Who eats mermaids?

Sagres 8 April 2013

By mermaids, I mean sting rays or rays, which are believed to be the basis of the mermaid legends. We cycled into Sagres today, which primarily reminded me that we had cycled the day before and my bum was sore. However there was a bit more to Sagres than a pain in the bum. It seemed like a sleepy out of season seaside town – that impression can easily be explained by the fact that it really was a seaside town, out of season and there were not many people around.

We headed to the old fishermen’s harbour to see the early morning catch. This was never likely to be successful since we had got up late, cycled 1.5 km to the town, and it was now after 2pm. Since we were on bikes and not in the Tardis we could do nothing about the time and headed to the port regardless. To our surprise the catches were being unloaded from the small trawlers. The quaint old fashioned fishing boats transferred their catch to a small modern production process. Standard orange trays were used to sort the different species, they rolled through the warehouse where they were weighed and auctioned within the hour. (No doubt being recorded against an EU fishing quota).

Anyway amongst the catch were trays packed with rays, two different varieties. This was consistent with our exploration of the local markets. But who eats them? I've never seen them on a menu, I've never heard of a sting ray recipe. Answers on a postcard.

Photos [including a whopper from last year’s visit to Zanzibar]