[imagesource: YouTube / Shaun Kramer]

Finally.

I speak from a place of intense dislike for fish paste for more than three decades and I will revel in its downfall.

Pecks Anchovette and Redro are disappearing from South African shelves.

Pioneer Foods (owned by PepsiCo), which is both the local distributor of Pecks and the manufacturer of Redro, has decided to discontinue fish paste.

Cue the tears from ‘fans’ who probably haven’t bought a jar in yonks, hence the fact that it’s being booted as part of the company’s “ongoing portfolio review”.

Jeremy Maggs even went as far as to write an article on The Daily Maverick headlined ‘My world is shattered: A paean for the demise of my beloved anchovy toast’.

I kid you not:

Mine was a childhood smothered in fishpaste. And now the memory has been harpooned as a major food conglomerate — with a click of a mouse on a profit-hungry spread…

I feel like a panicky sardine caught in a tight net off the South Coast. Like Nemo staring down Bruce, the vegetarian shark…

RIP Pecks and your less famous cousin, Redro. I will miss you, although I sense I will be easier to kiss and be around.

Even his ode to fish paste admits that it stinks and makes you less enjoyable to be around.

I stand by my revelry.

In all of this, we have once again been reminded of an iconic advert from years gone by. I may hate the product, but I respect the peak 1980s marketing for Redro:

For the truly desperate, IOL has a recipe for what it calls a Peck’s Anchovette healthy copycat recipe here.

My suggestion would be to admit defeat. We have won. Your stinky paste is no more.

[source:dailymav]