One week in...

We’re a week in-country and not yet KIA, MIA or otherwise. Went to the farmers market yesterday with Roo and Sara (on lunchbreak) and picked up some veggies, fruit, bread and exquisitely over-priced fish. Something that would make the Real Housewives of Orange County just giddy.  Anyhow, wondering if we need to accept that we’re now in a landlocked country and that fish here may not be as good (or affordable) as fish in Seattle or fish on the coast of Ireland.

The fish I picked up at the much more chilled out Wednesday market as compared to the Saturday extravaganza was your basic Sole. Nothing fancy. A fish we eat in the States when we want fish and don’t really want to cook. A little butter, garlic, lemon and white wine cook for about 5 minutes and that’s it. Not an incredible eating experience, but good, easy and cheep, and of course something I should do more of in order to help curb the red meat addiction I’ve been a slave to my entire life.  No hyperbole there. I am truly addicted to meat. I dream about it. When I look at cows and pigs in a field or on a farm, I think they look really tasty and I’d like to off one of them and just start chowing. Case in point, when I was a kid, I wouldn’t eat PBJ like the rest of the free world. Nope, it was only Oscar Meyer ham on white bread for me. Ask mom, she’ll vouch. Just ate the crap out the stuff for years. Only started eating PBJ in college and due to budgetary reasons (i.e. the Ramen and PBJ diet in the dorms).

But I digress, the sole I picked up from a mini RV parked in the middle of the square looked good. Strange though, as it was a whole fish with the skin removed. Must be something I don’t know about sole and having tough-to-remove skin. In any event, I douched my way through asking for 3 fish and when she wrapped them up it was 25 Euro. I about walked away, but didn’t. Got home looked at the fish and wondered “OK, do I just cook the fish whole or what? I mean, I paid for the whole thing, but I really just want the skinny, light, non-fishy tasting fillets.” Ended up filleting the fish and managing to get 6 very meager (but typical, at least in my experience) sole cuts. I looked down at the fish carcasses and noticed there was still a lot of meat in between the rib bones running the length of the spine of the fish. Now I’m thinking that I maybe should have cooked the fish whole and tried to remove the spine and rib bones in one easy pull before serving. Anyway, don’t think I’ll find out as like I said, it’s just not worth it for the price.

Sole ended up coming out very good and was paired with some boiled potatoes in butter sauce and spinach salad with some “Fruites de mar” which tasted like the ass-end of a carp. They looked like shrimp, but they had this weird, very dense consistency. Sara tells me they’re like that b/c they were ceviche style. I don’t know, but what I do know is that when my wife starts educating me on food we have major effing problems right there.

Tonight is more leftovers and some killer tapenades and breads we got from the market. Oh, and I just had to fry up a couple of mini steaks and some onions and green peppers for a steak sandwich, because really who are we kidding thinking that a jerk like me will be eating just bread, cheese, and tapenade for dinner? Come on now, kid.

In other news, Rudy and I went for a jog this morning. I always feel good about it when I’m done, I just wish I got it more often. But that means I’d have to jog more often, which tends to get in the way of eating or basically anything else. After cleaning up, we got in the car and headed to Naturata (a small chain of organic groceries in Lux). Picked up some essentials and headed back home without getting lost and dropping four-letter bombs because I’m driving in a bus lane or the wrong way on a one-way street. I need to do a better job in the foul language dept around Roo as we’ve already heard a few things come out of his mouth that are very ungentlemanly…and a few that even mom hasn’t heard yet. If anyone knows about the job I did with my youngest brother Mike and his early childhood language education, you know I probably should have lost my teacher’s license back in 1985. Then again, if a three-year old Rudy doesn’t lean out the window and yell “Hey lady, nice tits” to a passing shopper, then I’ll be happy in knowing that I’ve improved my curriculum since Mike.

Finally, recent kitchen music accompaniment has been the Sklar Brothers and their new Friday comedy/sports podcast. If you need some hilarity in your life, listen to their show Sklarborogh Country….you can get it on iTunes or at Earwolf.com (sweet name by the way).