Saw (Part of) the USA on the A1A

However, I was in a Dodge, not a Chevy.

I freely admit that most of what I know about the eastern coast of Florida comes strictly from reading a whole lotta John D. McDonald novels--the Travis McGee series and others--along with a healthy dose of Carl Hiaasen, so, I totally expect it to be chock full of confidence men, hard-looking dames, scary one-eyed hermits, and other miscreants, with a healthy scattering of kitschy alligator wrestling establishments and water-skiing nymphos of both sexes.

I flew into Jacksonville with the grand idea of driving down to Flagler Beach (my final destination) via the A1A, but there was a pesky wildfire that seemed to be making travel hard.  So, on my way back to Jacksonville for the return trip, I planned to stop in St. Augustine for a quick tour and get there via A1A.  Alas, I was sidetracked by a wonderful New York-style deli, so I had to drive interstate to St. Augustine to make my meet-up with a co-worker.  However, I'm getting ahead of myself, so we'll slow down, put on the cruise control, and start with the beginning of the week.

My final destination out of JAX was Palm Coast, Florida, a planned community.  Palm Coast is in Flagler County, named after Henry Flagler, who was responsible for bringing development to the east coast of Florida.  He built a railroad to shuttle his rich friends down to the warmer climes from the frozen North.  Wikipedia calls him the "father of Miami," because before he built a railroad down to Miami, it was pretty much nothing.  But enough with the history...let's talk about food!

One of the best meals I had was at the Flagler Fish Company.  This place looks a lot like one of those little hole-in-the wall meccas that you read about on Roadfood.com...and amazingly enough, is not on their list of places in the Flagler Beach area. 

Flager Fish Co. is a converted dive shop run by folks who ran away from the crazy city life rat race...they might actually be some of the lucky ones who actually make it, if the quality of the dinner I had is any indication.  Everybody has a great idea for a "little ol' beach shack" restaurant, and there seem to be way more bad ideas than good.

When you walk in the door, you are greeted by a giant display case of fresh fish...this would be the fish and shellfish that they are serving today. (Note that large fish with the yellow spots lying across the back of the case...it figures prominently in the next couple of paragraphs...as dinner!!)


As you sit down, a friendly wait person takes your drink order and brings you a generous basket of homemade potato chips and a little cup of homemade clam dip. 

Aaaah, clam dip--how I love you so.  And, it seems like a 100 years since I've had clam dip.  When I was a small child, back in the dark ages known as "the 70s," I always thought clam dip was such an "elegant" treat--way more sophisticated that the French onion dip, even with French in the name.  Kraft Clam Dip and Ruffles ('cause they have ridges, and ridges = fancy!) was the very height of sophistication in my little pea brain.  I know, I've come a loooooooong way, baby...at least I hope so.

I still have a special place in my heart for clam dip, and a special place in my stomach as well.  I would have cheerfully made a meal off of the chips and dip and not even ordered more food.  In fact, when my friendly waitperson asked if I wanted more clam dip, the hopeful look on my face made her laugh.  It's the little thing, people, the little things.

For dinner, I opted for one of the fresh catches of the day, the golden tile fish.  Having actually paid attention during my wanderings at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in December, I knew that it was on the list of sustainable fish, and the Flagler Fish Company seems to adhere to the sustainability rules.

Golden tile fish is a firm white fish that the wait person described as being "between grouper and snapper."  Sounds good to me!  I had it seared on the flattop grill, with a couple of dipping sauces--a Thai coconut and a brown butter lemon caper.  I know, the flavors are pretty disparate, but I couldn't decide if I was in a sweet or buttery mood.  Buttery won out over all, but both sauces were tasty.

The side options were pretty amazing, too.  A cold Portabella, Tomato, Asparagus Salad in balsamic vinaigrette  was my healthy, virtuous choice.  The Asiago Potatoes were the blissful indulgence, ranking right up there with the clam dip!  You can actually get the recipe from Epicurious, and I'm trying to figure out if I want to make them for people, or eat them all myself.

When my plate arrived, I was slightly disappointed that there were only 2 potatoes, since the menu and the waitperson had really talked about how wonderful they were...and then, I ate a bite.  Two is plenty...trust me.  These are the richest tasting potatoes, which is something that I don't usually shy away from.  Folks say, "ooh, that's too rich for me," and I have no idea what they mean.  Too rich?  That's kind of like saying "that's too cheesy."  When someone says it's too cheesy, it sounds like the parents on Peanuts, "whaaaa waaa whaa waah."

So, two was plenty and rounded out the meal nicely.  The fish was perfectly cooked--not dry, moist, and a little flaky.  I was extremely pleased with my dining experience.

On my last day in Florida, I drove back through St. Augustine and met up with a co-worker who lives in the area.  We decided to take the trolley tour of Old St. Augustine and have lunch in the area. Our first trolley driver was absolutely hilarious--the amount of syllables he could string along when saying 'Juan Ponce de Leon," was amazing.  (My Southern drawl is pretty directly related to the amount of liquor I have consumed--the more I have, the more syllables you get.  Tequila can give you bonus syllables if you listen closely.)

We took the recommendation of our trolley ticket sales person and had lunch at the St. Augustine outpost of the Columbia restaurant.  The Columbia bills itself as the "oldest Spanish restaurant" in Florida, and it was damned good.  I opted for the El Combo de Cuba , which is described as "A Cuban feast of Roast Pork, Boliche, platanos, Empanada de Picadillo, black beans and yellow rice."  They had me at "feast."

I do have a great fondness for combo plates...it's especially helpful when eating food from cultures not your own.  Although, I always am on the horns of a dilemma at new barbecue places, because I always want to try the pork and either the beef or chicken or some other tasty smoked goodness.  I think it's because this is usually my one and only shot at the place, and it's quite likely that I'll never pass that way again.

Isn't it beee-yoo-ti-ful?  Clockwise, from the top:  the empanada, pork roast with gravy, maduros (sweet plaintains) on yellow rice and black beans, and the boliche.  Note that red circle in the boliche, the one that makes it look like Jupiter?  That, my chickens, is chorizo. You make a tunnel in the beef and shove a stick of chorizo in, then roast it in the oven.  Who doesn't like meat in meat?  (You could wrap the whole thing in bacon just to kick it up a notch.)

It was almost more excitement than the taste buds could stand. 

So, that's what I've been up to lately.  And, since the long nuclear winter seems to be over here in the South, it's time to rip the cover off the grill and see what yummy stuff can be conjured up there...before everything acquires that fine yellow pollen coating, and you are afraid to go outside and stand still for very long, because you too could acquire a fine yellow pollen glaze.   But, hey--no lake effect snow!

Kickstart

A couple of weeks ago, I got to spend a lovely weekend in DC as an add-on to a business trip.  I stayed with my friend C, who I've known since the 7th grade, and her family.  Saturday morning, we send her son, A, off to attend a couple of birthday parties and realize we have about 5 hours to ourselves to play in the city.

Yeah, we could have done something cultural and expanded our minds but instead, we opted to boost the economy (shopping) and expand our bellies.

We had a lunch at 2 Amys, and quantities of cured Italian meats, cheeses, and beer.  We also had  these lovely deviled eggs, with a bright and fresh pesto sauce with anchovy...normally, I won't touch the furry fish with someone else's taste buds.  I try them every so often to see if my taste buds have changed, and the verdict is always NO.  I've come around on a few things--I'll eat Brussels sprouts  (with bacon, of course), and I'm working on lamb.  Still not feeling the love with canned tuna (like tuna raw and seared) or liver & onions, and probably won't ever...this actually might be a good diet plan,  Nothing to eat but canned tuna and liver = not going to eat = starve to death or at least my goal weight.

Anyway, these eggs and the sauce were wonderful, and we scraped the plate to get all the sauce...which may play into a later story. We retrieved A at some point and met some friends of C's for dinner at Palena, and had the most wonderful hamburger I think I have ever put in my mouth.  It was voted one of DC's top burgers and I can understand why.  They grind their own meat and bake their own buns, and it was juicy and meaty and I wanted it to never end.  I may never eat another fast food burger ever again--not that would a bad thing, according to Supersize Me.  It was burger nirvana, and I miss it. I made C promise that we would go back there whenever I come to town again.

Palena also serves a fry plate with shoestring fries, onion rings, dauphine potatoes, and fried lemon slices.  The dauphine potatoes are these wonderful little potato puffs that melt in your mouth...and that fried lemon slice was a real eye-opener.  It was lightly breaded and deep-fried, and it was crunchy, salty, tangy, and bitter all at the same time.  It was sort of like a Southern palate cleanser...'cause you know how much we like to deep-fry things.

I flew home on Sunday, and had an impromptu Oscars party at the house about 2 hours after I landed. Usually, when we do this, we sort of potluck, but since I was just getting in, we opted to order Chinese take-out.  In retrospect, this was a bad idea...especially after I work up at 5 am and embarked on a long day of spending "quality" time in  my bathroom.

The thing about having food poisoning is that you start wishing for death immediately, because your body is busy trying to expel whatever is poisoning it in any manner that it can...often violently...very violently.  About 2 hours into my ordeal, death could not have come soon enough, and I continued to feel that way for most of the day.

I won't bore you with all the details about the food poisoning, but the upside is that I lost 8 lbs.  I realize it was a little dehydration thrown in there, but it was enough to make a little kickstart in my brain and make me think about getting back on the diet track.

Late night television is just bizarre sometimes...we've all seen the "krazee" commercials, infomercials, and the things said and done in the name of religion.  However, it's sometimes good television, as in the case of the late re-run of Good Eats.

Somehow, over the last year or so, Alton has lost about 50 lbs., and he's done a show called "Live and Let Diet," that entails some of his thinking and methodology.  I finally started paying attention when he kept smacking these giant lard blocks, a'la Oprah and her red wagon of fat, and thought to myself that maybe AB might have something important to say, or at the very least, different about how he lost the weight.  And, we all know he's scientific about it, too.  So, I sat up and took notice.

Essentially, he's got 4 lists--things he consumes every day, things he consumes at least 3 times a week, things he consumes only 1 time per week, and things that he NEVER consumes.  You can find all the particulars all over the internet at this point, but if you get a chance to watch the show, you really should.  He starts his day with a fruit smoothie with some purple fruit, which he tells you is chockfull of antioxidants and other important things, bananas, other fruits and a little soy milk.

Other items on the everyday list include nuts and green tea, which wouldn't be too hard to eat/drink.  Then, the 3 times a week list, well hell, let me just show you the lists and I won't have to type nearly as much...am lazy like that:

Include Daily
- Fruits
- Whole Grains
- Leafy Greens
- Nuts
- Carrots
- Green Tea

3 times a week
- Oily Fish
- Yogurt
- Broccoli
- Sweet Potato
- Avocado

Once a week
- Red meat
- Pasta
- Dessert
- Alcohol

NEVER!
- Fast Food
- Soda
- Processed meals/frozen dinners
- Canned soup
- "Diet" anything

And the number one AB rule seems to be:  Eat breakfast every day, no exceptions.

He never really prescribes a diet plan, and is rather quick to say that he's not proposing the hot new diet trend, blah, blah blah, but I totally can see him becoming the next big thing in dieting...that cult of celebrity chef thing, you know.

Anyway, I thought, what the heck?  Why not try some of this out?  Listening to the program and watching him talk about the science behind how he created the lists really started to make sense...no matter that it was 2 am and bloody EVERYTHING makes sense at 2 am.  (How else do you think those geniuses at Taco Bell thought up "Fourth Meal?"  You know it had to come out in some drunken 2 a.m. ramblings.)  Plus, I wanted to buy a new blender.  A red one.

So, I trotted off to Target and got a new blender...I wisely opted not to spring for the $150 Waring bar blender even though I really, really, wanted one, just in case I decided after 3-4 days to chuck this whole morning smoothie idea and only really use it to make fruity drinks on occasion.  (Besides, it wasn't red, and I can always upgrade later.)  And, then stopped by Publix on the way home and got frozen fruit and some soy milk.  I am so not sure about this soy milk business.  I tasted it once, and it was just blecch.   I am committed now, with a new blender and a bunch of frozen fruit, so we'll see how it goes.

Day 1 - made smoothie...blender did not vortex as well as AB's, but it did seem to crush up the frozen fruit with no issues.  The smoothie is a huge amount, and someone out there in the Internetland said they figured it to be about 340 calories and practically fat-free, depending on how much soy milk you used.   I also ate a salad for lunch, and made Pineapple-Glazed Chicken with Cilantro-Lime Sweet Potatoes, plus a little steamed broccoli, for dinner.  No butter on the broccoli...am amazed at self.  I did not manage to get in any whole grains, nuts, carrots, or green tea, but I figure this is going to be a "work up to" project. 

Day 2 - began again with the smoothie and coffee...am not giving up coffee, which is not listed on any of AB's lists, thank the gods.  For lunch, I tried the Sherried Sardine Toast recipe.

Yes, I actually ate sardines voluntarily...which is something I thought I would never do, after my adventure with the fresh ones.  And while the fresh ones didn't work out, the thought of actually consuming ones in a can was nowhere in any of my brain cells.  I remember my dad eating them with crackers and thinking that "man, you got me to eat a raw oyster and like it, but that is the absolute extent of gross things that I will eat for you, period."  And, my dad could create and put away some really icky things.  I remember coming home from college once to do laundry, and opening a cabinet in the kitchen to find a snack...and the man had begun pickling his own eggs...looked like some sort of alien larvae floating around in a large jar.  Scared me witless.

AB's recipe was actually not bad, but I thought it was a lot of work to make, nothwithstanding how much I like avocados, and I think I might be able to actually eat them straight from the can.  Weird, I know.  I did try one from the can, and it wasn't nearly as fishy as I remembered it being.  I think the key is to get the brislings in the 2 layer pack with olive oil.

Anyway, I'm not doing everything that AB is doing--baby steps, people, baby steps--but I have been making the smoothie every day, and I've managed to keep 10 lbs off, so we'll see.

Aloha and mahalo for all the mochi!

Yikes!!! I realized when I looked at the last post that it had been waaaay over a month since I last posted. Sort of hard to have a blog if you don't post, isn't it?

Stuff happens, as we all know, so I hope you forgive me when I tell you all about the much needed vacation that I took over Thanksgiving. As you may have figured out from the title and the photo accompanying this post, I had an exotic tropical vacation in Hawai'i...Honolulu to be specific. ( I just love saying "Honolulu"... it's such a fun word!)

During the summer, a friend invited me to spend the holiday with her and her extended family, who live on Oahu, and after emptying my frequent flier mile account, I was on my way to paradise.

I had a direct flight from Atlanta to Honolulu, and let me tell you, 9+ hours is too freaking long to spend on a plane and not be in first class...why, oh, why Delta, do you not let people who redeem their frequent flyer miles have a shot at the upgrade lottery? (That's all the whining I'll do, because it was so worth the ride!)

Hawai'i has always been a source of fascination for me...and not just for the whole Magnum, PI thing, either. It's always seemed so exotic and unattainable, and the closer it got to checkin time, the more I was bouncing off the walls in anticipation.

This trip was not the usual tourist trip--I saw and did some touristy things, but this was more of a "hang out with the locals" kind of trip...sort of doing a Bourdain and heading off the beaten (and expensive!) paths. For Hawai'i is nothing if not expensive...except for food. I found the food to be very reasonably priced, especially since we ate at a lot of local Honolulu spots.

I didn't do a luau--gotta save something for the next trip--but I did have a great Thanksgiving dinner with a decided Asian twist. And, since this blog is about food and the cooking and eating of it, let's get to it!

Day 1 in Paradise included a sojourn into Chinatown and a tour of the downtown area--gotta have your picture made with King Kamehameha, you know. Honolulu Chinatown is a wild market place, full of amazing little markets, exotic produce, and street food. My friend's dad, henceforth known as "Granpa," took us on a winding little tour through a market and down several streets. He would pop into a shop and come out with some little delicacy for us to sample. We had a giant rice noodle tube stuffed with pork and onions, drizzled with shoyu (soy sauce), and cut up into pieces that we ate with our hands. He passed around a bag of "dragon eyes," which turned out to be a fruit, longan to be exact When you took the outer shell off, it looks like the inside of a grape and has about the same texture. It was sort of sweet and tangy.

We traveled to the downtown area and saw the state capitol, which tells the story of Hawai'i by it's very structure. The building has a little reflecting pool around it, which represents the water surrounding the islands. There are two pillars visible underneath each side, which represent volcanoes and support each side of the legislature. Each of the legislative chambers is decorated in colors that reflect the island--one side is reds and oranges (sun and lava) and the other is greens and blues (for the sky and rainforests). Grammy walked us around the area and told us many interesting things about the downtown buildings, and having a local tour guide really made the day even more special.

We finished up with lunch in the food court of the Ala Moana Center, a very large, high-end shopping center/mall. Yeah, yeah, food court is not exactly what one has in mind when visiting a tropical paradise, but there was a lot of local places in the food court that were just screaming to be tried. Al Moana Poi Bowl was the place of choice for lunch, and I got the Local Boy special plate lunch, which was pretty much a tour of local Hawai'ian food--kalua pig, lau lau, lomi salmon, and poi.

Ah, poi...that's some mystical stuff...mystical icky stuff. Light purplish-gray, with a thick, pasty consistency, and it's got a wang to it. Evidently, it works better if you dip some food into it, sort of using it as rice. Let just say that I probably wouldn't order it again. I like taro for the most part--taro fries, taro chips are good, but poi is has no "joi" for me.

Laulau is interesting...the one I had was roast pork and a piece of butter fish wrapped in taro leaves and steamed. The taro leaves were like a bitter spinach, which I dunked in the poi to see if that made the poi edible (sort of). The pork was tender, and the fish was a little surprise, because I wasn't expecting it. The kaula pork was like salty barbecue--lightly smoked and very tender; I ate every scrap of that, of course.

There was also lomi-lomi salmon, diced salted raw salmon mixed with tomatoes and onions, along with rice and macaroni salad. It was finished off with haupia (a coconut pudding-style dessert), which was wonderful. This lunch was a version of the Hawaiian culinary staple, the plate lunch. Plate lunch, Hawaiian style, is usually 2 scoops of rice, a scoop of macaroni salad, and then a protein/entree; I subbed the poi for the rice, because I had to try it. Plate Lunch is a lot like the Southern "meat and 3" plate lunch.

I'm a big fan of plate lunches...a big fan, and we had another one at L&L Barbecue, a local chain that is slowly franchising on the Mainland. I can only hope that it comes this way soon. Plate lunch at L&L consisted of rice, mac salad, and some yummy Korean-style barbecue ribs. Forget the haute cuisine--I can eat Asian street food at every meal.

We went to L&L after a day of flying kites and hanging out at the beach, and then we followed up the meal with fresh hot malasadas from Leonard's next door. Malasadas are the Portuguese version of beignets, but better, because they're covered in regular granulated sugar rather than powdered sugar.

And, I did have a fine dining experience of sorts...we went back to the Ala Moana Center for shopping on Saturday after Thanksgiving, and we ate lunch at Alan Wong's Pineapple Room located on the top floor of Macy's.
Remember this post about the disasterous project in Regional Cooking? The Chiclet and I had Pacific Rim cookery, and I pulled together a great PowerPoint that included the 3 big names in Hawaiian cuisine--Roy Yamaguchi, Alan Wong, and Sam Choy. So when D's sister suggested this Alan Wong outpost for lunch, I was all over that!

Chef Wong is into local and sustainable products and features them on his menus. I had the Pineapple Room Burger, because I was just craving a burger for some reason, and I truly think it was one of the best burgers I have ever eaten. From the menu description: Kiawe-Grilled Kuahiwi Ranch Natural Beef Burger, Onion Rings, Bacon, Cheddar Cheese, and Avocado Salsa. There were two onion rings on the burger, one of which I had to remove to even pick the thing up. Those onion rings were made from Maui onions, and I have never had a more tasty onion ring than those. Those onion rings were just works of taste art.

The burger was served with Wasabi Potato Salad, which was good, but not bowl you over good. The wasabi imparted a nice little bite and cleared the ol' sinuses for a moment. D had the “Mac Garlic” Chicken Sandwich, which was chunks of a garlicky teriyaki type of chicken and topped with Furikake Macaroni Salad. Furikake is a salty Japanese condiment with seaweed, sesame seeds, and fish flakes, plus some other seasonings. If I ever made it back to the Pineapple Room, I'd have that next!

Hawaiians are big on snack food, and the one thing that I discovered that I really like is mochi. Japanese in origin, mochi is made from pounded steamed glutinous rice. It becomes a dough-like substance that is usually wrapped around a variety of fillings--peanut butter mochi was a particular favorite of mine. We also had mochi ice cream, which consists of balls of ice cream encased in the mochi--most tasty. Of course, I want more and am trying to figure out how to get it here. I may need to pay a visit to the Asian markets here in town and see if I can find some, or better yet, the Buford Highway Farmer's Market in Atlanta.

Monday after Thanksgiving was our military history day and my last day in paradise. We got up really early and went to get tickets for the USS Arizona Memorial tour. There's a lot of construction happening at the site, progress on a new visitor's center, and unfortunately, the Missouri was in drydock, so we didn't get to tour it.

When you go into the visitor's center, you file into a little theater to watch a film about the attack on Pearl Harbor. The park rangers are very clear that this is NOT a tourist attraction, that it is a grave site, and respect is the order of the day. After the film, a very solemn crowd filed out and onto an open-sided boat for the 20-minute ride out to the sunken ship. On our boat, we had a veteran...he wasn't a Pearl Harbor survivor, rather someone who w

as stationed there right after the attack. It was his first time back to Pearl Harbor since that time, and the staff gave him a special pin and allowed him to get off the boat first when we arrived at the memorial.

When you first see the marble wall at the opposite end of the memorial, listing the names of everyone who perished in the attack, it clutches at your heart to see how many are chiseled into the wall. War sucks, no matter what side you are on.

After the visit to the memorial, we had breakfast at McDonald's. And, yes, I really wanted to go to McDonald's, because I hadn't had that one staple of Hawaiian cuisine...drum roll, please!...SPAM!

At Hawaiian McDonald's, you have some choices that aren't available stateside. There's taro pies, haupia pies, both of which were not available, McTeri burgers with teriyaki sauce, and McSaimen, a noodle dish. And, for breakfast, there's the Local Deluxe Breakfast platter. The Local Deluxe consists of 2 scoops of rice, omelet-style scrambled eggs, 2 slices of grilled Spam, and 3 slices of Portuguese sausage. Best fast food breakfast ever, hands down.

(And, the coolest thing was that the trash cans said "mahalo," which is Hawaiian for "thank you")

After breakfast, we hiked around Punchbowl, the National Cemetery of the Pacific, where some of the Pearl Harbor casualties are buried. The view from the top of Punchbowl crater encompasses a large part of the Honolulu shoreline and is amazing. The 30-foot tall statue of Lady Columbia looking out over the grave sites is awe-inspiring as well. If you are of a certain age or watched Nick at Night, you may remember her from the opening credits of Hawaii 5-0.

For my last meal in Hawaii...and yes, I think all I did was eat and gawk at how amazing it is there...we went to Nico's at Pier 38 at the Honolulu Harbor, near where the daily fish auction happens. I had the Furikake Pan Seared Ahi w/ Ginger Garlic Cilantro Sauce and rice, and it was so very very good. I'm usually not a big tuna fan--hate the canned stuff with passion--but like it as sushi or sashimi. We had ahi poke one night at a family dinner, and I fell in love with it, so I ordered my Ahi rare to try and replicate that experience. It was a great meal to end my stay, and I really wanted it to never end. I'm going back one day, and hopefully sooner rather than later...heck, I'm just a winning lottery ticket away from retiring there, as one of my Facebook friends commented.

I mean, how can you not love a place where you see rainbows every single day?

(If you look closely, you'll see it's actually a double rainbow.)

The Sardines & I

Or, the things we do for love...

Food Network is simultaneously one of the best and the worst things in my life. The best things about it include introducing the masses to folks like Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain, along with some fun shows like Iron Chef. Some of the worst are anything with that Guy Fieri dude (OMG--the hair! the "dudeness!"...it boggles the mind) and of course, Semi-Ho-made Sandra Lee.

Now, I love, love, love Mario. Notwithstanding that he sort of looks like someone who I'd cross an ocean not to ever see again...but, still, I like him. I admire his passion for food, which was very evident during Molto Mario and the show where he ate his way across Italy (lucky bastard!), and he really introduced us to the joys of Italian food that weren't all meatballs and red sauce. (Note: am in no way knocking meatballs or red sauce!)

Once or twice, he's mentioned fresh sardines grilled with a little olive oil, and he made them look and sound like they would be the best things on earth...if you were only sitting in his studio kitchen.

Sunday afternoon, after gallivanting around ye olde Renaissance Festival, we swing by our old stomping grounds at the international farmer's market to pick up some fresh veggies, spices, cheese, and cured Italian meats.

We're looking at the fish cases, and The Man spies fresh sardines and gets a wild hair that he wants to try them. I start rueing the day Molto Mario ever hit the airwaves. Sure, Honey, I think...I want to try them too, but IN ITALY! And, prepared by someone else...that goes without saying, doesn't it?

He makes noises like he will assist me with "dealing with the fishies," but we all know who is going to "deal," don't we? (Yes, you did...you know you did, dear.)

And, did I mention that I really hated the days we cleaned fish in class? I'm sure I did.

So, I spent part of that evening researching how to cook the damnthings. Mario is no help. In both the books I have, Molto Mario and Simple Italian Food, he wants me to whack up a bunch of colored peppers and make a pepperonada to go with the silvery little demon fish. Like I'm wasting perfectly good peppers and onions on this experiment...ha!

I even consulted Mark "How to Cook Everything, even though I made you ruin a perfectly good pork roast" Bittman, and he fared no better than Mario.

So, as I type now, trying to recover from the trauma of actually severing their little fish heads and scooping out their little fish guts, I am torn. Torn between thinking that these damn things better be the best dish I've ever made, and if they really are that great, The Man will want them again. Oh, the agony.

(You know I have back-up dinner, don't you? Some nice grilled Italian sausages and my new favorite pasta. Someone's cuisine is gonna "reign supreme" here.)

At the best of times, I want to stay as far away from sardines as I possibly can. They really aren't for me, period. I'm working my way into anchovydom, because I like the depth that anchovy paste can give to certain dishes. I just cannot feel the love for sardines...can't do it.
(I'm reserving the right to rescind my dislike for sardines if I 1) find myself in Italy, dining at a seaside cafe; or 2) am sitting in front of Mario Batali, who is cooking for me...I would probably try damn near anything he put on a plate, a skewer, etc.)

The good news is that I managed to successfully skewer and grill the sardines, with only a few minor mishaps...one of them did not want to leave the grill intact. Nothing quite like the smell of burning sardine, let me tell you.

The even better news is that they were kinda so-so, and I'm thinking they won't be in my regular dinner rotation during this decade or the next. Whew!

But, I am (maybe) a wee bit saddened, since sardines are chock full of nutrients, protein, omega-3 fatty acid, and they were cheap! Like .99/pound cheap. But, cheap just can't cut the taste for me. Plus, I was really having a hard time cleaning the little buggers. I'm not usually grossed out by food preparation, but this was just plain yucky, with a capital "Y."

I shall make up for the indignities of this evening with tonight's dinner. The farmer's market carries Berkshire pork products, and we scored some lovely pork chops that looked good enough to eat straight from the meat case.

And, in a radical, radical departure for us, I am going to make Brussel sprouts as the side dish. When we were at Epcot in December, we had a meal somewhere that included the tiniest Brussel sprouts, which were so very good that we started to change our minds about sprouts...they were probably sauteed in bacon, which contributed to their tastiness, but whatever!

The farmer's market had some of these cute little beasties, so I picked out the tiniest ones and am gonna give it a whirl. I will admit that no matter what, I will probably like the sprouts waaaaay better than I like sardines...way better.