fish

Must Be Summer(ish): Whole Fish, Bloody Mary and Thai Peanut Noodles

To celebrate that our grass grew in and we haven’t killed a single plant (yet), we marked Sunday’s sunny afternoon with bloody marys and an Asian whole fish feast. Here are the recipes:

Bloody Mary

: Bloody Mary: The making of

I’ve only recently learned to love a Bloody Mary. Maybe it’s a grown up drink and a sign I am getting old. Or maybe it’s just that the Bloody Mary has been remade by the foodie crowd and no longer feature slimy V8. This recipe comes compliments of my friend from Brookyln, who, during a recent visit, made sure to stock our fridge with all the ingredients.

Ingredients:

Tomato juice
vodka
worcestershire sauce
lemons
horseradish
salt and pepper
tabasco (or another hot sauce).

Making the bloody mary

Fill a pint glass with ice and add 1-2 shots of vodka. Then, fill most of the way up with tomato juice. Add two or three good shakes worcestershire sauce, the juice of one lemon, salt and pepper (celery salt if you have it, or add celery seed in addition to the salt) and several shakes of hot sauce. Top that off with about a quarter to half a teaspoon of horseradish.

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Food reading for the week

Two articles this past week make for good reading for the DC area, food obsessed:

1. Ethnic Groceries: Washington Post writer Emily Wax visits the ethnic food markets of suburban DC. She explores H-Mart (the Korean grocery store, most notable for its amazing varity of Kimchi). Dama Pastry and Cafe (with serves Ethiopian coffee and baked goods — and which I don’t think actually qualifies as an ethnic market), Yekta Supermarket, (a well-organized Iranian and Middle Eastern food bazaar. It’s in Maryland, so unfortunately I’ve never been.) and Halal Meat and Grocery (an Indian grocery and another Maryland find).

Unfortuately, the article leaves out my favorite market, Great Wall. This Vienna-based Chinese market has an excellent selection of Asian fruits and veggies (including the best lychees in the summer), a stand where the butcher will fillet a whole fish to order and all sorts of Chinese goods that I loved during my three years in Beijing but have never seen elsewhere. More on the whole fish later.

2. Raw Milk: The New Yorker covers the sudden burst of interest in raw, or unpastuerized, milk. I’ve never had raw milk, so I can’t comment on the taste or fabled medicinal powers. I’m always up for an adventure, so I’d be willing to ish ecoli to try it.