For someone who eats so much salmon, it’s weird that I don’t really otherwise care that much for fish. I like tuna sandwiches, and I’ll eat tuna steaks or pretty much any kind of breaded fish with remoulade if it’s served to me, but fish isn’t really a go-to item on my menu of choice. Unless it’s salmon. Then it’s #1.
In the last 7 days, I have eaten oven-baked salmon (with lemon zest, olive oil, and salt and pepper), pan-fried salmon (chili pepper and saffron seasoning), gravlax, cold smoked salmon, warm smoked salmon, and sushi (salmon nigiri and sashimi, so raw). At least 3 of the past 7 days, I had salmon both for lunch and for dinner. I don’t regret it one bit. I could eat more. Yum yum.
I don’t remember ever having salmon when I was growing up. I don’t actually remember eating fish much at all, except for tuna sandwiches, which hardly count, apart from fish we caught with my grandad in Michigan. I’m sure we must have had fish once in a while, but it wasn’t a go-to item on my parents’ menu either, apparently. I didn’t have sushi EVER, until after I met Anders the year I turned 30, because the idea of eating raw fish grossed me out completely (and I had no idea what I was missing). Plus, sushi wasn’t trendy then the way it is now, and it was expensive. I don’t know if the fact that we mostly lived in the midwest was part of the reason that fish was scarcer. I know that I was surprised at how much cheaper salmon was in the grocery stores here in Sweden than it was in the US before we moved here. Even though it’s still considered a “finer” food here, it’s pretty ubiquitious.
Fish sticks weren’t something we ate much of either, as children, and it wasn’t something I bought or served often to my own kids. They got salmon…and sushi, of course. Anders says when he was growing up, it was cod that was everywhere and inexpensive. Now it’s over-fished, and subsequently, pricey. Herring, especially pickled, is still a major part of every Swedish holiday smörgåsbord, but I don’t really care for herring. It’s so fishy-tasting. Salmon is the least fishy-tasting fish. If it’s really good salmon, it melts in your mouth like butter, and just gives you a happy umami flavor.
When I was small and we’d go visit my grandparents in Michigan, we’d always go out on my grandad’s boat on Lake St. Clair, often fishing. Mostly rainbow trout and perch, but sometimes muskies and pike. I was super squeamish about putting worms on hooks (which my grandad had no patience with) and made my sister do it. I didn’t mind fishing, but scaling fish was no fun. The rule was that if you caught them, you had to help scale them, or you didn’t get to eat them. I don’t really remember much about any of it as I was pretty young.
Tomorrow I’m going out to lunch in Lund with Lisel. It’s technically an AIC lunch but no one else has signed up, and while we have a stated minimum of 4 or we cancel, she and I decided we’d just go anyway. You’ll never guess what’s on the menu! And it’s halstrad(broiled/grilled) so that’ll be different! hahahah!
mood: full
music: The Pierces—We Are Stars