My HIVE and real life friend @denisdenis arrived from a few days long fishing expedition last night ... and he brought ...
... some delicious small fishes ... too small for commercial standards of fish markets and restaurants ...but perfectly all right for me and my cats ... like these lovely Mullus barbatus ...
... and some interesting deep sea monsters that rarely end up caught in dragging nets ... or in any other way ...
... which makes them practically unknown to wider fish eating public ... and therefore of no interest for the forementioned big costumers.
@denisdenis ... a man who is double denis only here on HIVE, and just a single Denis in real life ...
... was pretty tired after all that wild fish harvesting in the open Adriatic in between Croatia and Italy ...
... so he didn't stay long with us. He just drank a short cup of mild instant coffee and went home ... to get a restoring dose of the dry land sleep after days of rocking at sea ...
... while we ...
... me and a bunch of funny cats ...
... had a long, fish - themed party ...
... till long after midnight.
The fish on this photograph ... the one I called a deep sea monster earlier in the post ...
... is actually the Lepidopus caudatus. That's the scientific name. This fish is a deep sea hunter who comes closer to the surface at night and waits in vertical ambush, observing the movement of smaller fishes above him with its huge, very sensitive eyes... than in the right time grabs the prey from underneath. It has a strong bite and often damages longline fishing and various angling equipment. This is a small one, it can be 2 - 3 meters long and wait till 10 kilograms. It's a very tasty fish ...
... and the cat called Miles ... the one you see on this series of shots sniffing around the Lepidopus caudatus ...
... seems perfectly aware of this fact ...
... although ... at the end ...
... he chose to eat some small, tender Mullus barbatus first.
Like all of my cats ...
... Miles prefers cooked fish ... and baked or grilled even more ...
... but when it comes to Mullus barbatus, their favorite species ...
... raw food also makes a great meal.
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Here you can take a short look at a funny, enlargeable pre - snack portrait ... to break a bit the serious tone of this blog.
Here you can see another interesting deep sea fish ... a sea floor inhabitant that prefers muddy habitats ... the Lophius piscatorius angler fish. The fish in this picture is isolated here on ice, because it will become a part of the small pile of seafood that I chose to eat the next day.
This mantis shrimp, Squilla mantis is the scientific name of the species, also ended up on my dish on the day after ...
... along with a few more fishes and cephalopods that I didn't photograph that night ...
... while all the rest ...
... was frozen in small packages ...
... as future cat food.
The fish will be unfrozen in appropriate dozes twice in a week ...
... approximately ...
... and then cooked ... boiled in hot water, in a large pot ... for about ten minutes ... and then ...
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... the bread will be added ... and mixed with seafood ... day-old bread, bought in the local bakery in large bags ... for a symbolic amount of cash.
A pot of this highly sophisticated, perfectly balanced fish -mash was served on that night as well ... to the great joy of all cats ...
... and some slugs.
Here you can see the cat called Malatz ... which means "A Little One" or something very similar ... eating directly from the pot ... while one well - mannered slug is eating from the dish ... and another one, equally slow and polite, slowly approaches the delicious meal ...
... that from my perspective looks like some badly arranged remains of cat's dinner ...
... scattered like fresh vomit around the lovely dish ...
... but ...
... in the slug's world - this is a banquet.
This was for me the photographic highlight of that evening ... seeing the cats and slugs eating in the same canteen ... it was kind of exciting, because never before I witnessed and photographed these after - dark activities on my terrace ...
... so I took quite a few shots ...
... and I'll surely put quite a few too many in this post ...
... slowing down this long scroll to a snail's pace.
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Here you can follow the slugs on their long journey out of the dish.
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They ate enough ... and now ... slowly ...
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... very slowly ... the mollusks are leaving the restaurant.
After the cooked meal ...
... Malatz was ready for a raw food snack from this nylon bag.
Meanwhile ...
... Miles was trying to catch another Mullus barbatus ... and then ...
... the black cat called Calimero entered the scene.
Here you can see the cat called Bembo ... Bembo looks a bit like a younger version of Miles.
On this photograph you can see Palchich ... which means Thumbling ... the Thumbling from the well known fairy tale.
Here Calimero entered the scene again ... and stole another frame.
Here Malatz and Miles are posing together ... while on the following photograph ...
... Miles is posing with Palchich.
Here you can see Miles standing proudly above all that fish ... while on the following shot ...
... Malatz is resting ... the fish is packed and put in the fridge and the freezer ... the party is over ... I'm almost ready to take a shower and go to sleep ... and this post could nicely end here ...
... but nope ...
... the show must go on ...
... with the after-party.
Here you can see the cat called Veveritza ... which means Squirrel ... she's the fastest & the most accomplished climber in my gang of cats.
Veveritza don't like to eat raw fish intestines ... but she likes to sniff around that stuff ...
... and she likes the exploration in general ... just like Calimero, that went to check if Veveritza has found something cool ... something that would be a shame to miss.
The next morning ... late in the morning ... I went to my favorite fish cleaning place in the garden to prepare that little selection of fish for my lunch.
The cats were also there, of course. Most of the cleaning was a routine work and I didn't bother to photograph the proceedings ... but ...
... when I opened the small angler fish ...
... I was very surprised by the amount of undigested (or just slightly digested) food in that elastic stomach ...
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... so I interrupted the operation ... washed & dried my hands ... and went in the house to take the camera.
Under the Bembo's watchful eye ... with one hand, while managing the camera with the other one ...
... I first pulled out a small (but not too small) squid.
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Some time later ... in the kitchen ... the squid will be caught on photograph in the same pose, while entering the flour before being fried ... but let's proceed in order :) without trying to recycle the Gabriel García Márquez's style.
After the squid, I pulled out this interesting little fish ...
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... the Cepola rubescens ...
... then another squid ...
... and then ... finally ... a Mullus barbatus.
I gave the small Mullus barbatus to Bembo, and cleaned the rest of what I found in that stomach - for me.
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Here you can take a short look at what soon became my lunch.
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Hm ... it doesn't look too bad on this red background.
When I took the clean, ready - to - cook fish out of the fridge for these two photographs ...
... Malatz took the opportunity to jump in ...
... and take a good, up close look at this cool storage unit.
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He's always interested in whatever is going on inside the fridge.
A bit later ... under the watchful eye of the cat called Farabuto ... which means Scoundrel ... in Italian ...
... I was ready for the frying time. The oil was in the frying pan ... the flame was on underneath that all ...
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... I proceeded to put the first half of the seafood in the flour ... mixed with a bit of semolina to make things a bit crunchier ...
... when this was done ... and it looked good ... I took this shot and then ...
... put everything in hot oil ...
... always under the watchful eye of the cat called Farabuto, of course.
When I prepared the second half for frying ...
... and when the first half was out of the oil ... on the dish ...
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... Malatz entered the scene ...
... to assist Farabuto ...
... and lend a helping paw to his watchful eye.
Here is a pseudo - drone look at the scene ... in a shot taken while standing on the chair.
With the remaining flour I usually make a simple, improvised and undefined, fried dough thing which goes well with the rest.
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When everything was fried and done ...
... it looked like this ...
... not bad, not bad ... not - bad - at - all :D
I like that most of the animals retained their original shapes ... so the final product looked a bit creepy ... but in a cool way :D ...
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... well, to me at least.
And what to say about the taste ?
Mmmmm .... fabulous ... majestic ... absolutely delicious :D ...
... the black cat called Miaukula (A name made by mixing the words Meow and Shark, in Croatian of course) who is very critical about food, couldn't stop praising my MasterChef abilities.
Ok … I'm exaggerating a bit ... but really - it was a fine little snack.
As always in these posts on HIVE ... the photographs are my work ... except for those where I'm in the picture ... those were taken by a friend ... and that's it ... this short culinary adventure with a happy ending is over ... have a good day ... or night ... wherever on the planet you are - MEOW MEOW (which means THE END ... or BON APPETIT ... or something completely different)
Looks oddly delicious.
hahah what a good action ... snails thrilled me as much as cats ... great but how much that Angler can eat it's a miracle :)
Hansel awakens a careful Iman feeling that there is a very good and powerful Wizard guarded by cats and turned the evil adventurers into a naked snail. Says Gretel !!! hi
"without trying to recycle the Gabriel García Márquez's style.
Besides the pictures, there's always at least one gem of an idea in your blogs.
This one might have been labeled "Winners and Losers", or "That's life".
True :) that's life ... there is a time to win and time to lose for everyone.
Wow! Your cats are having a party!!
They are having such a good time.
Your deep fried aliens look very delicious!! Would love to try some! LoL
Hahaha, I enjoyed that! :D meooowww... meooowwww to the kitties....
:D