I am a seafood lover, but this has not always been the case. As children growing up in New England, my younger brothers and I were served swordfish on a regular basis. This may sound luxurious, but in those days, swordfish was a local staple harvested from the nearby Atlantic waters, and my mother was determined to serve us fish in the spirit of a well-rounded diet. Swordfish night was not a popular event.
I confess that we took drastic measures to choke down our dinner. Since it was effectively a prerequisite to our desired dessert, my brothers and I often resorted to dousing our swordfish steaks in ketchup (as the eldest, I take full responsibility). Mercifully, when information about mercury levels in swordfish became more widely known, it suddenly disappeared from our dinner rotation. We were not upset.
