Who Expects the Spanish Inquisition?

/ Garrulous Gwendoline

Thank you to all who sent me birthday wishes yesterday, and there were plenty! I had a busy morning answering blog comments, texts, Facebook messages and taking phone calls. I was deeply touched.

Then Bill and I went off to lunch at a well-known local seafood restaurant. We were allocated a time-slot, and sat at a window-table comfortably social-distanced from other diners.

I was happy ordering just the one course – the whole baked snapper – and what a course!

I just have to share what arrived.

Baked Snapper

Isn’t the presentation amazing? I suppose with fewer numbers, and the need to entice back customers as our restrictions are slowly eased, the chef had time and motivation to go all out.

I was not expecting that! Then again, the little voice in my head said, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. (That little joke only makes sense to the fans Monty Python Flying Circus comedy sketches).

The Inquisition

It took me a while, and no doubt there was still plenty of pickings around the bones, but I feel I made a good fist of it. It was tender and sweet, and the lemon jus was just the right touch.

Baked Snapper Remnants 

The hostess was perfect in her role as maître d’, and finished the meal off perfectly for me with a complementary limoncello.

All in all, a stand out return to dining outside the home. Not that we intend making a habit of it just yet.

45 thoughts on “Who Expects the Spanish Inquisition?”

  2. First of all happy belated birthday, I’m pleased you got a chance to celebrate with such an impressive looking meal but I’d have had to ask George to cut the head off for me so it didn’t look at me whilst I tucked in hehe.
    Best wishes
    Charlotte

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  3. Nice looking fish! Snapper is popular in California and especially Mexico. Fish in the US, are usually served as fillets and rarely presented this way with the visage in tact. In my travels, I’ve learned to get over the feeling that the fish is staring up at me while deboning it. You did an excellent job!

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    • I noticed many of the meals in the US had been “worked over” or disappeared under sauce. Snapper fillets were on the menu also. We’d had rainbow trout at home a few days earlier and I always prefer that whole, so I’m over any sensitivity. I have a Japanese cousin who would have eaten delicacies from the head, but I don’t go that far 🙂 .

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      • Have not noticed “worked over meals” during my time in the US, but each state has unique food preferences, and all are vastly different – almost comparable to being their own country. I imagine fish served in Hawaii is nothing like it is in Iowa or Kansas. It’s possible you’ve eaten in more states than I have Gwen? By far, the most interesting food experience I recall was while volunteering for a few months at an AIDS orphanage in Shayandima, a South African township in Limpopo near the Zimbabwe border. This was before my WordPress blog. They prepared a special soup for the children with mashonzha worms. Mashonzha protein is essential in the diet in that area and is also loaded with phosphorus, iron, and calcium. The hungry children loved it! Felt like I had to at least taste it, but… Will end with that, as we have surely “worked over” the subject of your birthday fish… 🙄

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    • Kind of. The numbers were restricted and tables had to be separated according to the 4sqm rule. And I think, for this restaurant, the experience was all the better for that. In normal times they would cram people in, and service, presentation and meal preparation suffers.

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      • It will be interesting to see if socially distanced restaurants can make the numbers work, or whether we will see a number of places having to closedown. I don’t eat out much, but I do love our local Japanese restaurant, Takayama, for a treat. It is utterly amazing for Ipswich! It is so good many people say one of the best in the country even better than a few London one’s and my ex husband who was a frequent visitor to Tokyo when Mitsubishi Motors was a client, said he thought it as good as eating in Tokyo. I’m really hoping that they can keep going – they have managed to switch to a takeaway service since May, but it’s not the same as being sat there with friends and family is it?

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  11. Wow! That was some fish & only from the Lagoon, of course!! Hope your birthday came up to your wishes Gwen – very hard in the virus times. We enjoyed our sojourn with you & Bill. Thanks 😊😊😊

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  13. Belated Happy Birthday from North Wales xx
    I’m not sure I could have managed a fish that size, so well done. It looks very disgruntled – a face only a mother could love!
    Our post-lockdown treat (whenever that is) will be takeaway fish and chips from the chippy!

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