in praise of sardines

"Maybe we should call the police. Dial 911. It's the lobster squad."

Last week I received a comment in my post about migas, the pork-saturated Spanish breadcrumb dish, from someone who identified herself as "lobstersquad." The phrase sounded familiar, but I couldn't recall where I had heard it or to what it referred. Curious, I clicked on the link to her website and was astonished by the lovely little world I had landed in.

Ximena Maier modestly describes her 2-month old Lobstersquad as a "food blog with drawings." Ximena is a talented artist, so each of her lovely posts, many of which feature delectable-sounding recipes, are accompanied by one of her whimsical, heartwarming illustrations, which inevitably manage to bring a smile to my face.

I have another reason to promote Ximena's blog here. Ximena is one of the few food bloggers writing in English who is based in Spain!

The 30-year-old resident of Madrid is a professional illustrator (check out more of her work on her drawing blog and click here to hire her). Her work has been featured in Spanish travel and women's magazines, children's books and cookbooks, including one, A Taste of Cuba, which has been translated into English and is available in American bookstores.

Ximena let me know via email that one perk of being an illustrator is that she is often able to work from her home, which just so happens to be located a short stroll from a lovely market. There she often picks up whatever strikes her fancy, brings it home to her kitchen, and lets it simmer away while she finishes her work. Later, she shares her culinary creation with her husband, who she told me is "very happy to eat any experiment, however much lemongrass or cilantro it may contain."

I am particularly smitten with the title character of one of the Spanish children's books Ximena illustrated, Marcela (written by Ana García Castellano, published by Anaya Infantil y Juventil) which, according to Ximena's recent post on the joy of picnics, stars a quirky little girl who is fond of eating cauliflower while on picnic. I wonder if little Marcela would like my cauliflower recipe?

Illustration by Ximena Maier in Marcela - have you ever seen a happier scene?

So, where does the title of Ximena's food blog, Lobstersquad, come from? It's an homage to the famous lobster scene in the 1977 Woody Allen film "Annie Hall," of course! As a fan of Allen's movies, I should have known. In the film, Allen, as the neurotic and crustacean-phobic Alvy Singer, recites the lines I quoted in the title of this post, to Annie, played by Diane Keaton, as their dinner scurries across the kitchen floor of their Hamptons beach house.

If I were you, I'd make like an escaped lobster and scamper on over to Lobstersquad straight away!

Food|and Drink|Food Blogs|Spain

Living la vida local, part 2: Bay Area seafood

The name of my blog tips you off. I'm rather fond of seafood. You'd be correct if you were to assume that a person willing to praise the common sardine just might be the type of person who would attack a plateful of more celebrated delicacies from the sea with the voracity of a shark (I'd be the shark wielding the fish knife, of course).

I have only one criteria when it comes to evaluating the products that swim through that liquid that covers 70% of our planet: freshness.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Hardly earth-shattering. Thanks for the brilliant insight, Brett.

Here's my additional 2 cents.

What I've learned from my experiences in Spain rubbing elbows with those shoppers, diners, and cooks whose collective national fervor for impeccably fresh seafood is matched only by the Japanese is this: there is a huge  difference between fresh and FRESH.

Seafood in Spain is pristinely FRESH. Unlike stores in the Bay Area, fish markets in Spain do not smell fishy. There is no odor at all (Do you hear that, managers and owners of Andronico's and Whole Foods?). Respected fishmongers in Spain would sooner be caught wearing the jersey for the British national football (soccer) team during the upcoming World Cup than sell fish on Mondays, because everyone knows that fisherman do not fish on Sundays. If you want seafood on Monday, you eat salt cod (which in Spain is hardly a sacrifice).

In my dining and cooking experience in Spain and here in the Bay Area, I follow one rule of thumb. If you wan the freshest, most immaculate seafood, eat locally.*

As this year's Eat Local Challenge officially ended yesterday, I want to report that I was repeatedly frustrated and thwarted in my attempts to source truly FRESH locally caught or raised fin and shellfish in my home town. Since I am not working in restaurants right now, I have to buy my seafood in local stores like any home cook. With few exceptions (Swan Oyster Depot in San Francisco and Monterey Fish Market in Berkeley usually carry a few local items and can place special orders), the fish stores here are mediocre at best. It takes tremendous effort to find fresh local fish. Are my expectations too high? Is it simply a case of me being, yet again, a food snob?

Despite these disappointments, I did have quite a few foraging successes, though, which I'd like to share, chiefly to promote those who supplied the goods.

May marks the beginning of the local wild salmon season, but this year, due to heavy (and controversial) federally-imposed restrictions on the local catch, finding local salmon has never been so difficult nor so expensive.

Fortunately, at the local market I can buy freshly caught local wild King salmon directly from my favorite fisherman, Larry Miyamura. If you want to know the difference between fresh and FRESH, stop by Larry's stand, Shogun Fish, at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market on Saturday and buy some of his salmon (pictured above with sweet peas and champagne butter sauce). Despite the restrictions, Larry has thus far been able to supply our market with his succulent king salmon, missing only a couple of weeks in May. He has been catching the fish just south of Pigeon Point lighthouse near Half Moon Bay, which is the furthest north that he can legally fish this season. Enjoy his fish while you can, because he's warned me that there will be many weeks when he won't be allowed to catch a thing.

I've also been feasting often on the same thing that many of the local salmon eat: anchovies and a whole lotta sardines* (pictured above, fried). Although in Spain, for example, sardines and anchovies are considered summertime fish, in the Bay Area I tend to find the biggest sardines during the winter and spring (my solution: go to Spain during the summer!). I regularly buy my local sardines from the stand operated at the Saturday market by the Fresh Fish Company, a company run by the aptly named Tim Ports that has supplied many of the restaurants where I've worked.