It’s been two and a bit years since I added fish to my previously lacto-ovo vegetarian diet. It was an interesting adventure, but one that my conscience couldn’t persist. I’ve always known somewhat hazily that I wanted to go back to being a “straight up” vegetarian. But I also knew I wanted to have some “good fish” while in New Zealand, a country that is pretty much entirely seaside. NZ seemed like a good place to end my sea fare consumption on a high note.
Last Wednesday I had my final fishy meal at “dine”, a posh restaurant in Auckland. dine is a Peter Gordon deal, Peter Gordon being one those “celebrity chef” type characters, a name you’d know if you cared about things like Michelin stars and molecular gastronomy. (weird: i suddenly find myself in a social place where chefs carry more weight than movie stars and Michilin stars are more sought after than academy awards.) i don’t usually go in for the pompasity of fine dining, preferring instead something a quainter, louder, cheaper, but usually more authentic (right now I’m thinking of Islington’s Mediterranean delight, Mem & Laz, which manages to seat at least 20 in a space that’s more of a walk-in closet than a restaurant. But the coziness adds to its flair, as does the candlelight, halmoumi, fantastic and cheap house wine, and a bill that’s usually less than £30 for a 2-course meal for two).
But sometimes I throw bargains to the wind and t-shirts to the hamper. Oh, and leave the wine list on the table, please.
I started with “whitebait fritters”. Whitebait is a tiny fish, about an inch long and only a few millimeters in diameter. I was expecting something like a fish cake, but it turns out that the whitebait variety of fritter is more of an omelet than anything else. Whole whitebait are used in the eggy concoction, a quality of the food that some find difficult to deal with (it’s all in the eyes, I reckon). The taste reminded me a bit of egg foo young, minus the msg. It was okay but not spectacular. Tim’s seared tuna, on the other hand, was superb. It came with a tangy yuzu umeboshi dressing that managed to be flavourful without overpowering the taste of the fish. Thanks for the bite!
For my main dish, I had a “pan-roast North Island snapper on Israeli couscous and bok choy with tom yum broth and green-pea, shiitake and karengo salsa”. I didn’t really get a sense of the shiitake or karengo (whatever that is), but I love peas so loved the salsa anyway. And the Israeli couscous was really cool - larger than regular couscous, pearly but firm like cooked wheatberries. I may have to add it to my repertoire at home. The snapper was delicious, and took my time savouring each bite. And when it was gone, I felt satisfied, both with my meal, and my stint as a fake vegetarian.
Will I ever go back to eating fish? Maybe, depending on where I happy to be living (NZ, for example, had beautiful produce but a dearth of vegetarian fair on its cafe menus). These are my sentiments at the moment: I’ll eat fish again if I catch it myself. (Note: this is not a subtle hint that I want a fishing pole for my birthday.)
I didn’t intend to “resolve” anything in honor of the new year, but here it seems I got caught up in the momentum. So be it. Thanks for the protein, now pass the soy beans!
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