I Prefer Fish That Tastes Like Chicken...

Light, flaky, and not to fishy.  It wasn't uncommon to hear me say, "I prefer fish that tastes like chicken..."  That's what I use to say after some bad experiences with fish.  The closer it tasted like chicken (according to my immature palate), the more I liked it.  I had a few bad experiences as a child with some bad fish, and that was the end for me for quite some time.

1)  Growing up my mom would force my brother and I to eat fish every day during Holy Week and Fridays during Lent because we were good Catholics...I HATED THAT! (Now that I'm a non-practicing Catholic and there's no dietary restriction I look forward to engorging in sea food during the entire Lenten season.)  During Holy Week and Fridays of Lent we were forced to eat sardines, salmon, tuna...all from a can.  I was stuck bringing that crap to school for lunch that week and Fridays. At night, my mom would throw together some quick fish concoction or some crap from the freezer section that was never quite cooked all the way through.  But one day my mom hit the jackpot and bought fish sticks made by a particular fisherman and it was divine!

I was a latch-key child when I was little, so many afternoons instead of going over to the neighbor's house I'd go home and take care of myself until my parents got home from work or my older brother got home from school. We were 6 years apart, so while I was in elementary and middle school my brother was in high school.  Innywho...the next day after school I got it in my head that I could recreate the yumminess my mom made for dinner the night before.  I thought I could just break open the package, read the instructions, and cook the fish sticks myself. Oh wait! I forgot to mention...My mom made the tartar sauce from scratch that night for dinner as well. I think the instructions were on the package.  What's the point of this long-winded story about my after school snack? Well, I popped those fish sticks in the oven, mixed up the ingredients for the tartar sauce just like I saw mom do the night before. When the fish sticks were "done" and tartar sauce "ready" I was excited to dig in...only to bite into damn near raw fish in the middle and runny soupy tartar sauce on the outside! EEEEEEWWWWWWW...I gagged and gagged!!!!  Clearly, I screwed up my Mom's yummy tartar  sauce recipe and I dunno how you screw up fish sticks, but I managed to do just that! For years I became a vegetarian during holy week rather eat anything that swam in the sea!

At some point I got over my seafood hatred (because that experience soured me on ALL things that lived in the sea) and picked up a tuna fish habit. I loved to eat tuna salad spread on these crackers made by Goya.  One day, I made a tuna salad as I had many times before, I spread it on my crackers as I had many times before, and then I took one bite. :-( EEEEEEWWWWWW...Well, apparently over night I had developed an aversion to chunky white tuna and the dark meat and veiny strings that run through it. (OH I'M STARTING TO GAG JUST THINKING ABOUT IT!)  The combo of the fishy smell up my nose and the pungent taste on my tongue sent EVERYTHING I ate that day (including the one bite) out of my stomach, up my esophagus, and shooting out of my mouth like something out of the Exorcist! I was shooting projectiles of food, it seemed, for like  a good 5 to 10 minutes before I finally composed myself.  I was turning all shades of green!  OMG What a day! Well, suffice it to say that I and didn't touch tuna fish or any other fish again for another 5 years or so. This time I restricted my seafood idiosyncrasy to just fish.  Crabs and shrimp were still good friends of mine...

So years go by without me eating fish, something my mom makes at least a couple times a month, and I'd refuse.  How long though can you can say no to your mother's cooking before she lays in one  of her patented guilt trips that you only learn how to do after giving birth? You know it's my Momma...when she cooks something and her kid won't eat, boy are her feelings hurt!  Then she lays into you about the horrible labor pains, and you know wha? You can so no only but so many times before you give in...

So after about 5 long years of my mom making fish about 2 to 3 times a month and my mother promising to make me fish that tastes like chicken I relented. My mom started with cat fish nuggets...then tilapia...then cod...all light, mild, flaky options.  But then one summer I went to South Africa and stayed in Cape Town for my summer abroad program. How does one live in a sea port and now try the seafood????  IMPOSSIBLE! I ate it all: KING FISH, TIGER FISH, WHATEVER FISH CAME OFF THOSE BOATS! Then I moved to  Trinidad for a short while and enjoyed bake and shark (recipe coming soon!)...and now I'm eating Mahi Mahi and Trout...and Red Snapper! My friend Chef Ivan makes the BEST red snapper filet with a mango salsa...TO DIE FOR!!!! 

But a daughter always goes back to Mom's basics.  My first fish offering is actually a new dish in my Mom's repertoire: Oven Fried Fish (new recipe) with Homemade Tartar Sauce (not so new recipe)...enjoy my mother's recipe (that she adapted from Rachel Ray  just last year) and tell me what you think!