"A nomad I will remain for life, in love with distant and uncharted places." -Isabelle Eberhardt
"A nomad I will remain for life, in love with distant and uncharted places." -Isabelle Eberhardt
My bff recently gifted me a free week to Green Chef
, a meal delivery service. I’ve tried most of the meal delivery services and haven’t ordered one in quiet a while. I was falling deep into the single person pattern of eating cheddar cheese and turkey pepperoni for dinner every night and Green Chef saved me. However! This is not an advertisement for Green Chef, I promise. Although, I do love that you can choose keto or paleo plans, in addition to others. This post is all about the glorious fish called barramundi.
I choose a meal with barramundi having no idea what it was. A quick google search let me know it was a fish. Great news. AND THEN! I found all these fun facts about barramundi (I’ve picked only the most fun for this list):
- Fact 3 The name b arramundi is Aboriginal for “large-scaled silver fish.”
- Fact 4 Virtually all barramundi are born male, then turn into females when they are three to four years old. This means female barramundi can only be courted by younger men!
- Fact 7 A Barramundi’s age is determined by counting growth rings on their scales (much like counting growth rings on a tree).
- Fact 8 Large female barramundi can produce upwards of 32 million eggs in a season.
- Fact 9 Barramundi have been recorded to be over 4 feet long and weighing over 90 lbs!
- Fact 12 Barramundi spawn on the full moon, and their iridescent skin can be seen shimmering through the water during their ‘love dance’.
What delighted me the most was finding a folk tale all about barramundi!
Barramundi, A Love Story
An Aboriginal Folktale of the Fish of “Forbidden Love”
Long ago in the dream time there were no fish, so the people lived on animals, roots and berries. They were all content. That is, except for Boodi and Yalima; young lovers who wanted to marry. However, they were forbidden because their tribe required Yalima to marry an elder so she could take care of him. Determined to be together, Boodi and Yalima ran away, knowing that to go against the Elders was punishable by death.
They ran far and wide, but were relentlessly chased by the tribal elders. Eventually, they came to the edge of the land where the water began, and they knew that in order to survive, they would have to stand their ground.
With the angry tribe descending upon them, they gathered wood and made as many spears as they could. But the tribesmen were too numerous, and soon the lover’s spears were all spent. Boodi turned to his beloved Yalima and said, “For us to be together, we must go into the sea to live.” And so they jumped off the cliff and descended into the water.
Boodi and Yalima are still there, in the shape of the Barramundi hiding amongst the mangroves. And the spines on the fin of the barramundi are said to be the spears thrown at them by the tribe.
Those who believe in the folktale say barramundi has special aphrodisiac qualities. they also call it by its other name: ‘Passion Fish’.
*photo courtesy of Green Chef. My table does not look that nice.
*fun facts and folk tale courtesy of this website: https://www.thebetterfish.com/thecurrent/barramundi-fun-facts/
The post What’s Barramundi got to do with it? appeared first on The Book Nomad.
