Horace on Seafood

“Nor is it enough to sweep up fish from the expensive stall, not knowing which are better with sauce, and which, if broiled, will tempt the tired guest to raise himself once more upon his elbow.”

“Very well. But what sense tells you whether this pike gasping here was caught in the Tiber or in the sea, whether in the eddies between the bridges or just at the mouth of the mouth of the Tuscan river? You foolish fellow, you praise a three-pound mullet, which you must needs cut up into single portions. 'Tis the look, I see, that takes you. When then detest a very long pike? It is, of course, because nature has made the pike large, and the mullet light of weight. Only a stomach that seldom feels hunger scorns things common.”