One Fish, Two Fish

Last Saturday morning, my three year-old daughter woke up and asked Mrs. P90 and me if we could go back to the “smelly place.” We had no idea what this “smelly place” was, or why on earth someone would want to go back to a “smelly place.” But it continued. “I want to go to the smelly place we went to last weekend.” “The smelly place with the fish!” We thought she meant the Aquarium, but we hadn’t been there in ages. Finally, she said “the smelly place with the lobsters!” That’s it! She meant Frank’s Seafood Market in Jessup!

To be fair, Frank’s is only “smelly” to kids. Sure, it smells like fish, but that’s because it’s a fish market. After being on our “list of places we need to go” for ages, we finally went to Frank’s for the first time two weekends ago. Sure, we’ve had excellent crabs from there a few times, but somehow we never had to be the person buying them. Hmm, free crabs. Lucky us.

The selection at Frank’s was amazing and most of the fish looked extremely fresh. We kept things simple and went with ocean perch and Alaskan salmon. I made fish sandwiches with the perch using Mark Bitman’s oven- “fried” fish filet recipes. One of the pieces on my sandwich had a few pin bones, Mrs. P90 didn’t encounter any pin bones. Either way, they were delicious and made a winter evening feel like a summer day at the beach (especially when paired with some New Belgium Dig).

I went a little crazier with the salmon. I hot-smoked it using oak chips that I had just pulled from the carboy in which I was making an oak-aged IPA. I gave the salmon filets a quick soak in orange juice and soy sauce and then placed them in a smoky grill at 350 for 30 minutes. Generally, with fish, I like to do minimal seasoning and just get out of the way and let the fresh flavor of the fish shine through. They came out perfectly with just a touch of smoke flavor.

So, if we’re asked to go back to the “smelly place” tomorrow, I’ll happily go. hocofood@@@