where have all the fish(es) gone?

We were eating cassava pudding at Japan’s this afternoon when Duchess popped this question: Where have all the fish(es) gone?

"Huh?" I wanted to say, but then I realized it’s more than two weeks now that I haven’t eaten fish because the ones being peddled in Tago are either tamban or bolinao.

Since Tandag market rose from its ashes, I seldom go there because parking is hard. And somebody who does the marketing for me almost always buys meat because she says the fish is “not your type.”

Duchess says the fish available is always bariles which, they say, comes frozen all the way from Cotabato. If you get lucky, you can buy danggit, but only in rare times.

A mole told us that lapu-lapu, ahaan, liplipan, etc are sorted and reserved for buyers fom Butuan and Davao and hotel and resto owners in Tandag. Unless you have the moolah to outbid these buyers, you have to content yourself with what a favorite author terms as “remnants of remainders.”

For Surigao del Sur that brands itself as Caraga's seafood capital, this is bad.