Tonight’s dish was yet another one that would have fallen outside my gastronomic repertoire before now. I would never have served fish with noodles. Fish with chips of course, or fish curry with rice, or fisherman’s pie with mashed potatoes (my version of a seafood cottage-like pie), but never with noodles. For no good reason other than I have never thought of it.

I am a bit of a food exclusivist, with prejudices I foster to make me sound like I know what I am talking about as a foodie, when I really am a mere modernist culinary short cut taker with only about five good dishes to my personal gamut of recipes. One of the “exclusive” fetishes I have is buying fresh fish when I want fish and never frozen fish which is wrapped in blue plastic and then boxed. But I live in Durban. A seaside city with a dearth of fresh fish shops. There is also a scarcity of fresh fish counters in the supermarkets. And my closest supermarkets have no fish counter at all, just fridges full of individually-wrapped-in-blue-plastic-wrap, frozen, boxed fish. And tonight’s menu called for fish. I am in a spin at work at the moment so don’t have time to go on a search for good fish. So the standards had to drop and I walked into my local Spar to buy a box of individually-wrapped-in-blue-plastic-wrap fish. You know that awful feeling you get when you feel you are letting yourself down? Like you have succumbed to a bad habit when you have had it under control for so long? If I was a dog I would have walked out of the Spar with my tail between my legs.

However, not one to slap myself on the wrists for too long…

The filets were cut up into bite size pieces, coated with egg and then rolled in flour. The bits are almost dry fried, with only a trace of olive oil in the Family Frying Pan. They are served on a bed of Chinese noodles that has fried red and yellow peppers worked through with sweet and sour sauce. A truly tasty combination of ingredients. Son scored the dish at a worthy eight, stating how healthy it is being relatively fat and oil free.

I would however, next time I cook fish this way, add some spice for fish to the flour the fish pieces are dredged in to add some more flavour. What can I say? I am a flavour junky and think that frozen fish is tasteless.