Don't you just love beginnings? Is there anything nicer than the smell of the first days of spring, the way her/his eyes look at you when you've just fallen in love, the first sip of wine after a hard day? It doesn't matter that you're allergic to pollen, that you'll soon dump your new Romeo or Julia because he/she is an idiot that prefers frozen TV dinners to your gourmet dishes and that the wine will give you a gigantic hangover during that important meeting tomorrow: that second of bliss is worth it even if you might regret it later. One of my favorite "firsts" is having my first meal during my travels, especially when in a new country. The only regrets I might have are those regarding my weight back home. At least there's always diet.
Fine, Italy is not exactly "abroad" for me, still whenever I travel back the first meal has a special taste really marking the change in flavors and aromas. The first Italian meal we had on our last vacation was even more than that. Just the previous afternoon my parents had gone fishing in the Gulf of Naples with some friends who own a boat and came back with a few small tunas, a young dolphin fish and a small swordfish. If that was the start of our vacation, I was looking forward to the rest! The tunas had been frozen already but we had a delicious meal with a swordfish pasta and dolphin fish main course.
Most of the meat which could be used for steaks was reserved for the kids, Saami and his cousin, who greatly appreciated. We got the waste, so to say, but made good use of it: the final part of the tail got diced and quickly cooked in a mint flavored tomato sauce. If you think it sounds strange, give it a try, it works in a very pleasant way. It's actually a Sicilian classic and there are many variations of the recipe, such as this one.
The dolphin fish was the big surprise for me. I had never had any before and I was positively surprised by how firm and tasty its meat is.
It was prepared quite simply, cutting their fillets into bite size pieces, frying them and adding these to a tomato, olive and caper sauce. Extremely tasty.
It is sort of ironic that I never had dolphin fish before but I had it twice on this trip, and both times prepared in a similar, yet somewhat different way. But it's not time to talk about that yet... stay tuned and soon you'll get a real fish-eating fest... unless Ronald beats me to it.
Ooooohhh... I'm dreaming of tasty fish head soup soured with tamarind.
I still think you're a tease Alberto!
Posted by: Karen | September 24, 2005 at 05:20 AM
Hi Alberto - I'm glad you had a wonderful time, all your pictures look so beautiful! And I love this fish head shot too, I'm very curious about dolphin fish also... (doesn't it look kinda cute?)
Posted by: keiko | September 28, 2005 at 12:35 AM
dolphinfish appears to be what is known in the good ol' US of A as Mahi Mahi.
Posted by: Hugh | September 29, 2005 at 12:40 AM
Karen, I know I'ma tease, but you are one too, now I'm trying to imagine how head soup could taste. Any recipe at hand?
Hugh, thanks for the information: fish names are a fascinating subject but one that can be quite confusing. In Italy many fishes change name from one port to the next, creating headaches for ayone who's not a local.
Keiko, the "big" post on fish will be up immediately after the one I'm preparing for this month's IMBB.
Posted by: Alberto | September 29, 2005 at 10:28 AM
Ciao Alberto!
Volevo dirti di un meme nuovo, stavlta si tratta di svelare le nostre cucine.. Ti ho invitato alla versione inglese, tutti i dettagli, da me,
Baci!
S
Posted by: Sigrid | October 04, 2005 at 01:36 AM
Cheers to more beginnings!!
Posted by: deccanheffalump | October 06, 2005 at 10:01 PM
Sigrid, grazie per l'invito. Non posso promettere di partecipare (sono così incasianto che neanche ho postato piú di recente), ma ci provo.
Thanks D.!
Posted by: Alberto | October 13, 2005 at 02:03 PM