As a little girl growing up in La Rochelle, Charente Maritime, I remember the time where fishing boats came back to the harbour after a long day out on the sea , bringing back lovely fish, crabs, ‘araignées, ‘langoustines’…
All the local people would be waiting for their return and the fishermen would sell them all those little delights from the sea. Even tourists walking by would stop intrigued by what was happening and would ask about the name of this fish or that shellfish and very often they would leave with something fresh from the sea for their supper.
I was so lucky that my dad used to go with the fishermen very often to help them and he always used to bring back my favourite ‘merlu’ (hake), soles or ‘langoustines’. Then I couldn’t wait for dinner time to come when my mum would prepare a simple dish ‘poisson bouilli: http://www.saveursdumonde.net/produits/poissons/merlu-colin/ by boiling the fish with some herbs and potatoes, but very gently until the fish was nice, soft and flaky. She would make a mayonnaise to accompany this wonderful dish. It was so simple but yet my favourite dish ever and even today I still remember that lovely smell in the kitchen.
Other times when my dad wanted to go out for a while there was only one place he went to: ‘the sea’….. . This was his life since he was a little boy. He would just sit there for hours between two towers with his friends, with the lovely sea breeze and unique smell of the water. My mum and I would then join him and we would have some lunch together by the sea which would include a delicious walnut cake my mum would have made earlier on that day, as this was definitely my dad’s favourite. Then we would sit there for a while and I would watch my dad, in admiration of his competence when repairing fishing nets, making new ones or producing sea knots.
Simple special memories you keep with you forever ...