Gudgeon
- What gudgeons are we men:
Every woman's easy prey!
Though we've felt the hook-again We bite and they betray, sings the poet Gay. But this is scarcely fair, for it appears that gudgeons are mostly of the weaker sex-there being about six females to one male. The fish has long been noted as a dainty for invalids. It is a carp by race but a smelt by character, and is fried like the smelt, to be served with fried parsley. A house of great renown, the Pavillon Henri IV., at St. Germain, used to be, and still is famous for its fried gudgeon; and the fish is so relished in France that it is sometimes served at the end of dinner among the entremets.