The little prince of fishes

As a chef, I have cooked and eaten anchovies of one kind or another all over the world. I have tried it pickled with vinegar, sugar and dill in Sweden and seen it served as a tapas, marinated with lemon juice and chilli in Spain. But until I visited my wife's parents who have a small holiday home near the Black Sea coastal city of Rize last spring I had never witnessed such devotion, bordering on obsession, to these relatively small and inexpensive fish.

It was around lunchtime when we arrived and my wife's mother was preparing a meal in the kitchen. As I was new to the region and interested in food she was determined to discuss and, through cooking, to illustrate the importance of engraulis encrasicolus or hamsi to the Black Sea Region. Hamsi constitutes more than 50 per cent of the fish caught in Turkey. In the past 20 years 450,000 tonnes of fish were caught in coastal waters, 260.000 tonnes of it hamsi. And 235,000 tonnes of it was caught in the Black Sea. She explained to me that throughout the Black Sea this “prince of fishes” is regarded with such great esteem that though it is so cheap and common, it is not even considered a fish or a lowly ingredient to be used without thought or care. To the Black Sea people “there is fish and there is hamsi”.