My catfish date turns so snaky

I finally mustered the courage to face the catfish – a fish I have always avoided for its unsettling, snake-like appearance.

Infamously dubbed the “garbage truck fish” for its bottom-feeding habits and indiscriminate diet, catfish can carry contaminants like E.coli and traces of mercury from water sources, the reason why pregnant women and children are advised to go for it with extra caution.

When I found Sand Fish Farm in Kanyanya listed on Glovo with free delivery, my confidence grew. Surely, ordering from a recognised farm meant I was on the safe side, right?

Well… until I stumbled upon a 2022 Makerere University dissertation revealing that the farm once used polluted water from a nearby stream, testing positive for total coliforms and E. coli.

The farm owns up and admits the report was accurate at the time, but insists it came during their early breeding days when they were also still learning.

Since then, they have reportedly improved safety measures, including boiling and treating breeding water with hydrogen peroxide, and purging fish in plant-based systems during the final growth stage, why the fish and its soup is super clean and clear.

Reassured, I settled for the catfish stew but with a “safety cushion” of pasted catfish just in case one did not suit my taste buds.

Unfortunately, the paste was unavailable; the stew arrived with a mildly fatty, earthy flavour and a surprising number of tiny, sharp bones.

Midway through, my mind conjured up that snake imagery again and for an already biased and hesitant diner, I retreated to the silky, golden-yellow soup, which was equally satisfying and came paired with posho.

I wish I’d had the bravery to finish the Shs 15,000 meal, but the soup alone was a winner; the tiny bits of flesh I tried out tasted more like Nile Perch than the Nile perch itself. More bravery next time!

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