What's for Dinner #103 - the Extra 24 Hours Month Edition - February 2024

Maybe. Or people just like their food differently than I like my food. It’s not just shellfish - it’s ALL fish.

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Agree, quite possible.
I was surprised how cooked one family friend cooks their salmon.

Home cooks here fry fish to such a point that the bones can be eaten. It’s very dry. Part of it is that the fish is fried with no coating, so they feel that in order for it to be “crispy” they have to cook the life out of it. But proteins are generally over-cooked in the Caribbean no matter what.
If you go to the beach and order fish there though you get deliciously juicy fish. You can tell they use a light coating of starch.

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I would like to go to this beach. Where is it?

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Precisely

This.

“Over”-cooked and “under”-cooked imply “relative to how I like to eat it”.

Always a puzzle to me how people will assert these as absolutes and not the cultural and personal preferences they are.

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Any beach here will offer fried fish, but I specifically live in a coastal town (Cabrera) and the main attraction are the many beaches, with people having their preferences for which has better food. There are also a few places on the way to the beach that do a good job frying fish.

The most popular beach here for swimming is El Caletón de Río San Juan, and I personally like the fish from it best of the ones I’ve tried. However many people prefer nearby Playa Grande for the food (not as much for swimming as it has some pretty big waves).

If you get fish here I’m pretty adamant that it should be parrotfish because it’s not found outside of tropical climates (can get it in Southeast Asia, too) and it’s meaty and succulent. Other options are fine, but parrotfish is to me the star. And I always get it fried because I think it’s better that way and also a method that’s harder to do at home than something like grilling or steaming.

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Well, now I’m upset, because we stayed in Las Galeras, and I saw no beach food at all. Pretty sure I’ve had parrotfish in Nevis.

I haven’t been to Samaná since we lived there when I was a baby/toddler, but that’s surprising given the tourism there. As long as there’s some tables and chairs, there’s food to be found. :joy: I believe Samaná is one place in DR where crab might not be as rare as it has become here.

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A post was merged into an existing topic: What’s for Dinner #104 - the Almost Green Edition - March 2024

Their scent is so delighful! I miss having those.

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And probably someone from there would accuse me of serving it practically raw.

That is my husband and his mother, although she did not say anything until last year, when we had known each other 35+ years.

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I am definitely food deprived!

That kinda goes for everything.
The base Ingredients are all so different Anywhere vs. US.
I did not eat much Northern Food when I was in India so not that much experience with Tandoori Chicken. But there was a pronounced difference in the Flavor in most everything else: Yogurt, Spices and Meats. Meats in particular, both Flavor and Texture quite different than here.

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Aside from that.

Tandoori chicken is just terrible. The marinade isn’t enough, doesn’t taste of much, and usually you get color and char but not flavor. Plus, super dry.

I think most other restaurant food does not suffer this. I’ll gladly eat butter chicken and tikka masala, even other tandoori items like lamb chops and seekh kabab.

Tandoori chicken, nope. Don’t know why it’s so lacking.

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I was just reading about the controversy surrounding the origin of butter chicken on NPR this morning. Making me want to make some up. Madhur Jaffrey’s recipe is included in the article.

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Interesting. Around here the best Tandoori Chicken is done at Pakistani Restaurants and it does not suffer from the problems you mention. Actually aside from the South Bay it tends to be the best South Asian Food around.
They also have the best Naan!

Except that’s Chargha, and it tastes different.

Available in nyc too, where most of the divey cab driver spots with tasty food were Pakistani (now turning Bangladeshi).

The fishmonger had those catfish chunks again, so it was a stew-ish soup with sausage, leftover salmon, shrimp, white beans, and spinach, this time in a light tomato broth.

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I do not think that is true.
It is Tandoori as far as I know the Definition.
Marinated in Yogurt and Seasoning and cooked in a Tandoori Oven

Chargha just means chicken in Pashto. They can call it Tandoori for recognizability, but Delhi style spicing is different than Pakistani spicing, as you might imagine.

(Made the mistake of buying Shan chaat masala during the pandemic instead of Everest or Badshah, never dreaming that chaat masala could taste so vastly different.)

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