Saturday Night: Fish!

Some girls spend their Saturday nights out: dinner and a movie, drinks and dancing. I often spend my Saturday night experimenting with food while listening to my favorite podcasts. For example, last Saturday was spent up to my ears in fish viscera while being entertained by MacBreak Weekly, Girls Gone Geek and Generally Speaking. Fun, right?

Actually, it was.

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a marketing agent for Kona Blue and asked if I would like a sample of Kona Kampachi to try and, only if I wished, write about. I agreed, saying that I'd love to try it and would be happy to write about it as long as I genuinely liked it. I had the choice of receiving the fish whole, cleaned or filleted, and as I'd never worked with a whole fish before, I decided the take the more adventurous route.

I did some research on cleaning fish in my reference books, On Cooking and The Professional Chef, and found resources online from Cooking Enthusiast and Dummies.com. Then I jumped right in, rather clumsily and making a fairly big mess, and ended with two notably uneven fillets (the second side went more smoothly than the first). I'm sure I left a shameful amount of fish on the bone, but I froze the the head and bones to make fish stock at a later date.

It seems, from what I've read online, that Kona Kampachi is especially tasty raw, but I'm still not comfortable enough with raw food preparation to attempt sashimi in my home kitchen. I decided to pan sear it, since that's the method that I'm most comfortable with, with just some salt and pepper so that I wouldn't be getting anything but the full flavor of the fish. I cooked half leaving the skin on and half skinned, and preferred the skin on. A trick to this is to remove the skin after the fish is cooked and continue to crisp it up a bit in the pan.

The fish was delicious—moist and full of flavor. Kona Kampachi has a 30 percent fat content, which makes it tasty and hard to overcook (my initial cooking was on the rare side, but I actually preferred it medium). It also makes it a good source of Omega 3's, so it's also a healthy choice. I'd like to try it again, and next time I may steam it.

If you'd like to try Kona Kampachi but your local restaurants aren't serving it yet (it only recently reached the Chicago market), you can order it online directly from Kona Blue, or find it at Whole Foods. If you're in the Chicago area but would prefer to try Kona Kampachi at home, you can find it at Dirk's (it's currently listed at one of Dirk's favorites).

Eleven City Diner 2.0

Just look at that motzoh ball!

All the talk of Eleven City Diner yesterday, combined with still feeling a little under the weather, meant that I had to pay a visit today. In the process, I gathered a bit more information. First, upon perusing their menu for orange juice (they have fresh squeezed, and it was marvelous) I noticed that they have a menu item named the 'Tom Waits 2am Breakfast 1987: 2 Eggs, 2 Flapjacks, 2 Bacon, 2 Sausage, House Potatoes." They also have a photo of Tom Waits up behind the bar. I asked about it while I was waiting for my orange juice, and while the guy behind the bar seemed slightly confused by my interest, he said that the owner had met Tom Waits at a diner around 2am and that's what he was eating. This officially makes Eleven City Diner the coolest diner ever. Just so you know.

I also noticed that I like their menu design. The Rx marks by the chicken soup are cute.

Upon closer inspection (they are now employing labels) the freezer contains chicken broth, not chicken stock (labeled Chicken Soup but it's broth). Still, quite handy, especially since the broth is very good. And their coffee supplier is Lavazza (although I'm pretty sure that it was previously Intelligentsia).