Bluefish

I wanted to cook something delicious, and I vaguely remembered that it is bluefish season 'round these parts, so I went by Whole Foods to see if they had any sitting in their fish counter. Whole Foods, because it happens to be next to Marty's, which is where I dropped off Ed to acquire beer. Successful mission, and I walked out with a hunk o' fish and a tub of pistachio gelato. Yum!

The last time I made bluefish, I followed a recipe of sorts from Beyond Salmon.  As always, she does a great job describing how to cook fish, and it was quite delicious, though it's hard to go wrong when you're also involving crunchy potatoes.  I also made popovers, because I felt really bad that I had gone to work (via the T) with both car keys in my purse, and so Ed had also had to take the T, when otherwise he would have taken my car... anyway, he likes popovers, so I made him popovers. They were pretty darn tasty, as usual, and opening the oven to stick in the fish did not mess with their popping ability, thankfully!

We also had an endive languishing in the fridge, so I figured I'd better cook that up, as substitute for a green thing with our dinner.  Cut in half lengthwise, and cooked low and slow in a frying pan with some oil and salt.  The leaves just melt into deliciousness! Some cheese sprinkled on top never hurts, either.

The fish was perfect - flaky but moist, and very meaty-feeling, while the taste is kind of mild and not fishy at all.  Bright flavors from lemon and parsley complement it well. 

This was a tasty beer - some sort of Belgian from the clearance rack.  It's probably a 50-50 chance of getting a winner vs undrinkable shit from that shelf, and this Belgian was solidly in the middle of that range.  Totally drinkable.

Unfortunately, in a complete failure of the day, I fell asleep before remembering that I'd bought gelato! 

Unsuccessful soup

Not everything turns out perfectly.  This soup, for example.  Was perfectly edible, but didn't taste all that awesome.  It was a broth of chicken stock, curry paste, and coconut milk, and I think the curry paste made things too oily.  The soba noodles were good, anyway, as were the kelp strands.  It only gets featured here, because it's a lovely yellow color, in a blue bowl, and I think that's pretty.  So, yeah, not a success, but a very pretty little bowl of soup.

Finnish eating

I just got back from the World Orienteering Championships in Finland, and I was pleasantly surprised by the food options.  I guess I've only ever been to northern Europe in the winter, where the food options tend to be centered around meat and potatoes, with an emphasis on the potatoes.  But summer! Summer is awesome!  because strawberries!

Strawberries are probably my favoritest food ever, so the fact that there were those small delicious sweet little strawberries for sale everywhere in Finland - from the grocery store to roadside stands to farmers markets (or whatever you'd call the Finnish equivalent) to the arena of the WOC finals - that really made my day.  The nectarines were also pretty awesome, but they were from Italy, not Finland.  Anyway, we were cooking the first week, and at a lot of fish, and strawberries, and nectarines, and my favorite meal probably included the crepes that we filled with fish stuff, though everything was pretty scrumptious.  I never got around to taking photos, but here's a photo of breakfast one day: museli with yogurtti (drinkable yogurt) and strawberries and nectarines.  Good fuel for the day.



Once in the official WOC accommodation, food was taken care of in a cafeteria, buffet-style.  Breakfast was much more boring, with much less fresh fruit than I'd like, but plenty of variety of whole wheat breads, butter, yogurt, jam, and cold cuts.  They reliably had oatmeal, meatballs (?) or mini hotdogs, and baked eggs.  Lunch and dinner both always featured pickled fish in the cold bar, with grated carrots, and often some other pickle options, but not the most inspired salads, as far as I was concerned.  And there was *always* a potato option at lunch and dinner :).  Conveniently, they labeled the food with a picture of whatever animal it came from, so I'm fairly positive I ate reindeer at least once.  Rudolph!  Overall, totally acceptable, but not the most inspired.  Plenty of carrots, beets, and rutabaga.  Not much by way of leafy greens.

I was looking forward to doing some more cooking upon returning home, but it's a gazillion degrees right now, so we've just been eating salads and drinking cold things.  Until this heatwave breaks, that's what's on tap!