RE: Pity the poor subjunctive

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Richard Jernigan

Posts: 3433
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA

RE: Pity the poor subjunctive (in reply to aeolus)

quote:

ORIGINAL: aeolus

I eat nothing but wild caught salmon flash frozen in Alaska and shipped FedEx.

I lived the second half of 2001 at the west end of Waikiki in Honolulu. I would get the weekend off to a good start by buying a pound of freshly caught ahi --yellowfin tuna-- at the Beretania Street Safeway. After a few weeks, when the guys at the fish counter saw me coming they would pick out a few pieces for me to choose from. Sashimi with wasabi, rice, salad and a Kirin Ichiban: delicious.

Then a stroll the length of Kalakaua Avenue….

RNJ

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 31 2013 19:28:05

BarkellWH

Posts: 3460
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC

RE: Pity the poor subjunctive (in reply to Richard Jernigan)

quote:

I would get the weekend off to a good start by buying a pound of freshly caught ahi --yellowfin tuna

No doubt ahi is a very tasty fish. Next time you are in Hawaii, however, let me suggest you order up some opakapaka. Opakapaka, to my mind, is the tastiest fish found in Hawaiian waters. Also known as Hawaiian pink snapper, opakapaka is delicious fileted and baked. (It is also steamed, but in my opinion baked is best.) It is also served as sashimi.

Most haoles who visit Hawaii don't know about opakapaka, and I didn't either the first couple of times I visited in transit to the Far East decades ago. On a subsequent transit stop in Honolulu many years ago, however, I had dinner with a Filipina gal I knew well in Jakarta, Indonesia who had since moved to Hawaii. She took me to a seafood restaurant and suggested I order opakapaka. I did, and I was hooked. A superb, delicate texture and taste. Highly recommended.

Next time in Hawaii, I suggest you bypass the Safeway and go to one of the seafood markets in Honolulu that specialize in freshly caught opakapaka, ahi, and other seafood.

Cheers,

Bill

_____________________________

And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."

--Rudyard Kipling

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 31 2013 20:49:01

aeolus

Posts: 765
Joined: Oct. 30 2009
From: Mier

RE: Pity the poor subjunctive (in reply to Richard Jernigan)

quote:

freshly caught ahi --yellowfin tuna-- at the Beretania Street Safeway.

Ordinarily the last place I would go for fresh fish is a supermarket but I guess the Safeway in Waikiki would have been well above average.
Flash freezing is almost as good as fresh bit not quite. I got some deep water wild cod from a place in NY that was heavenly baked. The problem was the min. order was such I had to freeze most of it and that degraded the taste quite a bit. Nothing to do but bread it and fry it served with malt vinegar in the English style. good bit second best by far.
A few years ago it was reported that a NJ party boat was caught with a bunch of Chinese nationals fishing for a protected species only sport fishing allowed but their catch was in fact for a restaurant in NYC that kept the fish live in a tank and their Japanese clientele would select his fish and watch that he was getting really fresh fish. The Japanese take their fish seriously.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 31 2013 21:01:57

Morante

Posts: 2199
Joined: Nov. 21 2010

RE: Pity the poor subjunctive (in reply to BarkellWH)

In Ireland, I fished wild spring salmon in February, wild brown trout in May and wild seatrout in July. Impossible to choose, but each in its way the best possible.

Now that I live in Andalucía, I can only dream

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 31 2013 21:36:23

guitarbuddha

Posts: 2970
Joined: Jan. 4 2007

RE: Pity the poor subjunctive (in reply to aeolus)

quote:

ORIGINAL: aeolus

quote:

freshly caught ahi --yellowfin tuna-- at the Beretania Street Safeway.

Nothing to do but bread it and fry it served with malt vinegar in the English style. good bit second best by far.

I don't know if this is coming too late but POACHING is definitely the way to go with homefrozen (meticulously filleted) fish. My favourite cooking broth is a thin Malaysian style milk curry. Add fish straight from freezer along with trimmed French beans and curry leaves. NEVER EVER let the broth boil.

Ah well ...... breakfast soon

D.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 1 2014 9:41:01

aeolus

Posts: 765
Joined: Oct. 30 2009
From: Mier

RE: Pity the poor subjunctive (in reply to guitarbuddha)

quote:

Add fish straight from freezer along with trimmed French beans and curry leaves.

Curry leaves...what an exotic plant! I am sure my local ShopRite has them. They don't even have kale which is the current hot button veggie here. I just ordered from a place in NYC that ships fresh fish for $10 but I wonder how fresh it will be. Striped bass; swordfish steaks; red snapper, and cod but at $31 a pound pricey. All wild caught but the cod and I have to wonder from where. The supermarket has frozen cod with an American flag on the package but if one looks really closely it's from a Chinese fish farm. Really underhanded. But I'll have to try poaching as fish frozen the conventional way is way cheaper. Flash freezing was developed to serve the sushi market which had grown too large for fresh fish.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 1 2014 13:39:26

guitarbuddha

Posts: 2970
Joined: Jan. 4 2007

RE: Pity the poor subjunctive (in reply to aeolus)

Aha a fellow fish lover indeed !

You can exchange cillantro/coriander (never ever use dry coriander as it is a waste of time) for curry leaves. If you have an Indian part of town they may have the curry leaves fresh or partially dried in food and veg stores. They have a similar function to bay leaves so you might try something like this.

Four bayleaves one pint of water and half a large tin of evaporated milk a teaspoon of tamarind concentrate(not essential) some slit chillies (to taste) a half teaspoon of salt( or much better if you have it two tablespoons of thai fish sauce) a tablespoon of good quality thai green curry paste (or even just some ground ginger and cinnamon).

Add everyting to a saucepan and bring close to the boil. Then add frozen fish and let the temperature come up gradually and the fish should stay whole if you are careful not to stir or let it boil. As soon as the broth approaches boiling the fish will be cooked to buttery perfection.

Check seasoning and serve in a bowl over rice or as a soup with bread.

But even just salted water is nice for poaching and you can season it with anything you like. The only thing that can go wrong is overcooking which is all too easy.

D.

(NB all of the above was with the assumption that the fish portions would be no larger than say a sea bass fillet or large haddock. If it is more than an inch thick then cooking may not be as almost instantaneous as the recipe assumes)

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 1 2014 14:13:08

BarkellWH

Posts: 3460
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC

RE: Pity the poor subjunctive (in reply to guitarbuddha)

quote:

The only thing that can go wrong is overcooking which is all too easy.

That is too often the case, especially with white-fleshed, more delicate fish as opposed to the darker-fleshed, oilier fish. And not just when preparing it one's self. My experience regarding seafood restaurants has been that the very best always get it just right. But occasionally I have been surprised at restaurants I considered very good that served it overcooked.

Cheers,

Bill

_____________________________

And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."

--Rudyard Kipling

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 1 2014 14:42:47

aeolus

Posts: 765
Joined: Oct. 30 2009
From: Mier

RE: Pity the poor subjunctive (in reply to guitarbuddha)

quote:

But even just salted water is nice for poaching and you can season it with anything you like. The only thing that can go wrong is overcooking which is all too easy.

I'm going to start with this method to get the procedure down. From what I have read a instant read thermometer is needed. and maybe a poaching dish.

The current diet fad is the cave man protocol which calls for food eaten in the Paleolithic period meaning lots of meat but red meat has gotten a bad rap with the medical community so fish is the way especially wild caught.
Nuts, vegetables, fruit are in and also eggs but just recently it was
reported that research found egg yolks to foster a lethal form of prostate cancer so I threw my eggs out. The thing I wonder about is the cave men didn't live very long.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 1 2014 15:24:53

BarkellWH

Posts: 3460
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC

RE: Pity the poor subjunctive (in reply to aeolus)

quote:

The thing I wonder about is the cave men didn't live very long.

I imagine their short life span on average was more a function of their fighting amongst themselves than their diet. To quote Thomas Hobbes from his work "Leviathan."

"In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain, and consequently, not culture of the earth, no navigation, nor the use of commodities that may be imported by sea, no commodious building, no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force, no knowledge of the face of the earth, no account of time, no arts, no letters, no society, and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."

He was writing of man in the so-called "state of nature," without a social contract to curb violent, anti-social behavior. I assume that Hobbes' quote would pretty well sum up the era in which the cave men lived.

Cheers,

Bill

_____________________________

And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."

--Rudyard Kipling

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 1 2014 15:44:11

Richard Jernigan

Posts: 3433
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA

RE: Pity the poor subjunctive (in reply to BarkellWH)

quote:

ORIGINAL: BarkellWH

Next time in Hawaii, I suggest you bypass the Safeway and go to one of the seafood markets in Honolulu that specialize in freshly caught opakapaka, ahi, and other seafood.

Cheers,

Bill

I had okapakapa a few times at the house of friends in Kaneohe.

I shopped the Beretania street Safeway for convenience. Overall the store was better than the Safeway in Montecito, where I shopped when I lived in Santa Barbara. On impulse I tried the ahi. The seafood department was excellent. Hawaiians won't put up with poor quality fish.

Here in Austin the only seafood I get regularly is shrimp and flounder from the Gulf at Quality Seafood, or the delicious fried shrimp at the Monument Cafe in Georgetown. But go to the Monument on Friday, that's when the shrimp is fresh.

Some of my ex-wife's relatives had cottages on the Oslofjord. On St. John's Day, the longest day of the year, we would sit out on the pier with beer or white wine. Nets would be dipped into the water to capture the tiny shrimp. They would be dumped directly into the boiling pot. Straight out of the water they were deliciously sweet.

Gulf shrimp are also sweet straight out of the water, but by the time they get to Austin, even half a day later the sweetness is gone.

Day old flounder is better than day old speckled trout from the Texas bays, but speckled trout a couple of hours out of the water is better than flounder, in my opinion. Redfish (spotted sea bass) is the best of Texas fishes.

When Paul Prudhomme made blackened redfish popular, the commercial fishermen almost fished them out of existence. My father was one of the leaders in lobbying the Fish and Game Department into tightening the regulations and enforcement. My son says that these days they get out on the water at Port O'Connor at 10 AM and catch their limit of redfish before noon.

RNJ

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 1 2014 16:06:34

aeolus

Posts: 765
Joined: Oct. 30 2009
From: Mier

RE: Pity the poor subjunctive (in reply to Richard Jernigan)

During the 50s I went camping on the Kenedy ranch below Corpus and in those days before the oil company's built caliche roads traversing the ranch getting to the coast was no easy task with the truck getting bogged down in sand. Anyway, we stopped for lunch at a camp used by the vaqueros and feasted on Redfish caught on trotline as the ranch bordered on the Laguna Madre The cow camp had a bed of mesquite coals on which a pot of coffee was always available and coffee was served in tin cups which suck the heat right out of the coffee and by the time one thought the coffee was cool enough to drink it was cold! I never again expect to have fish that good. About a decade later I made the same trip with the last surviving direct descendant of the ranch's founder and she told us the men now wanted to go home at night to watch TV and be with their family rather than spend weeks in the camps. She was a traditionalist that wanted things to remain as they had been.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 1 2014 17:12:03

guitarbuddha

Posts: 2970
Joined: Jan. 4 2007

RE: Pity the poor subjunctive (in reply to Richard Jernigan)

Hey Richard, do you have any ideas for warming up cold fish ? Sometimes my techniques can be a little on the spicy side and not to the taste of all assembled, perhaps even self indulgent with the chile... causing red faces and blustering.

Hasn't this thread diverged somewhat from the use of language....

D.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 1 2014 22:50:46

BarkellWH

Posts: 3460
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC

RE: Pity the poor subjunctive (in reply to guitarbuddha)

quote:

Hasn't this thread diverged somewhat from the use of language....

Would that we were still discussing the demise of the subjunctive, rather than preparation of fish, Richard shopping at Safeway, my love of Opakapaka, and methods for warming up cold fish. If I were in Hawaii now taking in the balmy subtropical breezes and thinking of tonight's seafood dinner, I would not give the subjunctive further thought.

Cheers,

Bill

_____________________________

And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."

--Rudyard Kipling

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 2 2014 14:02:25

guitarbuddha

Posts: 2970
Joined: Jan. 4 2007

RE: Pity the poor subjunctive (in reply to BarkellWH)

I wonder if I have ever had a thought which was truly objunctive ?

D.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 2 2014 14:09:44

BarkellWH

Posts: 3460
Joined: Jul. 12 2009
From: Washington, DC

RE: Pity the poor subjunctive (in reply to guitarbuddha)

quote:

I wonder if I have ever had a thought which was truly objunctive ?

To err is human. To objunct is divine.

Cheers,

Bill

_____________________________

And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here,
Who tried to hustle the East."

--Rudyard Kipling

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 2 2014 14:46:40

guitarbuddha

Posts: 2970
Joined: Jan. 4 2007

RE: Pity the poor subjunctive (in reply to BarkellWH)

err...

D.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 2 2014 15:33:46

aeolus

Posts: 765
Joined: Oct. 30 2009
From: Mier

RE: Pity the poor subjunctive (in reply to Richard Jernigan)

The fallout [from Fukushima nuk disaster] has been already been detected off the coast of Alaska. It will cycle down along the west coast of Canada and the U.S. to northern Mexico by the end of 2014. Massive disappearances of sea lion pups, sardines, salmon, killer whales and other marine life are being reported, along with a terrifying mass disintegration of star fish. One sailor has documented a massive “dead zone” out 2,000 miles from Fukushima. Impacts on humans have already been documented in California and elsewhere.

Bummer. Forget Alaskan salmon. The Gulf is probably contaminated by BP (British Petroleum). I just have too stick with local catch as the Atlantic so far is ok.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Jan. 2 2014 21:07:10