How to eat a whole fish

From the kitchen at Alati, a 1 minute read.

We serve fish on the bone. It is not difficult, and it tastes better. Here is how.

We never fillet the fish from the board. It cooks better on the bone, it stays moist, and the best bits are the ones a fillet throws away. But we know it can look like a puzzle, so here is how.

Start at the top. Run your knife along the line down the middle of the side, from head to tail. Push the top half of the flesh up and the bottom half down, off the bones. Eat that side.

Lift the spine. Take hold of the tail and lift gently. The whole skeleton comes away in one piece, head and all, and the other side is underneath, clean.

Do not skip the cheek. Just behind the eye there is a small round piece of flesh, the sweetest on the fish. On this island it goes to whoever at the table is oldest. Squeeze lemon on everything; that is what the lemon is for.

Or ask, and we will do it at the table for you. There is no shame in it. Yannis does it for his own friends.