Adventures in herring

Over in the land of Oz, I lived for most of a year without a fridge, and a diet that revolved largely around tinned foods was therefore the norm. It’s not all five star luxury folks. Additionally, one of the people I was travelling with was (and still, in fact, is) a Pescetarian, someone who allows fish into their diet but no other living beings. Although I feel plants probably count as living. Biology aside, the prime part of the protein in our diet was sourced from tuna, of the canned variety.

Tinned tuna in Australia is available in tens, if not hundreds, of interesting flavours, with taste sensations ranging from the you’ll taste lemon flavoured burps for the rest of the day lemon and pepper, to Japanese, to Salsa. The varieties are practically endless. Even after a year we were still finding new flavours to tickle the taste buds. I attribute my weight loss to the marvels of tinned tuna.

Over in Germany, it seems, tinned tuna of the flavoured variety is not so available, rather, the usual choice of in brine, in oil, or in water, are pretty much your lot. On the other hand, they do have a fascinating range of tinned herring with a range of flavours, the options which put the Australian ranges to shame. Thus far I have tried tinned herring with cranberry and chilli. Today whilst wandering through Aldi, where they also had three litres of beer for sale for the mesmerising price of 1.7 Euros, I found herring with pineapple, cream and curry. This sounded way too exciting to miss out on, so I purchased it, and will be letting you know how that goes. I am yet to get hold of beer with cola, but don’t worry, it’s still on the list.