A fish-lover's paradise

Food and drink

The marine harvest that provides our weekly intake of health-giving fish varies enormously from country to country says columnist Andrew J. Linn

Andrew J. Linn

The marine harvest that provides our weekly intake of health-giving fish varies enormously from country to country.

While in northern Europe the weekly ration was originally instituted for religious reasons, in Spain and other Mediterranean and Atlantic-bordering nations, fish is actually the preferred meal. Meat is not the favourite unless we live on Spain's north coast where the Basques and Galicians treat it with a reverence bordering on devotion. It is common currency to ask our lunching companions or guests whether they prefer fish or meat; their answer will decide which restaurant we visit.

There are few equivalents to exclusively fish restaurants outside Spain and other southern European countries. Northern Europeans eat mainly cod and haddock, although hake is coming back into favour, and all three species swim together. But haddock stocks are running low, necessitating controls on catches (no less than 30cm in length) and avoiding the breeding season.

Wine of the Week

• EL GUARDIÁN RIOJA RESERVA

  Criadores de Rioja, SL, based in the village of Albarite, makes this delightfully smooth tempranillo, matured for 18 months in French and American oakOne of the newer lighter wines from the region, and excellent value from El Corte Inglés around 12 euros. Corte Inglés)

  • Criadores de Rioja, SL, based in the village of Albarite, makes this delightfully smooth tempranillo, matured for 18 months in French and American oak One of the newer lighter wines from the region, and excellent value from El Corte Inglés around 12 euros. Corte Inglés)

That delicacy of delicacy, wild salmon from the North Atlantic, is now classified as 'near threatened', so farmed salmon is almost obligatory, and farmed rainbow trout is a good option.

Not a great northern European favourite, Spain's appetite for tuna keeps the boats with trolling lines busy, using manually operated barb-free lines on poles.

Sardines and prawns are found in any Spanish region, coastal or otherwise, and 365 nights of the year lorries load up at the ports and carry their cargos overnight to the country's major cities. In most population centres, entire restaurant windows are dedicated to enormous piles of shellfish, usually spectacularly priced too. Spain is indeed a fish-lover's paradise.