Maybe if We Called Them Mini Trout

As I predicted the sardines were not the major seller. Even the GM wouldn't go near them. However, it was D-E-A-D last night. So much so that we left early. We did sell one order of the sardines and I thoroughly enjoyed mine.

Tonight there are a number of events going on in and around town. A circus south of us, a "pops" concert in town and a Yucatecan dance performance. The young hipsters will be at the first, not sure who will be at the second and all the kitchen workers in town will be at the third. So we have no idea what to expect from tonight. Either another dead evening or slammed.

Tonight we've got quail to work with, the sardines and 12 oz bone-in NY steaks (also known as a club steak). I thinking grilled quail with fava bean ravioli. One of the advantages of having a new prep guy is I can do ravioli now. It's a time consuming process and one I do infrequently because I never had enough hands.

Last night I also made a rose (that's ro-zay, not roz) gelee to put on our strawberry shortcake. We'll see how it comes out.

Comments

[cedichou]

Sardines remind me of a French friend of mine whose American wife was hosting a bbq for his birthday at her brother's. The French guy used to sail in Brittany and such, so I thought I would bring some sardines to grill on the bbq. Just grilled with a bit of lemon juice, it's delicious. I got so much grief from the bbq hosts! How did I dare bring sardines. It totally caught me blindsided.

The worst part is that I had to look all over town to find them, eventually found them at some out of the way fish market on san bruno ave in the excelsior. Since my friend did not want to antagonize his brother-in-law, he maybe had one sardine. I knew they were gonna toss them out as soon as I had my back turned, so I took them back with me.

The day after, I drove up to burning man, and I was eating cold sardine with mayo, which is delicious, minding my own business. I did not offer any to the people I was with then, out of fear they would reject my sardines again. But they inquired, what is it? can I try? And they liked it!!!

Morale: suburban crowd in San Jose not very adventurous. BM crowd: much more. I guess that had to be expected.

[max]

There's a "recipe" for sardines in Lulu's Provencal Kitchen that consists of grilling them on vine cuttings. Not even gutted. You eat them with your fingers. Try that one on your clientele.