yes, we know the blog is taking forever to load up. This is one of the reason that this place will be gone next year. But let’s get on to important things in life, like food 🙂
Let’s talk about stuff we don’t talk about much…eating fish. My favorite subject 🙂
I know many of you enjoy eating fish, eating anything..but I doubt many of you spend as much time obsessing about food like I do. I cook 365 days a year. Even when my wife starts something I take over and criticize her cooking skills to the point where she throws her hands up in the air and leaves the kitchen. Yes, I am anal about cooking. I don’t think making dinner should be, “here, I just got some stuff together to fill the belly”. Just like to a women, you got to make love to your food when cooking it. Imao
As you can imagine, for a guy like me, going on diet is a nightmare. But I been on it since the begging of the year..From 220 or so down to 194 and for the first time since elementary school, I bought size 34 pants yesterday. I figured I use them as a “goal”, when I fit into them, I will be “there”. Funny part is I tried them on and they fit just fine. Not sure I want to go to 32..for Christ sake my 16 year old son wears a 32 and he is like a rail..gaaaak
Anyway, my diet consist of some Greek yogurt and fruit at work and sensible dinner, something I never managed to grasp over the years. And a treadmill, weights and bike every day, no exceptions. As a child in Croatia I was thought to “clean out my plate”. Who knew what, if anything would be for dinner next day. So I ate the same way here, you put stuff in front of me, I eat it…all of it. Remember that huge paella for two people Tommy tried to tackle in the Columbian restaurant last week? I finished mine when I took my family there last time.
One of the things that dives me INSANE as a cook is cooking fish. My wife “needs” a sauce on everything. Ketchup, mustard, cream, you name it, she loves it. She’ll eat a fish but she insist on smothering it with something. Which to me defeats the purpose of eating fish. To me every fish is a delicacy onto itself. Each has a different flavor, different texture. If someone eat the fish I made for them and said “it taste like chicken” I’d shot myself..or them.
So although I am not a cook, or have no training as one, I enjoy cooking. And when cooking fish in particular, I get so wrapped up in the meal, I can’t think of anything but that all day. Especially on the days when the plan is to grill something special.
First the background so some of this makes more sense..where I grew up, there is only one fish fit for the Kings, the mighty branzino. It’s the fish we never ate because it was too expensive for my grandfather. If we caught one, we sold it and bough snappers or porgies. You still had a fine meal and few coins left in your pocket. It is consider the ultimate meal to treat a friend or someone who comes to your house. If you eat brazino regularly and you are either a bourocrat or a rich dude..
Times have changed though. The wild caught brazino are hard to find these days, but now they farmed them in giant saltwater cages about a mile from my hometown. And that is what you will find when you go to the fish market…even here in USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The European seabass, Dicentrarchus labrax or Morone labrax, is a primarily ocean-going fish that sometimes enters brackish and fresh waters. It is also known as the sea dace.
Highly regarded as a food fish, it is often marketed as Mediterranean seabass, bronzini, or branzini (branzino is the name of the fish in Northern Italy, with branzini being the plural form; in other parts of Italy, it is called spigola or ragno). In Spain, where, due to its popularity, it is farmed, it is called lubina or róbalo, and in France bar commun along the Atlantic coast and loup de mer in the Mediterranean. In Greek, the vernacular name of this fish, as well as that of the related Dicentrarchus punctatus, is lavraki (λαβράκι).[1] In Greek cuisine, the fish can be prepared in a variety of ways (e.g. grilled, steamed in parchment) and is often considered a delicacy. Greek journalists use the same word (lavraki) to refer to high-value exclusive news stories, a cultural reference to the perceived luck of an angler when catching this fish.
Which is what I did on Saturday, went to the local seafood place, picked two up and had them gutted and scaled. It cost me $25 for two if I remember. I did nothing to them but dried them , sprinkled some love on them with salt and peeper and heated up the grill. Few slices with a sharp knife on the back so the fish will cook equally on the thin and tick parts and on the hot grill they went. I know some of you guys would never eat a fish whole, I feel the same way about a filet. Where I come from they would stone you to death if you filleted the fish and threw that much meat away. Anyway, that is a story for another day.
A little added love with olive oil while its cooking, turned once and it was done. If you ever get a chance to go to Croatia or eat in the Croatian restaurant they will offer you a fish made only one way. Smothered in olive oil, parsley and garlic. That is it.
The olive oil is the bomb though. It’s not the regular variety from a local store but the two bottles I brought from my trip back home last year. It is almost green, bursting with flavor, not like that see-through crap I buy in the store. But I only use it for a special occasions and unfortunately, I am down to the last few cups. If you came over and offered me a $100 a cup I would tell you no thanks…it’s that good. Or maybe I am just romanticizing because it reminds me of my childhood
Oh man, I will need to double up my treadmill and biking today but it was soooooooooooo worth it. Wife licked her plate too and no sauce for once. Thank you Lord….
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