The scene – I’m walking around Catania’s lively fish market last week, the day after having hiked Mount Etna. I run into a guy from Hong Kong who was in my group hiking the volcano.
Guy from Hong Kong: I love this (he’s got his very serious looking camera out and is snapping away with abandon).
Me: Yeah, it’s great, but you must have better fish markets in Hong Kong selling every imaginable fish known to man.
GFHK: Bigger, yes. Better no. Everybody is yelling here, I love it.
GFHK has a point and here is a video to back up that premise:
In sociology they talk about how those studying people have an effect on how the studied people act. For example, if a sociologist goes into the field to study, say the fishmongers in Catania, those fishmongers will change their way of acting because they know they are being watched. Probably true in most cases, but not here at the Catania fish market. These guys positively ignored me even though I stuck my camera right up into the action.
You have got to have a look at how this guy cleans the squid while completely disregarding my presence (not to be seen if you’re about to eat some fish you have just acquired at an open-air market).
Here’s a link to the site of a guy (online alias Peter Parkoor) who I met in Catania and has some nice photos of the fish market.
I remember a fisherman in the Trapani fish market with whom I had the following exchange:
Fishmonger: Pesce fresco! Pesce fresco! Signora guardi, non c’e’ pesce piu’ fresco di questo! Quanto ne vuole? (Or something like this)
me: Mi piacerebbe molto. E’ bellissimo, ma putroppo sono solo di passaggio.
Without missing a beat, the fishmonger:
Signora, siamo tutti di passaggio!
I could have felt silly, but being Sicilian, I felt a silly pride. I loved the quick wit.
Without missing another beat, the fishmonger was loudly offering his beautiful, fresh catch.
Great story. Those guys in the market always have a snappy answer ready for anything you say, and they sound so sincere that they must mean it.