Slap you with a big trout

(一篇舊文+updates)

     I was at the seafood department of a local supermarket. A lady before me was asking questions while I was looking at the prices and pondering what I should buy. It seemed she didn’t like the fish, so the clerk turned to me when he was done with her and asked me what I wanted.

     “I’ll have one pound of steel head trout fillet, please.”
     “One pound?”
     “Yes, one pound.”

     Suddenly, the lady who was about to leave said to me, “How do you like this trout? Is it any good?” She caught me off-guard because I was still pondering if I had made the right choice on buying that fish. I was startled, and words simply came out of my mouth, “hmm... I don’t really know....”

     The truth is I am not a fish person. I don’t especially care for fish. If it weren’t because my gf asked me to buy fish, I wouldn’t even put it down on my shopping list. So, fish to me is “fish” -- I can’t really tell the big difference when I’m eating it.

     “I’ve never tried this kind of fish before..... just wondering if it’s any good,” the lady kept talking. I wish I could help her, but I simply had no clear memory of eating trout. Heck, I wasn’t even sure what a trout (the flesh part) looked like. So I had a quick peek at the fish while the clerk was handling it, and saw its reddish flesh which resembled a lot like salmon. “Honestly, I couldn’t tell,” another series of words came out of my mouth, even though I was thinking perhaps it also tasted like salmon (that I do have often) but I didn’t think it was a good answer.

     “You couldn’t tell.... well, next time. Maybe I’ll try it next time,” finally she turned and walked away after I responded, “Yeah....maybe next time...”

     Yeah, I know this has nothing to do with the “slapping” as mentioned in the title (Sorry, folks). It’s just that seeing a trout (fillet) reminded me of a banner phrase I often saw back in IRC days (IRC: a very popular chatroom program/protocol before world wide web was out).

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Update:
We bought a HUGE pinky fish fillet last week. While we were eating it, my gf said the "salmon" tasted good, but after she took a peek of the label on the package, she said, "Oh, it's steel head trout." Told you, I (and my gf) really can't tell.