Expensive food with delicate flavours...

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

I'm not really of the less is more camp (or is that fewer (ingedients) is more.

Take lamb for example. I often hear at the top of ones voice that only garlic and rosemary are needed, not to overpower the meat.

I can't think of anything much more overpowering than garlic and rosemary - and will happily Indian-ify a delicious spring lamb which has cost a fair few pounds.
Same goes for fishes, mackerel was made for spice.

Simple is great too. But not as a fast rule.

[Les Mains]

..., even fishy fusser me!!....

I'm not at all fond of fishy fish either other than shellfish, which doesn't really count. Aside from the more delicate fish like sole, I like tinned salmon (red), tinned tuna and tinned sardines which are so different from the fresh fish that they are essentially a different food. Like salad cream vs mayo. I like both, but with different things and in different ways.

[Les Mains]

I believe that just because some ingredients only need that barest hint of seasoning or cooking to be beautiful, doesn't mean they don't taste good cooked other ways too .... getting a glut of it in my veg box every week meant I'd looked for other ways to use it, ...

I certainly agree. I'm saying that where you pay a lot of money because the ingredient is so delicate it is a shame to cover-up the very thing you've spent all that money on. If you have a glut or access to low-price expensive food then great...give it to the dog as well, why not? Well, maybe offer some as a little kindness to your family, friends and neighbours first, sell or barter a little if you can.... Where I am people drop-over a half-dozen eggs from their own hens, some runners or other fast-ripening food that you have a lot of. I think that some genuine barter happens, too, with an electrician, builder, etc., nearby...

[Global_Worming Profile]

Lemmy as you and Mrs Lemmy spent the last few yrs living and sailing around the med on your yacht you will probably know that the prime fish in the med are caught in the winter.
My wifes family fish commercially in the winter, the fish is then sold to the restaurants and frozen for the tourist season.
Hvar is always in the top five Island in the world. The harbour is full of yachts owned by film stars, royalty football club owners etc.The restaurants on the harbour side are still owned by locals.
Taste or lack of it.
The restaurants always get wonderful reviews by the tourists on tripadvisor and by journalists. The Guardian carried a piece about a cousins place talking about the freshest fish he had eaten from the med. The Lubin and Dorade was fresh from Makro Split that morning (greek farmed) the cat 1 Dentex was caught 4 month before cooking.
What do the lucky b******s do in the summer,they charge the tourists 150 euro+ fuel a day trip.http://s1017.photobucket.com/albums/af2 ... 008003.mp4

[Les Mains]

GW -- I didn't know that. We always holed-up in a marina or one year on the Tiber and didn't fish at all. What I did notice is that the fish in the harbours (tourist places, really) seldom looked fresh. The custom is to entice diners with a nice display but you could imagine the stink of old fish through a plate glass window. I wondered whether to start a little business coordinating a fresh fish delivery between the dozen or so restaurants using kids on push bikes (like pizza delivery) so that while competing for diners, they could all have access to the freshest fish. They seemed receptive but one restaurant was run by a German who refused to accept that his was less than fresh and the whole idea died.

Our Spanish friends nearly always bought frozen or from a major supermarket like Mercadona. On occasions you could be lucky...

[Global_Worming Profile]

Because my wife cannot live without fish and she is very critical about what supermarkets have to offer we make a once a month visit to Manchester wholesale fish market and vacpak and freeze what we buy.
My point was really about the lack of taste buds of the average tourist.
My pet gripe is the amount of alcohol people consume whilst dining.
I was brought up to believe wine is meant to compliment the food not to drown it.It seems to me that in the UK unless you leave a restaurant pissed it was not a good night.

[hungryhousewife Profile]

Don't be too quick to generalise my dearie! We are not all like that!
HH

[Global_Worming Profile]

I appreciate that HH, but with IMO drinks being the biggest profit generator in the UK and waiters who hover around filing the glasses and asking "do you want another" we do appear on face value to be an endangered species.