Twelve Black Code Monkeys

It was way back in the Spring of 1992. I was working for CIEE (Counsel for International Educational Exchange) at the time, as the Program Assistant or East European and Russian Programs. CIEE was kind enough to send me to visit their programs in Budapest and Prague as I was going to visit my sister who was studying in Scotland at the time anyway. I took the train from Budapest to Prague and decided to buy some snack in case I got hungry during the trip. I didn’t know Hungarian and I guess I just picked something in a can that looked like it might be meat or fish. At some point I got really hungry and opened the can. I think it was fairly dark, but I just remember what I at was white-ish and tasted kind of like fishy pate. I had no clue what it was, but it tasted really good to me.

Since then I remembered this once in a great while and wondered what the hell I ate. I hoped it wasn’t something really horrible! I would always peruse the isles of international food stores or gourmet food stores looking for something canned and unrecognizable that I could try. This went on for over ten years.

Today, my search ended! I happened across this international food store/restaurant/bakery in Alexandria very close to where I work. I would never have known this place existed if not for the post office right next to it being the closest to my office. I went in and was overcome by the amazing selections of products. The store is simply called “Mediterranean Bakery” but they have a website that’s called EastWestMart.com. I have not really looked at this site, but they take online orders. The prices in the store, in any case, were very reasonable, especially for international stuff, which is often priced in the stratosphere!

I came across this container among the scores of different ones they had there labeled simply Roland Smoked Cod Liver. This looked very promising! I mean, there was no picture, but this sounded like it was the closest to whatever I thought I had eaten back then. When I got home, I popped it open. It was indeed kind of white-ish non-descript blobs of stuff. Well, of liver, I guess! I crossed my fingers, got ready to spit it out if it was too vile, and took a piece. Yes! I had found it!

For those who haven’t tried this and aren’t squeamish about trying new things, or have a dislike for fish or things with unusual textures, I do highly recommend you give this stuff a shot. It kind of has the smokey taste of a sardine, but it is actually less “fishy” then that. It is more mild somehow. The consistency is very smooth, kind of like pate, but even more so. Like it is almost in a state between solid and liquid.

There’s been a lot of new attention put on cod liver oil in the last 5-10 years due to it’s Omega-3 content and the health benefits linked to that. So I am assuming a similar benefit from eating the liver itself! Unfortunately the can doesn’t have any nutritional information, only ingredients (cold liver, salt). I am assuming it is mostly fat (lots of Omega-3), some carbs since it’s an organ “meat” and some protein. But I have no clue how much of each. All I know is that it was a great treat that took me back down memory lane in a direction I thought I might never have found again!