Pilgrim on the Seafood Path

Seville is roughly 100 kilometers upriver from the Guadalquivir River estuary (recommended listening: Patricia Vonne, who relates in one song on the album Guitars and Castanets that her younger sister ran away to join the flamenco artists on the Triana side of the river).  Which would be on the coast on the west, or Atlantic side, of the Gibraltar Straits. I know this because it struck me that the tide range in the river at Seville was far greater than it ought to be in the Mediterranean. I figure it’s a draw, since I at least knew the Mediterranean tides, effectively countering my dim understanding of Iberian geography. 

Seville may not be on the sea coast, but it is a seafood paradise. Every restaurant, cafe, and bar has the day’s fish and shellfish offerings proudly displayed on ice.

There’s your sharks. These look

like dogfish or other small, 

abundant coastal and/or

estuarine species. Probably 

not a major conservation deal

in marketing these, I’m guessing.

And your tiny snails on the hoof. Given

that these appear to be terrestrial, it 

is something of a stretch to lump them

with “seafood”, but there’s really not a 

category for “land-based mollusks” 

that I know of.

Barracuda. I don’t know if they have

the same bioaccumulated toxins problem

in the Atlantic or Mediterranean that they

have in the Pacific. Of course, I’m assuming

that these fish didn’t arrive by plane from

the Pacific... .

These look like red snapper and sardines

to me. Although red mullet and small 

mackerel are conceivable. 

Here’s yer assorted seafood under glass

near the entrance to the bar. Note especially

the many and wondrous varieties of 

prawns. And this is only a fraction of the total

species available.

Ya got yer Murex whelks laid out for retail

sale in a tavern.

And the same animals in the rather more

wholesale-looking seafood market in Triana.

It occurred to me to monitor the turnover in 

the seafood purveyed in one of the bars we

frequented several nights over the course of the

week. This grouper greeted us on Saturday and

was still there on Thursday. 

Which I’m guessing explains the persistence of 

this spooky looking feral cat hanging around the 

block that said grouper-retaining establishment occupied.

And don’t forget to surf on over to http://docviper.livejournal.com/ for the latest in preposterous speculation in art, architecture, and science.