Christina Koen shares how she came to know and love pickled fish.
I married into the pickled fish affêre.
The only pickled fish I remember from my childhood? Daai blikkies kerrievis wat my pa altyd gekoop het. It’s not something that was made in our household. Twenty years ago when I started dating my now husband, H, was the first time I encountered it properly.
A month before Easter his mom would start reminding H that she needed fish, geelstert en hake. So het sy gekry en gemaak and then we would get our share. Een bak hake, een bak geelstert. Back then it was way too much for just us two so we would divvy it up between us and my parents. Die bakke moes altyd terug. That was my duty, I had to make sure they got back to my mother-in-law to be.
Being young and scatterbrained, I sometimes got this right and sometimes didn’t. On a few occasions a year would pass and when she reminded us about the fish she would gently remind us that we are only getting some if the bakke came back.
As cultures collide with the union between two people we adopt and merge traditions and form our own. Ouma Lydia Koen still made her pickled fish all the years until she passed away, but we lived too far away to always get some.
H started making ours now and it’s a dish I still need to learn the finer details to, but this I will learn and pass on to our kids.
Commentaires