Lunar New Year celebration this Sunday Feb 14th means steamed fresh whole Red Groupers in the table. Among the various red groupers, the blue spotted ones get the premium prices. Steaming the fish keeps the vibrant red color of the skin, a symbol of success and prosperity. It is important that a whole fish be served, a half-fish means only half-lucky.
The bigger the fish, the better the price. This grouper can reach a 4-kilo (10-lbs) size. I am holding one that is just shade below 1 kg.
Curry fish head, anyone? One of the best ingredients is the tropical marine waters red grouper fish head.
Fish head is usually avoided because of the lean meat it contains. Nonetheless, it has the best tasting, most flavourful part of a fish, offering a diversity of texture unequalled by the awesome smoothness belly meat of top grade groupers. Fish lips, meat in the jaw bones, gelatin-like skin meat on the gill flips and the coveted fish eyes.
Best cooked by a quick frying of flour coated fish head and finished to simmered tenderness in a coconut curry sauce.
When in Singapore, visit the Newton Hawker Centre and ask for a bowl of red grouper curry fish head.
Soft, fine flakes, melts in the mouth, mildly sweet. The local sole is a fav to new seafood converts, especially great for kids. The sole is a flat fish, the upper/right side is of darker skin color and the underside is white. It is usually sold filleted already . . . no bones to watch out for.
In the fish market, various kinds of sole fillets are plainly marked as "Local Sole". One of the best is the Dover Sole. A premium version is the Petrale Sole (a.k.a. 'brill").
Every now and then, I would roll a sole fillet with crab or shrimp meat stuffing.
How would Michaelangelo have done sculpting from a wheel of Parmegiano Reggiano cheese. One of the bakers in our store just did that!
All the Departments in our store of have been mandated to give guests/customers an extraordinary awesome shopping experience during this world celebration in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games. The Specialty Department which ranks in the top 10 in the whole company showcases one of their most popular cheese variety, the Parmegiano Reggiano. They asked one of the bakers to curve a replica of the Roman Coliseum from a wheel of cheese. It definetely stops guests who marvel at the creation.
Here's the original cheese wheel.
Olympic Village: the lull before the 'storm'. The athletes are on the road to Vancouver 2010 Winter Games, and in a few days, the Village will be a busy hive.
The long wait for the Games is almost over. The City's makeover is done and Vancouver proclaims, "Welcome World!"
The clock at City Hall ticks toward the opening ceremonies on Feb 12, 2010.
The roads are ready to absorb an overflow of traffic, making it easy for athletes and audience to commute to their venues.
Sunset had always meant to me as flaming, red to orange horizon. But in Vancouver's record mild winter season, a blue sunset is a spectacle leaving one to stop and admire nature's creation.
The quarter moon further enhanced a romantic ambiance. Thanks to technology's point-and-shoot cameras. It only took a few seconds to aim my Sony Cybershot and the gadget took all the decision-making of the best mode of taking the shot.
Aaahh! This is the real red snapper, not the rock cod that poses as snapper fillets. This one has firm white, mildly sweet meat with gelatin like fat in between the flakes. I prefer buying it as a whole fish and do my own gutting. I have developed a technique of removing the gills and gut in one pull without having to cut open the abdomen. This process preserves the very delectable belly fat.
The snapper does very well steamed and grilled. I like it lightly coated with flour, then deep fried. Crispy hot skin, juicy, smooth flakes, served with sweet-and-sour sauce.
The brown spotted fish on the left is a black/green grouper and the crimson red fishes on the right are red groupers (a.k.a. 'senyora' in the Philippines).
Local cooked whole Dungeness crab yields a sweet, juicy flavor. Make sure it's a male and its carapace or shell is 6+ inches to support sustainable fishery practices.
The crab gets its name from the town of Dungeness, WA located along the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the body of water separating Washington and the Vancouver Island. The crab can be found along the shallow coastal waters of the Pacific Northwest.
Best cooking practice? Steamed and served with a melted butter-lemon-garlic dip.
It's not yet in season but you can find previously frozen wild BC spot prawns. Our store is supplied by a husband-and-wife team who catch BC spot prawns using shrimp traps, an eco-friendly method of gathering marine stocks. The prawns are processed in the boat: frozen in one pound blocks.
I sautee the prawn tails in a garlic butter mix for about 3 minutes on medium heat, shaking the pan every now and then to get them evenly cooked on both sides.
Crabs come in different forms. The 'Curracha de Zamboanga' is best served steamed with an accompanying 'Alavar' dip. In the Philippines, the curracha can be found only in the southern region. It is a popular dish, a tourist's dream, in Zamboanga City, a proprietary recipe of the Alavar Restaurant.
