Despite making up just 0.1% of the UK’s economy, arguments about fishing rights have plagued the Brexit negotiations.
And as Boris Johnson travelled to Brussels on Wednesday night for a make-or-break dinner with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, the issue remained a key obstacle to a deal.
So what would be served at this high stakes meal?
Which of the foods from the EU’s 27 diverse countries, spanning from France to Romania, from Sweden to Spain, would be chosen by the Commission to help the compromises go down a little easier?
Of course, it was fish.
It is difficult to imagine Johnson, von der Leyen, chief negotiators Lord Frost and Michel Barnier, and a small handful of officials getting through the starter of pumpkin soup and scallops without a joke being cracked.
But by the time they got to the main – steamed turbot, mashed potatoes with wasabi and vegetables – things are likely to have turned a lot more serious as the teams got down to quotas and catch limits.
And after a night of hardball, Johnson would have been forgiven for wishing for another Christmas break to the Caribbean as the negotiators tucked into a dessert of pavlova with exotic fruit and coconut sorbet.
(((It remains to be seen whether the outcome of the Brexit negotiations will be hard for either side to swallow))).