti sauce that has been simmering for hours, garlic, oregano and basil oh my

 

Macaroni and cheese.  Nothing fancy but a college staple that never bores or gets old, and still tastes good after you graduate. 

 

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  The crunchy kind of peanut butter that is more peanuts than butter and jelly that is as much fruit as jam.  Put it in the refrigerator overnight and it tastes that much better the next day cold. 

 

Fresh fruit, topped with heavy organic whipping cream and organic granola.  Starbucks calls it yogurt parfait for $5.  I like it best with raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and strawberries. 

 

Fish Tacos from Wahoo's

 

Double-Double from In-N-Out

 

24 oz. bottled water.  Arrowhead, Crystal Geyser, Sparkletts doesn't matter.  As long as it's cold. 

 

As long as we're on the topic of cold beverages . . . beer.  In a bottle, Corona.  On tap, Newcastle.  Pitcher of Budweiser and Natty Light out of a keg . . . I know it's gross but $29 bucks at IV Market will make any beer taste good. 

 

Whole milk.  Yes, whole milk.  2% and non-fat are devoid of all flavor you might as well just color the water white. 

 

Black Forest Dream from Coldstones.  Translation, chocolate ice cream with brownies and fresh cherries mixed in with whipped cream on top in a cone cup. 

 

Potato salad.  Any kind, any way. 

 

Homemade chili and hot dogs.  Extra cheese, extra onions. 

 

Pasta, pasta and more pasta.  Fettucine, spaghetti, linguine, penne, fusilli, angel hair, shells, rigatoni, tortaloni, ravioli and my favorite lasagna.  Garlic bread and salad are essential accessories. 

 

Any fruit smoothie from Robeks, Jamba Juice, or Blenders in the Grass with frozen yogurt substitute instead of sugary sherbet. 

 

Any local sushi joint.  Sake bombs are a bonus.

From the 9th to the 11th May, the Board of Investment will be participating for the second time in the European Seafood Exposition (ESE), which is the largest annual seafood event in Europe.  

 

ESE is being promoted as the event where thousands of buyers and sellers could meet and it offers seafood business professionals access to a one-stop resource to reach global retail, food service and wholesale companies. 

 

This exposition will attract around 1,200 exhibitors coming from 65 different countries and some 18,000 persons are expected to visit the exposition. The main purpose of the ESE is to promote the sale and exhibit of seafood products and related equipment and services.

Confidence must run high indeed for the future of Mauritius as an international seafood hub. Patrice d'Hotman de Villiers, Chairman of Sea-Food Hub Ltd and CEO of IBL Group, said that Christopher Lischewski, CEO of Bumble Bee Seafoods, the leading US producer and distributor of processed seafood, signed an exclusivity agreement with his company "on the corner of a bar in Hong Kong" and "without having seen the facility" - the new tuna loin factory - in Mauritius.

 

The seafood industry currently employs directly and indirectly about 5,000 people. The seafood exports from Mauritius has grown at an accelerated pace, from about 75,000 tons in 2004-2005 to an estimated 120,000 tons for 2005-2006. Last year, seafood exports were valued at Rs 5 billion. Mauritius presently exports to the United States, Japan and Europe; 75% of these exports go to the European continent. Government is enthused by the growth potential, with officials estimating that seafood exports can double to Rs 10 billion and 5,000 more jobs can be created by end-2007.

 

Following the success of the two-day international fisheries conference last week in Port Louis which regrouped about 200 delegates from 16 countries, the Board of Investment intends to participate, together with local operators, in the European Seafood Exposition next May in Brussels. More than 130 countries will be represented in Belgium making ESE week the most important week in the year for seafood companies. More than 1,200 companies will exhibit every species of seafood. Buyers from all major European and global supermarkets, hypermarkets, restaurant chains, seafood markets, wholesalers/distributors and importer/exporters will attend to do business.

 

With the difficulties ahead for the sugar and the textile industries, it is high time Mauritius realised it has maritime resources in its 1.9 million square kilometres of exclusive economic zone, and beyond that, the immensity of the international waters of the Indian Ocean. However, these resources can be depleted fast in the absence of proper measures for their conservation and management. For an island republic, Mauritius is ill-equipped to police its own waters and remains dependent on the goodwill of friendly countries such as France and India. In part, the interest shown by industrialists in our region is explained by the depleted fishing grounds closer to their domestic markets.   

 

Even Christopher Lischewski warns that things will get complicated in the future.“Scientific studies show that the majority of the principal fish reserves are overexploited and that the current catches are presently at their maximum level." If world tuna captures have considerably increased during the past decade, the Indian Ocean region registering an estimated annual catch in excess of 1.25 millions tons, the catch will not always be so fruitful. The growth of the Mauritian seafood hub will depend on aquaculture and the diversification of products.

 

Source: www.whathappenedlastnight.mu