Fish

My reading of reference 1 continues with a lesson about French words for white fish of the cod family, mainly, it seems, derived from Dutch words. Presumably because the Dutch were the first off this particular block. Prompted by Maigret, while riding the platform of a bus, one spring morning, snuffling some merlan out on some fishmonger's display. One of the joys of spring.

The Larousse entry for merlan explained that a merlan was a member of the family called the gadidé and given that one of the members of this family listed was a morue, which I was fairly sure was a cod, the merlan was another member of the cod family, known to cognoscenti as the family gadidae.

Larousse also supplied a small picture of a merlan, and there did not seem to be a black stripe, so probably not a haddock.

Elsewhere it explained that that a smoked églefin was a haddock, from the English, which confirmed that a merlan was not one of those. Perhaps the French read lots of Agatha Christie and think that we always breakfast off the smoked version.

Still stumped for merlan, so reduced to using the French-English section of Collins-Robert, sourced from Tunbridge Wells, a sourcing noticed at reference 2, which explained that a merlan was a whiting. A fish which I had completely forgotten about, and had anyway not thought of as a sort of cod. Nor as something which one ate in the spring. And as I like white fish with firm flesh, like cods and haddocks, not a fish that I am very keen on. Perhaps like their fish a touch soggy, the better to soak up all those sauces. From where I associate to the fresh fish of Asterix, ox-carted up to Paris from Marseilles.

In the margins I learn that colin was a big tent which includes our hake, saithe, coalfish and coley, this last being a staple of my student days, but not something we eat very often now. In those days it was very cheap, like breast of lamb, these last then being a shilling (or 5p) each. Not so these days.

Reference 1: Le Voleur de Maigret - Simenon - 1966 - Volume XXIV of the collected works.

Reference 2: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=tunbridge+rock+collins.