How interesting, Harters. In a way, I think English fish pie is the UK equivalent of Coquille St Jacques.
I’m so glad I had my trips to eat seafood in Devon and Cornwall before the pandemic struck. When I visited South Wales, we are more lamb and Welsh cakes than shellfish.
Interesting- I’d say 70- 80 percent of the appetizers and mains I order in the UK are local UK seafood.
But I lean pescatarian while I travel, and seek out the local seafood when available.
In Canada, the main UK seafood imports I can find at a quality fishmongers are Scottish salmon, finnan haddie and kippers. Scottish smoked salmon can be found at some gourmet shops in NYC.
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
131
Interesting. I’ve just had a look at the menus for three local casual places. There’s mention of sea bass, stone bass, cod (twice) and haddock, amongst the main courses but none of them mention a provenence as to whether they were fished by British trawlers or even landed in the UK.
That said, back in the autumn, we were in the southwest and restaurants were very keen to mention that seafood was locally landed, even down to mentioning the trawler which caught it.
Unfortunately for this issue, most of us live in major urban centres, rather than small coastal towns with a heritage of fishing.
We lucked out with UK seafood at the hotel where we stayed in Windermere years ago. On my visit to Cornwall, I sought out the places with local fish.
When I stayed in Cardiff, we only had 4 nights there, and we discovered chain restaurants, most of which didn’t serve locally sourced ingredients, were our main options on a Sunday night. It’s the same for many suburban midsized cities in Canada, too. It can be hard to find local fish on menus. Where I live, there are a few places that keep local Lake Erie yellow perch , Lake Huron whitefish and pickerel and local farmed trout on the menus, while most people who aren’t concerned with provenance eat Atlantic salmon from Chile or tilapia from who knows where.
Interestingly , 2 flooded former tobacco farms are raising farmed shrimp here in Ontario. Small production so far, a few restaurants serve them.
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
133
I’m no longer a fondue virgin. Here’s tonight’s meal
25 yrs ago (good lord) when I visited Paris, literally every bistro had Steak Frites on the menu, and the steak was typically a peppercorn crust and/or sauce. You just need to go to Paris!
If you enjoy the fondue, it is pretty simple to recreate at home. Some kirsch or white wine, some swiss/gruyere, a little cornstarch. You can jerry-rig your own apparatus. I did it with a cooling rack, a few cans of beans, a candle, and small saucepan.
Thanks! At the time I didn’t have a fondue pot (now I have - stolen from my parents during a later visit). And since my husband is the only one of us that doesn’t like hot cheese (except pizza), we always used his absences to cheese it up. Those are my littles, circa 3-4 yrs ago, I’d guess.
RD, your post made me smile sadly. I lost my Mom last year and your comment that you never knew your “Mom was not a great cook” really struck a chord. My Father was actually the best cook in our family but he was a railroader and was only home half of the week. Most of the week my Mom used to cook porcupine balls, stuffed cabbage rolls, Hot Dishes (with pasta, frozen peas and canned tuna) and Spanish Rice. They were never quite “right” but lord we loved that food! The two dishes my Mom really could cook well were German Chocolate Cake a la Elsie, and a basic French Toast with just a touchy of cinnamon.
I was browsing through a used book store a few months ago and saw a familiar red plaid cover so I pulled it off the shelf. It was the Better Homes “New” Cook Book and it had almost all my Mom’s favorite recipes. Brought a tear to my eye then and even more so now after I have prepared a few of the dishes myself.
I go to Paris fairly often or at least I used to. Was last there just before the pandemic. Don’t recall seeing steak au poivre anywhere. Plenty of steak frites that you could get with a pepper sauce, but no steak au poivre. Gone the way of onion soup. Steak tartare on the other hand is still omnipresent.
I realize they aren’t the exact same. But steak with peppercorn preparation vs steak au poivre seems to me anyway as not being particularly different… Ymmv.
ZivBnd, thank you for letting us know your mom! I’m sorry for your loss.
My experience on earth has taught me that time does not heal the pain of loss. But time does make the pain more tolerable.
I am of the belief that our moms were so much more than the human form that eyes saw. Today they live on in us, our siblings, our children, and those lucky enough to know and be influenced by them.
So, our moms have never actually left, they just changed forms. If we look around really really hard … we can see them.
