Is this chicken what I have or is this fish? I know it's tuna.
But it says chicken. By the sea. - Jessica Simpson
It's been a while since I blogged. I guess I just lacked the right inspiration. But over the last months, I may have found that inspiration in the form of can seafood products – also known as tinned fish.
I'm not talking about canned tuna here – not that there's anything wrong with that. When I want a hunk of fresh tuna loin seared rare, I'm going to buy the freshest piece of fish I can find. When I want a tuna 
sandwich I look for chunk light tuna in oil. I also have no objection, not that it matters, to canned salmon for salmon salad sandwiches. I only object when these are served in cooked preparations. Thence came nightmares of my youth.
The fact of the matter is that canned proteins often get a bad rap. I'm as bad as anyone else and picking on them. I have an assortment of such items scattered around the house as a joke, particularly on the shelf that combines canned meat
and seafood with tchotchkes we received from two of our best friends who travel quite a bit. We call it Georg and Ted's Excellent Adventures and Museum of Canned Meat Products. Most of the stuff in our collection are gag gifts I gave to my wife and daughters for holidays and birthdays, always packed in a manner which belied the true nature of the contents.
The fact is, there's nothing wrong with these items. One of my favorite Food Writers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries is John Thorne. He has written an essay about Vienna Sausages and devoted a section in his book Mouth Wide Open to canned items from his
local Big Lots – specifically canned tamales. I would take it a step further. Take those Vienna Sausages and wrap them in Poppin' Fresh dough and serve them as hors d'oeuvres with a couple of dipping sauces and you'll be the hero of a party. Take that potted meat product and repackage it in a decorative mason jar of appropriate size, top with some melted bacon fat for authenticity, and you can serve rillettes that will satisfy most "gourmand" palates.
But I digress.
A month or so ago I decided that it was time to get rid of my "Dad Gut". I knew that part of my regimen would be intermittent fasting – exercise is not something that I can commit to. I also knew that when I did eat I wanted to have something filling, relatively healthy, simple, and tasty. While I was pondering how to fulfill this need I came across a tweet by Jamelle Bouie, a writer for the New York Times who I greatly admire. It described his newfound love for high-end tinned seafood, something that is becoming more and more available from a variety of sources – much like the explosion of craft breweries.
I was intrigued by this, but in the short term it inspired me to return to my roots. In addition to canned tuna and salmon I also grew up on canned sardines, either whole or mashed like tuna salad with a variety of condiments. (I also grew up on smoked salmon and whitefish, and pickled herring, but that's a topic for another time. So as part of my diet I started purchasing tinned sardines and mackerel and eating them with a simple salad for lunch when I returned from school. There are plenty of really decent options in supermarkets. Brands such as King Oscar and Season, and others, are most acceptable. Also, many supermarkets are carrying more "upscale" options.
It satisfied my needs, and I have been showing some weight loss while also enjoying this trip down memory lane.
sandwich I look for chunk light tuna in oil. I also have no objection, not that it matters, to canned salmon for salmon salad sandwiches. I only object when these are served in cooked preparations. Thence came nightmares of my youth.The fact of the matter is that canned proteins often get a bad rap. I'm as bad as anyone else and picking on them. I have an assortment of such items scattered around the house as a joke, particularly on the shelf that combines canned meat
and seafood with tchotchkes we received from two of our best friends who travel quite a bit. We call it Georg and Ted's Excellent Adventures and Museum of Canned Meat Products. Most of the stuff in our collection are gag gifts I gave to my wife and daughters for holidays and birthdays, always packed in a manner which belied the true nature of the contents.The fact is, there's nothing wrong with these items. One of my favorite Food Writers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries is John Thorne. He has written an essay about Vienna Sausages and devoted a section in his book Mouth Wide Open to canned items from his
local Big Lots – specifically canned tamales. I would take it a step further. Take those Vienna Sausages and wrap them in Poppin' Fresh dough and serve them as hors d'oeuvres with a couple of dipping sauces and you'll be the hero of a party. Take that potted meat product and repackage it in a decorative mason jar of appropriate size, top with some melted bacon fat for authenticity, and you can serve rillettes that will satisfy most "gourmand" palates.But I digress.
A month or so ago I decided that it was time to get rid of my "Dad Gut". I knew that part of my regimen would be intermittent fasting – exercise is not something that I can commit to. I also knew that when I did eat I wanted to have something filling, relatively healthy, simple, and tasty. While I was pondering how to fulfill this need I came across a tweet by Jamelle Bouie, a writer for the New York Times who I greatly admire. It described his newfound love for high-end tinned seafood, something that is becoming more and more available from a variety of sources – much like the explosion of craft breweries.
I was intrigued by this, but in the short term it inspired me to return to my roots. In addition to canned tuna and salmon I also grew up on canned sardines, either whole or mashed like tuna salad with a variety of condiments. (I also grew up on smoked salmon and whitefish, and pickled herring, but that's a topic for another time. So as part of my diet I started purchasing tinned sardines and mackerel and eating them with a simple salad for lunch when I returned from school. There are plenty of really decent options in supermarkets. Brands such as King Oscar and Season, and others, are most acceptable. Also, many supermarkets are carrying more "upscale" options.
It satisfied my needs, and I have been showing some weight loss while also enjoying this trip down memory lane.
Then came Father's Day. It turns out that my daughter Ellie also follows Mr. Bouie and saw the same posts that I had seen. She took it a step farther. She contacted the purveyor that Mr. Bouie wrote of – Rainbow Tomatoes Garden – to put together a present for me. Its owner Dan Waber exchange messages with her asking about my tastes and interests. He put together the package that I received on Father's Day – two different kinds of sardines and some hot oysters (as well is a deck of King Oscar playing cards and a "Sardine Eater" sticker which is now outside my classroom).
That's the beginning of this adventure. Now that I'm blogging again I'm sure there will be other topics, but you consider this the first of two parts – the second being my description of the first can of sardines from my Father's Day present that I cracked into.
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