Don Carlos is at a perfect elevation(2600meters) to raise a farm of Rainbow Trout. The water is cool enough to encourage good growth and the weather is consistent. Don Carlos used to sell trout to sport fishing industries throughout Costa Rica but now limits his selling straight to the market. On our last day we were given a special treat: we prepared trout from harvest up to the point where it would get cooked.

We netted several trout and I learned how to kill it. Even after the act, the trout was still slippery and would wriggle out of my hands! A pregnant cat lived on the farm and enjoyed licking the blood off of my fingers. The next task was to gut and clean the fish. We learned how to cut it up and remove the guts and blood veins. The leftovers were again given to el gato, who could use the extra protein for her litter. Don Carlos was insistent that the heart was edible and proved it by dropping one into his mouth. Mind you, these things are still undergoing the final automatic smooth muscle contractions.

I have eaten a still beating heart…it tasted like unsalted sushi…makes sense I suppose….

Another thing Don Carlos found difficult for Americans was to eat fish heads. So we proved to him we could still do it. The eyes are in fact quite nutritious, but the head is quite bony and difficult to gnaw on. So that is how I got to go through a traditional fish meal.