If it were up to me, I'd cook pasta every night. Problem is, it is up to me. I would attribute this to my being a grown-up, but honestly, it's been pasta every night for as long as I can remember. It's not so much about liking the taste as about not wanting to spend each night trying to decide what to have for dinner. But then, on Nantucket, I ordered a salmon-fillet-atop-salad appetizer at a seafood restaurant and devoured what had to have been over a half a pound of salmon. It hit me that something might be missing from my diet. So tonight, I went to Union Market, a Citarella clone in Park Slope which claims to have "the freshest seafood in Brooklyn", and got a third of a pound of salmon, after Katherine assured me that a quarter of a pound would not be enough. I also bought a lemon and pepper in a grinder, figuring this would all somehow become dinner.
Upon returning to the apartment, I realized that I have no idea how to prepare fish or what to serve with it. According to my roommates, we don't have a working oven, so attempting to copy the way my mother cooks fish was out of the question. We do, however, have a stovetop, so I attempted to more-than-sear the fillet while simultaneously cooking pepper, eggplant, and tomatoes in a different pan. Did this even go with salmon as a side dish? Is fish really supposed to smell fishy? Shouldn't I have bought white wine for the occasion?
Once the whole thing was cooked, it was most excellent. Sure, the side dish made no sense ("overwhelmed the fish," a real chef might say), and yes, some wine might have been nice. But regardless, I'd call it a success.
Fish generally doesn't smell "fishy" unless its quality is indeed a bit fishy. Meaning that the animal which provided one's meal has been out of the water way too long or it has not been kept properly cold during transport. When was the last time your sushi smelled fishy?
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