Dinner time?

There's an amazing amount of fresh fish, beef, chicken and pork available right near us. Most everything is grown/raised by small farms or families.

That means, not a lot of antibiotics or steroids, etc., and we'll leave it to you all to decide on how healthy or unhealthy all of that stuff is. At times the meat isn't as tender as we can get back home, but it is still tasty.

Lucy makes a mean fish and chips with the tilapia that we buy around here. Soaked in beer and breaded in plantain chips, it is outstanding.

She had seen a sign for fresh tilapia in Javillos (a small town a mile or so away from us) and was all fired up to give it a shot, rather than buying the fish at the supermarket.

So, it was with watering mouth that I awaited Lucy's return that day with fresh fish for dinner.

She returned, but not with the fish. She brought back chiccarones (pork short ribs which are amazing from this place just down the road).

Apparently, fresh is really fresh. Lucy went up and asked for a kilo of tilapia. The man ran back to his pool, tossed in a net and pulled out four of the fish. He then proceeded to club them, break their necks, gut them and then put them in a bag for Lucy.

To make a long story somewhat shorter, Lucy doesn't know how to prepare a fish like that (yet). So, she went to Patricia's house (she works here) and asked if Patricia wanted some fresh tilapia. Patricia, her mother and sister were thrilled with the windfall, though Patricia was highly amused that Lucy didn't know how to prepare it.

The chiccarone place is less than a mile from Patricia's.

In the next few weeks, we will have Patricia stick around a bit longer to give us the ins and outs of preparing the tilapia.