GURNARD: The French name for this spiny red fish commonly eaten in Europe but not in America is grondin. In English it is a red gurnet or gurnard, which few Americans have ever heard of even though it is related to the less edible sea robin, both in the genus Trigla. 2. TENCH: Tench, Cyprinidae tinca tinca, has edible carplike flesh, and an eellike exterior of tiny embedded scales covered with slime. Legend has it that the slime will heal any fish it rubs against, which is why tench is sometimes called doctor fish. 3. GUDGEON: Gudgeon is a small freshwater fish, common in Europe but not in the Americas, from the same cyprinid family as tench. 4. BARBEL: This fish, which Zola called a “gros barbillon,” seems from his description to be of the genus Barbus, probably a barbel, which is a fairly large, whitish-gray freshwater fish common in Europe and unknown in North America. Barbel is also the word for feelers around the mouth. Barbus fish have barbels, and barbu means “bearded.” 5.
