Today's cooking extract is from "a small posting house less half a league east of Hartre" called Peffa's: "Illista bowed her head and said, 'On the first day, I dined on a goose prepared with plums and oranges, which I found entirely satisfactory. On the next day, I sampled the stew that you keep cooking over the fire, and it was even better than the goose. The next day, it was a suckling pig being roasted over a spit--' 'Oh, yes, with the fat dripping into the stew. The stew is even better today.' 'No doubt. What I wish to say, my dear hostess, is that I have been entirely satisfied with what you have served me, and yet--' 'Yes, my lady? And yet?' 'I cannot help but wonder if there is not something you would especially recommend.' 'Oh, Your Ladyship inquires as to our specialty?' 'Yes, that is it exactly.' 'Well, my lady, but that is the simplest thing. It is our fish' 'Your fish?' 'Yes. We are, after all, on the coast, and the fish are brought to us within minutes of being caught.' 'But, what sort of fish?' 'Oh, can Your Ladyship ask? Here is the only place to find the true cryingfish, which is, as my lady must know, famed throughout the land.' 'What sort of fish is it? For, upon my honor, I do not believe I have every heard of it before.' 'Well, my lady, that shows you how poor is our world without an Empire, for in the old days--but that is neither one place nor another. The cryingfish is rather like the saltwater pinkfish, but not so strongly flavored, and, when prepared with a few leaves of basil and a smattering of blackberries, has an almost nutty savor, for which it is renowned. Indeed, no other fish--' 'Very well, I shall have some, along with whatever wine you recommend.'" The Lord of Castle Black, paperback, Chapter the Sixty-Second, pages 317-318.