Lobster Tails and Halibut Cheeks

About 30 years ago I worked with a woman who grew up poor in Nova Scotia, Canada. She said she was envious of the children at school who had bologna sandwiches at lunch time.

Her family was so poor all she got for lunch was lobster leftovers from the previous night’s dinner.

In the 1980s I went to a fish monger in Vancouver, BC where I lived. Once in a while they sold “halibut cheeks”. They were kind of expensive but I loved them and bought them as a treat when I could.

My father was an avid fisher. I told him about halibut cheeks as if they were a new discovery. My father laughed. He said that when he was a young man dogs would come to the docks when commercial boats came with their catches. The fishers would throw the halibut cheeks to the dogs because the fishers didn’t want them.

True stories.