Why sardines?

Last summer on a trip to Spain, I had a culinary epiphany.  It happened late at night at a nondescript seafood shack along the Guadalquivir River in Sevilla.  My wife, N, and I were completely spent from the day. I had dragged the poor unsuspecting girl through the warren of streets in the old quarter to find a particular convent famous for its sweets and Seville orange marmalade. A reasonable plan, until you learn that it was the hottest part of the day on what we would later learn was the hottest day of the year.  After 5 minutes in the blazing sun, our cooked brains stopped thinking, but my stomach insisted on soldiering on.  (I tell this as a precautionary tale to those who think it would be fun to marry a chef or foodie.  Be warned:  we are not reasonable people).  When we finally located the convent half an hour later, we discovered that the nuns, no fools, had closed for the afternoon.  By nightfall, the city’s power supply failed and plunged Sevilla into darkness.

It was in this context that we arrived at Los Chorritos, the most convivial looking of the temporary outdoor seafood shacks, or chiringuitos, in the Triana district.  We placed our order at the counter and melted onto two stools at a tiny table with a view of the makeshift kitchen.  A refreshing clara, icy beer mixed with lemon soda, in hand, I watched the cook dust the griddle with crunchy sea salt, top it with several big, fat sardines, and douse it all with fruity olive oil.  After about five minutes, our sardinas a la plancha were delivered with crispy skin, bursting with salty juices.  It tasted like the sea, with more flavor than any other fish I’ve tasted before or since.  With the memory of those sardines as my guide, I now know the kind of food I want to cook and eat:  rustic, seasonal foods with a sense of terroir, rooted in the place that they came from.

I am naming my blog In Praise of Sardines not just to write about these tiny, delectable fish, but really to discuss all the foods I crave and the people who grow and harvest them, the cooks that prepare them, the restaurants that serve them and the writers and their cookbooks that describe them. I hope to serve up a smorgasblog that will feature my impressions of books and articles that intrigue me, products that excite me, and small restaurants that satisfy my appetites. With a decade’s experience cooking professionally in the San Francisco Bay Area and many more years eating my way around the world, I also want to share my humble insider’s perspective and maybe a few tricks of the trade in the form of recipes with whomever stumbles along this website.  All in all, I'm excited and looking forward to having a bit of fun writing about my passions for all things gastronomic. Cheers!

Comments

[Chubby]

Hi Brett!

I followed your link from the Brain Masala comment you left on chowhound. I like your supercool site. I'll hop back again soon.

Chubby

[tara]

I never knew sardines could be described so romantically!

[alan]

Brett - wow, you desribed almost exactly a supper I had in a tiny alleyway of Barcelona with my own wife. After a lifetime of oily, canned sardines, sardinas a la plancha were like a divine revelation. Salud!

[Barbara]

I'm so glad I stumbled into this blog. I love your sardine story. I too had my first proper sardine last year (in Portugal) and was overwhelmed with the experience after years of the canned ones. I wrote about them on my very first post.

[Tamara Plath]

Well, I have never read a blog before... believe it or not. I was looking for an explanation of bo-lay tea, when I came across your site. I grew up in Hong Kong and loved your description of Yum-Cha (Dim Sum).

It is difficult to appreciate food here in the States, at least while living in a small city in the Midwest. People around here generally stick to whatever is white and creamy (that's the current theory). Orange and yellow foods like carrots, cheese and mustard are acceptable too. It gets pretty boring. I have a friend that actually thinks that I'm adventurous for adding pepper to fried eggs. I thought it was necessary.

Don’t I sound stuck up? Anyway, thanks for waking up my senses with your wonderful descriptions of food.

Tamara

[john jonna]

I am a novice foodie in the wine buisness in the detroit area, and i love sardines fo all types. I am intrigued and interested by your site and am looking for all things sardine. jj the wine guy

[Maria]

I am a sardine lover. One of my memorable meals was at a small restaurant in Gerona, Spain, El Cul de Leona where the menu was handwritten on a blackboard. I ordered steamed sardines with potatoes in a lemony broth. Scrumptious!

[Charles Kruger]

Smorgasblog! A permanent addition to my vocabulary. Thank you very much.

[manolo]

Sardines at Spain, the best.
Really are you vegetarian? hehe
After proving the sardines...

[Rbbrmaiden]

With so many bloggers raving about the sardinas a la plancha, are you willing to share detailed instructions on how to prepare? I live in the Midwest and the chances of my physically experiencing "your" lovely Spain are nil. However, I would love to try my inexperienced hand at sardinas a la plancha. Thank you so much!!

[sardineface.,]

i actually think i love you.

[pablo]

definitely love grilled sardines.
love my spanish wife (asturias) more.
where can i buy her fresh sardines in the bay area??? she raves about the grilled sardines on the beach in Gijon...

[Twerpsichore]

From one who is addicted to even the gnarliest tinned sardines of dubious provenance, bathed in hot chili oil, mustard, tomato sauce, or (gasp) water, I am intrigued to hear they can be even better. Write on!

[cecille]

I love sardines too, I lived in N. Africa for r 4 years, and ejoyed fresh sardines, which I fried and then made a sauce of oil, vinegar, hot peppers and onions...Oh\' so good". But I am from the caribbean so fry fish (snapper) was my favourites of any fish until I had freshly caught sardines....keep up the good work...Oh how I wish we could get such wonderful food here.
You have to be on guard always about fish bought in the supermarkets..always I never venture near the fish counter in any markets...always refrozen etc.