Fish

Just downstream from an industrial recycling operation and a stone's throw from a sewage treatment plant, a fisherman casts his line toward the passing barge traffic and watches it drop into the Delaware River. A couple eating lunch watch curiously. "No way would I ever eat anything from there," the woman says. The fishers who frequent the pier in Camden's Waterfront South neighborhood have heard it all before. That they're crazy, that they're going to grow an extra head or get sick from eating what they catch.

At Thursday's 12th annual Centenarian Celebration luncheon, Roxborough resident Daniel Rendine, age 102, answered a few questions, with help from his son. Question: Why do you think you've lived so long? Rendine: I've lived a life of moderation … and genes I guess. Q: Do you have any siblings and if so have they also reached 100? Rendine: I had five sisters and one brother. All lived to their early 90s. Q: What kind of technology do you use? Twitter, Facebook, cellphone?

Kevin Corbett, of West Philadelphia, takes advantage of clear, cool weather yesterday to fish on the Schuylkill near Boathouse Row. Today is expected to be partly cloudy with a chance of showers.

Goldfish don't forget every time they swim around the bowl. Fish - the smarter ones at least - have been shown to distinguish left from right, to remember mental maps of their surroundings, sometimes for months, use logic, engage in deception, and cooperate while hunting. We humans have grudgingly come to accept the idea that our close relatives the chimpanzees can think. And maybe our best friend the dog. But fish? They're not even warm-blooded. We may tend to underestimate fish as "lower" creatures thanks to the residue of an ancient idea known as the great chain of being - a quasi-religious notion that all living things form a hierarchy from lowest to highest.

In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin told of how at age 17 he had decided not to become a complete vegetarian after all. This selection was suggested by Harriette Behringer. Being becalmed off Block Island, our people set about catching cod, and hauled up a great many. Hitherto, I had stuck to my resolution of not eating animal food, and I considered the taking of every fish as a kind of unprovoked murder, since none of them . . . could do us any injury that might justify the slaughter.

Eat up fresh-caught fish fast. They'll taste so much better. That fresh quality and taste begin to deteriorate as soon as the fish leaves the water. The way it is caught and stored also affects the flavor. When caught, fish struggle to escape and use up stored glycogen that otherwise would convert to lactic acid, which acts as a preservative for the flesh. Oily fish, unusually high in polyunsaturated fats, also tend to spoil more quickly. Refrigeration helps preserve the fish, but won't stop the growth of bacteria on and in the fish, which should be gutted and rinsed at once.

Michael Boyd, 22, and Mary Bond, 23, both of North Philadelphia, cast for fish in the Schuylkill on a warm summer's day, with bucket poised to hold their catch should they meet with success.

You want to eat more fish. Ironically for the conscientious consumer, that has become more difficult to do, thanks to a wave of confusing information. Modern seafood cookbooks must explain and enlighten as well as offer accessible recipes; some have risen to this challenge better than others. Barton Seaver has hit the right notes with his first cookbook For Cod and Country (Sterling Epicure, $30; 175 recipes). For the Washington, D.C. chef, preparing seafood remains a personal enterprise.

Lawrence Ceresani said he got the idea from a previous owner who built the half-acre pond in the back yard to raise trout. When Ceresani bought the house on Bridgetown Pike in Northampton Township seven years ago, he decided to switch to a more colorful fish called Koi. Or, as Ceresani describes them, a Japanese "gigantic-looking goldfish. " The Koi started reproducing like crazy. "Before you knew it," Ceresani said, "you could almost walk across the pond on them. " It started Ceresani thinking, and about two years ago, he set up a fish hatchery on his 6.35-acre property and began selling the fish to a couple of wholesalers who supply pet stores.

Koi are to carp what butterflies are to moths. "They're basically the same fish that swim in our rivers," said Donna Howard, of the Quality Koi Co. on North Broad Street. "But koi have much prettier clothes on. " Spectacular suits of metallic gold and platinum. Vivid stripes and spots of red and white and black. The Japanese call them "living jewels. " The goldfish are a distant cousin, but don't expect to win a koi at the church carnival. They are bred like show dogs and fetch similarly high prices - anywhere from $250 to $2,500 on average, with rare one-in-a-million specimens fetching in excess of $10,000.

Just downstream from an industrial recycling operation and a stone's throw from a sewage treatment plant, a fisherman casts his line toward the passing barge traffic and watches it drop into the Delaware River. A couple eating lunch watch curiously. "No way would I ever eat anything from there," the woman says. The fishers who frequent the pier in Camden's Waterfront South neighborhood have heard it all before. That they're crazy, that they're going to grow an extra head or get sick from eating what they catch.

At Thursday's 12th annual Centenarian Celebration luncheon, Roxborough resident Daniel Rendine, age 102, answered a few questions, with help from his son. Question: Why do you think you've lived so long? Rendine: I've lived a life of moderation … and genes I guess. Q: Do you have any siblings and if so have they also reached 100? Rendine: I had five sisters and one brother. All lived to their early 90s. Q: What kind of technology do you use? Twitter, Facebook, cellphone?

"What exactly are we making here?" asked my son Tim as the blender whirred with liquid neon. "It looks like green sludge. " "It's Petits Pois Sauce, a lovely springtime accompaniment made with, well, little peas," I told him. "It's French. " We had only just begun the cooking endeavor: teaching my kids a recipe they could prepare on Mother's Day. And already I was getting, shall we say, gentle resistance. "Who do you think is going to eat this stuff, really, Mom?" he continued.

Wayne P. Weddington Jr. was a dedicated ear, nose and throat specialist and teacher, but he also had another passion: Fishing. He would take his 38-foot boat out of the Trump Marina in Atlantic City, meet up with other guys with the same passion, and off they'd go in a flotilla of camaraderie. Some of his more dramatic catches, like an occasional barracuda, he had stuffed and mounted to keep fresh the memories of the fights they put up. Wayne Weddington, an otolaryngologist with a former practice in Mount Airy, who also was chairman of the otolaryngology department at Germantown Hospital, an Air Force veteran and a man gifted with a rich sense of humor and fine tenor singing voice, died of cancer Sunday.

1 cup light miso * 1 cup mirin (sweet Japanese wine) * 1 tablespoon fresh garlic, finely chopped 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, finely chopped 2 teaspoons sambal (Vietnamese hot chili paste) 4 pieces of boneless, skinless cod, about 1 1/2 pounds 1. Combine all ingredients except the fish, and stir to blend in a nonreactive container. 2. Place cod in a 9-by-13 Pyrex dish, spoon the marinade on top, and turn fish to coat on both sides. Marinate, covered and refrigerated, for at least two hours, or overnight.

DAVID WRIGHT hit a two-run homer to become the Mets' career RBI leader, R.A. Dickey outpitched Mark Buehrle in a crafty duel Wednesday night and New York beat the visiting Miami Marlins, 5-1. Jose Reyes singled with one out in the Marlins' eighth inning for his first hit against his former team in eight at-bats, eliciting yet another chorus of lusty boos from the crowd that once adored the ever-smiling shortstop. Lucas Duda had an RBI single and pinch-hitter Mike Baxter hit a two-run double in the eighth, helping hand the Marlins their fourth straight loss.

Anglers along Pennsylvania's creeks and shorelines might find themselves a little more elbow to elbow than usual during the opening days of Pennsylvania trout season. The state Fish and Boat Commission has sold about 20 percent more fishing licenses than at this time last year, a potential sales bonanza that could put an additional 60,000 anglers on Pennsylvania waters. It's not clear, however, whether the extra licenses mean extra anglers or eager anglers who got out on the water early.

Ever since ballparks became food courts with dugouts, teams seemingly have competed to sell the grossest items their caterers can concoct. This one might be it. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Lake County Captains of the Class A Midwest League are selling a gigantic fish sandwich they call the "Moby Dick. " The 4,000-calorie beast consists of five quarter-pound fish fillets, eight slices of cheese, six ounces of clam strips, a third of a pound of French fries, a cup of coleslaw, plus lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and tartar sauce.

Anglers from the ages of 5 to 60 dotted the shoreline at Laurel Acres Park pond Wednesday morning, and cast their lines at the annual "Mr. Gary's Fishing Derby," run by a Mount Laurel school bus driver. Gary Kelmer, 60, who adorns his bus with fishing paraphernalia and often bestows his kindergarten passengers with bright-colored rubber lures, invited district students and their parents to share his love of the outdoors at the friendly catch-and-release competition he has overseen during 15 consecutive spring breaks.

Benny Lai was already deep into the research for Grill Fish Cafe in West Philly, grazing the coast of Vietnam with his family, before he realized what his vision for the old Vietnam Cafe space was becoming: an Asian take on Greek Dmitri's, simple seafood plates with a light Vietnamese touch. There's grilled octopus and crispy shrimp (but not D's "pil-pil"-style; the garlicky pepper-and-lime dipping sauce here is cut, like Viet coffee, with a dash of sweet condensed milk.) My favorites, though, were the kind of affordable, straightforward entrees that make normally pricey seafood accessible for neighborhood regulars - crispy flounder streaked with spicy ginger and scallion oil; tilapia simmered in cilantro tomato sauce, and this generous slice of Scottish salmon, marked on the grill then splashed with gingered soy and fresh mint.