I went fishing just once in my life, on the River Severn in 1973. I was using some gear that my mate lent me. Caught bugger all so gave up and made a day of it and got wasted in a nearby pub at lunchtime as somebody else was driving. I love fish in any shape or form. Mrs Steve is a bit fussy about bones and hasn't got the knack of lifting the sheet of bones out of her piece of fish on the plate. We're lucky in that we're friendly with the local fishmonger and we eat only fresh fish locally caught. Because of the bones thing it tends to be chunky fillets though we eat a lot of mackerel. The turbot we had the other week was the absolute, er, acme...

We don't buy farmed fish though. No factory "sea bass," salmon or trout for us, and I find the concept of "organic fish" a joke. I sometimes buy wild Alaskan salmon. I know it's not the same thing but it makes a damned fine arrabbiata with some nice thick rigatoni. The fish man won't buy wild sea bass from the market any more, and a good thing too. The way it's vacuumed up by commercial fishing boats is a scandal. I hate to see it on restaurant menus.