Fish - - Page 10

by BS

Swallowing the Bone

I’m not known for leaving food on my plate. Or, when it comes to meat, on the bone. Whether it’s a fried chicken drumstick or a hearty pork chop, I can always be counted on to clean those bones clean before sending them back to the kitchen. But apparently, this is no longer good enough. Now you’ve got to eat the bones, too.

Not sure how many of you made it all the way to the end of our most recent epic comment of the week, in which reader Niki suggested this fun, very un-veggie snack:

ALSO, If this is something that interests you, some good fish bones fried are equally delicious! Find a good quality fish and clean/filet it. Leave some meat on the bones, then fry it as you would the shrimp! Mmmm…

I might not have given this a second thought, except that it happened to be the second time in a few weeks that I heard mention of chowing on fried fish bones. A recent edition of Tasting Table NYC noted that fried fish bones are posed to become the city’s latest haute snack du jour:

by BS

Feed Us Back: Comments of the Week

– Dan, for one, is stoked about taint-y donuts:

I have been laughing about this for probably 10 minutes. I read it with an obnoxious monster truck type voiceover. The subtle underlining of the word ‘everything’. The caps and spacing on ‘taint’. what is that comic sans? everything about this is perfectly awful.

– Frieda brings us more things to do with a banana:

I use mashed bananas in marinades for chicken and shrimp, with orange juice, soy sauce, oil and seasoning – then grill. Also throw them sliced into stir fries – a touch of sweetness is always appreciated in these dinners.

– And reaching way back, Niki has lots to say about eating shrimp heads:

in Fish 1 comments

by BS

Strawberries + Wontons = Ceviche, Obviously

Our friends over at Foodie Fights have launched their third season, a series of weekly virtual cook-offs in which a group of bloggers are assigned two ingredients and told to report back with something delicious. FF asked me to serve as a judge for the third challenge, in which blog-testants had to cook with strawberries and wonton wrappers. While the crowds loved transplant’s Wonton Tartlets with Mascarpone Cheese, Strawberries and Balsamic Reduction, I had to hand the win to Pickles and Kumquats for their Ceviche with Strawberry Salsa and Wonton Chips, because really, how the hell do you think to make ceviche from these ingredients? I know, I’m a sucker for craziness. If you think you could do better, today’s the day to sign up for Foodie Fights Battle 4: Shallots and Apricots. I’m thinking ice cream. You?

in Fish 2 comments

by gansie

She’s Choppin’ Broccoli, She’s Choppin’ Broccola

80P and I were walking home together from our respective offices and we were discussing the lack of dinner options and I declared that this has been my worst year of cooking on record. And on record, well, my record, that is, only counts since I’ve started cooking, so if you are to count all of my years on record, not just cooking years, than I’m not doing terribly, as I did fry cottage cheese. But in years that I have made it a priority in my life to find joy in the kitchen, this year, not so much is happening in that 10 foot by 5 foot space.

Anyway, don’t get all excited that this will be some glorious post about a new recipe. This actually proves my point. I now make sandwiches. Or simple pasta dishes. But with farmers market season starting, I have a feeling I can turn 2010 into to a year that will not tarnish my cooking record. Okay, enough records. Well, except for the record that my friend Vi always plays when I come over. Total crush on Band of Horses.

Back to the cottage cheese for a second. In January 80 and I were in Florida and I re/discovered two items that have found their place in my fridge many times this year. One was cottage cheese (which I’d never had and decided it would be a good idea to make a sandwich out of it. See, there it is, another sandwich. A freaking cottage cheese sandwich.)

2010’s other popular item is smoked whitefish. Although I try not to eat that many animals, I can’t get over this salty, creamy, pungent, addicting addition to my life. (Can you use the phrase addicting addition? It’s overkill, huh?)

I usually eat the mashed fish on a bagel or dark bread toast, either solo or with raw onion. And once, out of obvious limited options, I had spread smoked whitefish on matzoh. This week I tried to switch it up and added in more veggies. And can I tell you, I am really digging raw broccoli these days.

in Fish / Sandwich 2 comments

by ML

Give Me That Fish (Woo)

Although I don’t eat it often, I love fast food. Nachos Bell Grande? McNuggs? I’m there. And you know what I love more than food? Fast food jingles.

So when a particular jingle is catchy, annoying, creepy, and lasts for more than a year…I’m bound to drunkenly force someone to drive me to McDonald’s and get said sandwich.

Even drunk, I was terrified of the Filet-O-Fish. I’m really particular about my fish, and there was nothing particular about this sandwich. Some people told me they weren’t bad, but the thought of eating fried fish from a fast food restaurant made me dry heave. But I just loved the song so much I had to order it.

After a self pep talk (and some drunk photographing, see below) I took a bite.

in Fish 7 comments

by Elle

ES Local: Quest for Lox and a Schmear

That's the whole package right there.

Editor’s Note: New contributor Elle joins the DC-based ES team with — what else — a DC rant. Welcome, Elle, and good luck on your quest!

I’m on a hunt. No, a quest. A quest to capture a surprisingly elusive prize: an awesome bagel (toasted!) that comes with awesome cream cheese (on both sides!) and awesome lox, somewhere (anywhere!) in DC.

On New Year’s Day, a friend of mine hosted a “hangover brunch” at her parents’ place in Manhattan. A few DC folks made the trip up to NYC for the NYE festivities, and our resident New Yorker was treating us to an impressive spread of quiche and French toast and Bellinis and….goodness, I can’t even remember everything she put out. But in addition to those made-from-scratch offerings, she had a bag of fresh bagels from Pick-a-Bagel and a heaping plate of lox.

My initial reaction? Something along the lines of “omgsofreakinggood.” I managed to polish off a pair of perfectly doughy, chewy bagels piled up with cream cheese and thinly sliced lox in a blink. Then it occurred to me that maybe decorum dictated I should stop hogging that heaping plate all to myself.

in Breakfast / Fish / Rants & Raves 8 comments

by tvff

Top Ten Things I Ate in Rome

I asked. You chimed in. I’m back from Rome and I’ve just got to let you know the goods on what I had, including a recap of the dishes that I was most anticipating.

Did everything live up to my sky-high expectations? Let’s find out.

10. Gelato – I actually took it easy on the gelato. I only had it twice while I was there…tremendous restraint on my part. Our first time was at Giolliti, a famous spot, and I had a hazelnut/fior de latte cone and our second was at Della Palma (below) where I had creme caramel/ricotta with fig sauce. Both were delicious, but the thing that really struck me was the overwhelming number of varieties these places had. They made Baskin-Robbins and his 31 flavors look like a punk. I did a quick guesstimate at Della Palma and came up with more than 85 flavors. I’m convinced that the majority of the fun involved in the gelato experience comes from the process of choosing which varieties to get.

9. Zucchini Blossoms – I was a bit nervous that I wouldn’t be able to get these due to the early season, but after seeing how fantastic they looked in the market at the Campo dei Fiori (below) we ordered them as an appetizer at La Campana, a ristorante just around the corner from our hotel. Delicate, crunchy, and filled with oozy cheese. But the best, most flavorful part of the perfectly fried flower was the fact that it was filled with…

8. Anchovies – Listen, I don’t want to hear that you don’t like anchovies. And I’m not getting into the canned/tubed conversation because the ones I had in Rome were light years ahead of even the best canned anchovies you can get here. The anchovies that we had both in the zucchini blossoms and on a pizza were flavorful but surprisingly mellow. I’m now more convinced than ever that people who think they don’t like anchovies just haven’t had good anchovies.

Find out what topped this list and pick up the names of some great restaurants along the way, after the jump.

7. Amatriciana – This dish makes the list even though I didn’t order it during my time there. Of course, I did sample more than my fair share of it off of Mrs. TVFF’s plate (she got it twice), so it’s in. It was quite a bit richer than when I make it, and without the red onions that I typically put in. I asked one of our waiters if the restaurant made it with pancetta or guanciale and he replied quickly and forcefully: “Guanciale…if you want good amatricana, you must use guanciale!” There you go, folks, straight from the expert. If you’re in NYC, pick some up at Salumeria Biellese, which is where I get mine.

6. Filetti di Baccalà – Fried fish? Yep, pretty much the same as the fish and chips that you’ll find in the best places in London, but there’s something to be said for simple fried food executed perfectly. It’s just another reminder of how seriously they take their food in Rome…even the glorified bar snacks are inspired. We got ours as an early-evening snack at a place named, unoriginally, Filetti di Baccalà, located a few blocks away from the Campo dei Fiori, in a bustling part of town that we cut through after a long day of touring churches and walking through Trastevere.

Next: Top 5 Things To Eat in Rome

in Desserts / Fish / Lists / Personal 9 comments