Mom vs the Tuna

Ken Glardon

I never really liked tuna salad and was always afraid to try tuna as I became older.  For me, any fish in a can is a tremendous waste of a good food source.  The reason for this is that my mom made tuna salad or salmon patties (a topic of a future blog).

Outside of those two types of fish, my mom had one main method of cooking any fish… frying.  Now for catfish, bluegill, flounder and some other types of fish this is fine.  Sometimes my dad would catch a kingfish (king mackerel).  Most of the time my mom would fry them and they were good, although I must say Mom usually cooked them “well done” as most food we ate.  Mom was afraid of undercooked food.  On occasion she would bake some kingfish steaks and that was OK, but still a bit overcooked.

One night Dad caught a tuna and the next night Mom decided to cook it.  Never cooking one before, Mom decided that the safest option was frying it.  This was memorable because none of us had ever eaten “fresh” tune before.  When it was done, we thought that it was awful and that the canned version was highly preferable.  The only seafood we had ever eaten that was worse was Mom’s seafood gumbo (another topic for the future).

Years later (36 to be exact) I got the nerve to buy a tuna steak at Jungle Jim’s International Grocery just outside Cincinnati, OH.  I bought it because I kept seeing on the Food Network and it was supposed to be awesome.  I took it to my brother’s house for a seafood cookout we were having.  He grilled it, rare as it is supposed to be.  We made a simple marinade of lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper and vegetable oil.  It was awesome.

The main thing was that it didn’t even taste like fish!  It was more the texture and the flavor of steak.  My niece who would never eat a fish decided to try it and she also thought it was great. 

 I now know why tuna is so popular, but I still don’t care for any fish in a can.  Smoked oysters and clams are fine, but fish… no.  So always look for alternate recipes when your Mom picks the wrong one.  I wish she had been there to try tuna cooked that way.  We would have eaten it often!

Memories of Tastes Past

Ken Glardon

1/30/2011

 Memories of Tastes Past

 What item is it that we most remember when we have visited another city, a foreign land or a unique culture?  Some say the people and sights and yes that’s true, but what is the thing that we immediately try to master when we come home?  The food!  Something we had while we were there that we have never tasted somewhere else.  And try as we may, it seems impossible to match the taste when we try to cook it.  Why?

 First of all, the atmosphere is missing.  The sights… the smells… the sounds.  All of these senses can play into our taste.  If you have ever travelled for any extended period or been able to live somewhere else you will know what I am talking about.  Second are the ingredients.  Either we can’t get them locally or we don’t know what they all are.  This blog is for all who have such memories of tastes past.  It will examine the food we have loved and can include cultural insights and stories that these tastes past bring back.  We can also provide advice for mastering those tastes whenever possible.

 I was fortunate to be in the U.S. Navy during the 1980’s.  I say lucky because I was able to travel to many places, both in the U.S. and abroad that I couldn’t have otherwise.  The thing I remember the most about all of them were the different foods.  Sure I remember the sights and the people, but the food has become an obsession.  How can I recreate the flavor of a steak in Texas or fried rice with a sweet sauce in Japan?  I decided to take to the blog to share stories and ideas with others who may ask these or similar questions.

 The tastes bring back memories of events, places, faces and are usually happy ones.  As Andrew Zimmern says on Bizarre Foods, it’s hard not to like someone you share a meal with.  I believe that.  I think we try to re-create the flavors as part of a deeper yearning to re-create the memory.  Hopefully we’ll have many participants and can create new tastes or at least write lists of where we want to go when we visit a city or country.  While we all have different tastes, my guess is that the majority of you will also be a bit adventurous as well.

 So get those flavors brewing, stirring and simmering!  We should never run out of topics and even better, we’ll always new tastes to strive to master!  Bon appetit!

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