Beneath the Waves

Nestled among the kelp gently swaying in the shallows are shellfish grown plump in the nutrient-rich waters.  Today’s dish provides a taste of this idyllic scene, though with inland greens filling in for seaweed in the broth.  This keeps the meal ethereal and fresh, both in color and in taste, making it ideal for a…

A Working Lunch

People living along Spain’s rugged northern coast have gathered shellfish, well, forever, and mussels are one of their most prominent harvests.  Naturally, in common with food lovers everywhere, Galicians have developed hundreds of delicious ways to highlight – and to enjoy – local products.  One of the most tempting of these is today’s submission, Mussels…

Along Italy’s Pacific Coast

Wait, what?  There’s the Adriatic and the Mediterranean, but when did this whole Pacific thing happen?  About 150 years ago, actually, when Italian immigrants to the U.S. made their way westward and those of a more nautical disposition found work is San Francisco’s fishing industry.  While many in the Bay Area discovered wealth inland extracting…

Focus!

How skilled is your imagination?  More so than my photographic abilities, hopefully. It was bound to happen eventually – after snapping dozens of pictures for this journal, I finally managed to botch one.  Oh, the dish turned out well, in fact, much more so than may be said of its photo.  Sorry, recipe. Speaking of  focusing, maybe I should concentrate on…

Salmon, While Swimming

…which probably is the closest English equivalent to this dish’s original French title, Salmon à la Nage.  Actually, it makes sense.  The fish nestles among mussels and the asparagus suggests seaweed, doesn’t it? The name applies more prosaically as well.  Being a French creation, it’s not surprising a wine and butter sauce submerses everything.  The salmon swims…