EATER bashes tinned fish.

[gfweb]

3 minutes ago, Duvel said:

I’ll answer briefly, as others might feel differently:

 

#1: I understand the confusion, but tinned sardines are not meant to be eaten with bread. They are a vital ingredient of any sardine shake and 100g is the standard amount required for the breakfast version.

 

 

 

A sardine shake?  You are kidding, right?  Looks more like a colonoscopy prep to me.

 

 

[Duvel]

8 minutes ago, gfweb said:

 

A sardine shake?  You are kidding, right? 

 

It is the natural evolution of the tuna shake, but with more omega 3 fats …

 

9 minutes ago, gfweb said:

Looks more like a colonoscopy prep to me.

“You want to get huuuuuge, or what ?!”

[Katie Meadow]

8 hours ago, Duvel said:

It is the natural evolution of the tuna shake, but with more omega 3 fats …

 

“You want to get huuuuuge, or what ?!”

Okay, a sardine shake is a truly revolting idea. 

[C. sapidus]

For a quick light meal, a can of grocery store sardines drizzled with hot sauce hits the spot. Dogs appreciate licking fishy oil from the empty container. Everyone wins, except the sardines.

 

Canned anchovies are lovely as is.

 

With regard to the article, I chose not click on the bait.

[MaryIsobel]

My husband often has a can of sardines and a hard boiled egg - both doused in hot sauce - for breakfast. The smell sometimes makes me question why I married him. Fortunately he does have redeeming qualities. I am not opposed to either but don't care to be greeted by that aroma first thing in the morning!

[Anchobrie]

On 8/30/2023 at 2:32 PM, btbyrd said:

There's a lot to say about the current tinned fish trend and this piece manages to say none of it properly. Its central claim, that "even the best tinned fish is just okay," is false. I think it's because the author hasn't really eaten much good canned fish. There are plenty of excellent tins that scream luxury and are obviously are more than "just okay." The author is coming from a place of ignorance and inexperience, and that's a bad place from which to issue cultural criticism. You end up producing hacky clickbait instead of food journalism.

 

For what it's worth, endorse the author's remark that "if I’m never asked to pay $20 for a plate of cold, canned sardines at a restaurant again, it will be too soon." Agreed, though Gabrielle Hamilton gets a pass. What's worse are the wine bars that mirthlessly serve entire menus of conservas at spectacular prices. The markup is enormous on already expensive products, and the food is never served in a way that you couldn't do at home. If you want to feature tinned fish in a dish, make a dish. Don't open a $10 tin and put it on a plate with some toast points and cornichon and charge me $35 for it. I will never eat at your restaurant. My life is that restaurant.

 

Speaking of price, the author complains that it can "cost as much as $26 for a single can of tuna." As someone who has paid $40 for a tin of tuna, I can tell you that she's not reaching high enough. There's a $66 tin of grilled red tuna neck that I'm dying to try but I'm waiting for the right occasion. But her remarks make me wonder if she's ever even tasted ventresca. Nobody tell her about the baby eels.

 

Since the author went out of her way not to name Fishwife, I'll call them out for having products that are too expensive, overhyped, and mostly sold on the strength of their branding. Honestly, that's all that Fishwife is: branding. Their actual products aren't produced or canned by them... they just slap Gurrl Power! boxes on them and charge a huge markup (and then make you pay for shipping). The fish itself, at least in their classic smoked offerings, is overly firm and too salty. You have to chum it up and mix it in with other things, and that's stupid when you're paying $15 a tin -- especially when you can get hot smoked fish that's much better and much less expensive at the seafood counter. The author made a similar point, and I'm totally with her on that.

 

Finally, I think we can all agree that it's dumb to put gold leaf in a tin of sardines. 

 

I see your point, but then, what is the fair margin a restaurant should use for tins? the same used for soft drinks? maybe the same as for wines? X2, X3? 

The role of the restaurants in wine and soft drinks is roughly the same than for tins.

I also check fishwife and I have to agree, they just make colorful (too much) boxes (and surely make a good search for god quality products). I found weird that in their website they state that they want to make that delicious seafood a "staple" in every cupboard. Well, they may need to realize that most people cannot have their products at their tag price as a staple in their cupboards....

[btbyrd]

54 minutes ago, Anchobrie said:

 

I see your point, but then, what is the fair margin a restaurant should use for tins? the same used for soft drinks? maybe the same as for wines? X2, X3? 

The role of the restaurants in wine and soft drinks is roughly the same than for tins.

I also check fishwife and I have to agree, they just make colorful (too much) boxes (and surely make a good search for god quality products). I found weird that in their website they state that they want to make that delicious seafood a "staple" in every cupboard. Well, they may need to realize that most people cannot have their products at their tag price as a staple in their cupboards....

 

I'm not offended by the margins but by the offering itself. Tins and toast is a joke. To do so little and ask so much is an affront to me. Artless, boring, expensive. Make some pintxos or tapas. Manipulate the ingredient. Present novel (or even classic) flavor combinations. Present various species from different tins with different garnishes. Make the fish sing. You know... do some freaking work. Lazy food at high prices ain't my bag.

For what it's worth, I also think it's stupid to pay a lot of money for wine at restaurants. When I do that, there's usually a tasting menu involved so there's at least some art and skill behind presenting a progression of pairings. Or else I'm getting crunk at half price prosecco/cava night. But mostly I don't do either. As for soft drinks, I'm the person who has fifteen refills of diet soda. Not out of spite, but because I'm a monster. In any event way, they've earned their markup there -- at least with me.

[blue_dolphin]

On 8/30/2023 at 12:32 PM, btbyrd said:

What's worse are the wine bars that mirthlessly serve entire menus of conservas at spectacular prices. The markup is enormous on already expensive products, and the food is never served in a way that you couldn't do at home. If you want to feature tinned fish in a dish, make a dish. Don't open a $10 tin and put it on a plate with some toast points and cornichon and charge me $35 for it. I will never eat at your restaurant.

 

1 hour ago, Anchobrie said:

I see your point, but then, what is the fair margin a restaurant should use for tins? the same used for soft drinks? maybe the same as for wines? X2, X3? 

The role of the restaurants in wine and soft drinks is roughly the same than for tins.

 

I was wondering about this as well. Restaurateur Kathy Sidell opened a branch of Saltie Girl in LA.  They're a full-on restaurant, not just a wine bar opening tins of fish here and there, but their tinned fish menu is part of their draw. They serve tins with a trio of salts, French butter, pickled piparra peppers, a house-made piquillo pepper jam and french bread and they offer an interesting selection.  I'd say that goes beyond sourcing and opening bottle of lemon water Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio and pouring it into a wine glass.  The mark-ups seem fairly reasonable to me so I'd be as willing to pay as I am when I find unusual wines in a restaurant.  

 

But I agree that paying three or four times retail for widely available, low-end products isn't appealing, whether it's wine or tinned fish!

 

 

Edited September 13, 2023 by blue_dolphin
to add missing link (log)

[Katie Meadow]

I don't think of tinned fish as a low-end product, but I do think of it as pantry food. I can open a can as well as a restaurant kitchen. And I can serve my tinned sardines and open a jar of pickled piparra peppers at home, when I don't feel like cooking or eating out.

 

Here's my favorite sardine meal these days: Japanese rice made in the Zoji. Nuri spicy sardines plus the oil served on the rice. And for color I add some jarred Matiz piquilllo peppers. On the side I have some thin slices of cucumber with a little salt, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar and a sprinkle of black and white sesame seeds. All good, especially when there's little in the fridge.

 

[palo]

Speaking of sardines:

 

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/14/europe/botulism-death-france-scli-intl/index.html

 

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