Whales and Flounder

A winter storm has struck the coast, with cold, horizontal rain blowing; they are calling for snow in the "wee hours," so we don't know what to expect when we awake in the morning.  It was definitely not a good day for running, so I went down to the little fitness room here at the condo and lifted some light weights for a few minutes.  Then we drove to Beaufort for yet another "Brown Bag Gam" at the Maritime Museum, this one an interesting talk on Whaling in North Carolina.

Associate Curator Benjamin Wunderly presented the program, and started out by explaining that most people associated whaling with New Bedford and the North Atlantic, but that it had also taken place here on the North Carolina coast.  He displayed some exhibits which included a replica of a sperm whale tooth and a sample of baleen from a whale.  Baleen is strong, flexible material made out of keratin, a protein that is the same material that makes up our hair and fingernails.  It is used by whales to filter their prey, which includes shrimp, squid, and small fish.  

He also displayed a jar of spermacetti, which I had read about in Melville's Moby Dick, but never actually seen.  It comes from a cavity in the head of a sperm whale, and was used for candles and lamps in the 19th century.  It had an unusual sweet fragrance, not at all what I expected.

The museum has on display the complete skeleton of a juvenile sperm whale - the very creature from which spermacetti was harvested - suspended from the ceiling, and it is a sight to behold.

We went to Lowe's after lunch - not the big-box hardware store, but one of a chain of very nice grocery stores in this part of North Carolina, a little like a Whole Foods store - to stock up on food.  We're from the mountains.  We know what to do when a snowstorm is predicted!  Then we made stocking-up stops at Friendly Grocery and at Blue Ocean seafood market.  

At Blue Ocean, we decided to have flounder for dinner - really fresh flounder.  I had discovered, incidentally, in answer to a question I had posed in this blog last week, that most of the fish in Blue Ocean is rod-and-reel caught, which surprised me.  We asked about the flounder, and were shown a real fish on ice, that looked as if it had been swimming in the ocean only this morning.

Carol, the friendly young woman who works there, told us they could fillet one for us, and while we watched, her colleague proceeded to do so.

So there it was, just like that!  And, while I am not a fisherman, it was absolutely the freshest fish we have ever purchased.

So that's what we had for dinner tonight, along with a spinach quiche from Friendly Market.  Martha pan-sauteed the flounder lightly in a dredge of flour, salt and pepper, and a little lemon, and it was the freshest, most delicious fish I think I have ever eaten.  I would have taken a picture of it, but it disappeared before I had the presence of mind to do so.
 
Outside, the wind is howling as I am writing, and we are both ready to settle down to good books.  Is there any better companion (besides Martha) than a good book while a storm is raging outside?  I don't think so.