Apparently they're normal. I bought some wild cod a couple of days ago at Whole Foods and just got around to cooking it today. When I laid out the fillet to spice I noticed two weird stringy things sticking out. I plucked them out and they didn't move, so I originally thought it might be guts or something. It was definitely something. Gerd looked the fish over and found a third stringy thingy, but this one was moving. That's about when I decided against fish for dinner.
Gerd, however, was unconcerned. He went to the internet to look up worms in cod and came up with a US and UK site explaining how it's completely normal. Normally fish mongers place fish up against a bright light and pull out any worms before they package the meat for market, although they may miss one or two.
In this case they missed about 7. Gerd cooked his own fish while I ate rice and asparagus. I almost didn't get even that down thinking about living critters in my food. As Gerd continued to eat his fish he found more worms. No, they weren't moving, which is very, very good. The internet search he'd read said that as long as a fish is well cooked the worms are harmless, but if they manage to live they'll EVENTUALLY die in your stomach, but first cause a bunch of pain. No thank you.
I recently decided to sign up for our local CSF (community supported fishery). I think it's a great idea and I like the idea of sustainably fished in season fish. I didn't get my application in on time, and now I'm wondering if that's not a terrible thing after all. I really don't want to dig worms out of my food regularly. Frankly, it grosses me out.
2 comments:
One of the downsides to growing your own produce is that you occasionally bring uninvited guests inside with your dinner. With lettuce, especially, I give it a good soak and then a whirl in a salad spinner, to avoid eating any bonus protein. And I have to remember not to joke about it in front of (invited, human) guests. People get kind of grossed out about the thought of bugs in their salad. I got grossed out by it (or rather, surprised and then freaked out) the first time a bug jumped out of my sink. But, I've gotten used to the idea and figured out how to get rid of them.
I think I'd have more trouble with meat that contained living creatures. After all, I'm meat, of a sort, and I wouldn't want worms attempting to dig their way out of my stomach. At least with leaf hoppers, i'm not concerned that they'll look at me and think "lunch"--I'm not green or flowery enough for that.
Worms in my salad doesn't really bother me as much. Not that I'm thrilled about that though either. But I draw the line at meat. Maybe I should just go vegetarian.
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