Sardines / Winter Storm
I’ve been really into sardines these days. It started in California when Dad brought home a six pack of sardines from Costco and it stuck with me all the way to the present in New York. It’s a near daily staple for me at this point.
The way I eat these days: banana, berry, kale, protein smoothie for lunch. Sardines with mayo and dijon mustard on toast for dinner. And I’m good to go (at this point in my life I don’t care if I eat nearly the same thing every day during the weekdays).
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On a side note: I read this article on fat loss recently and it inspired me to start counting my calories just for a while to see how much I’m actually eating. A bit naive to say but it really surprised me how much of my calories go into random things like sauces and mayo and olive oil. I don’t plan on counting calories religiously but it’ll be interesting to track what I eat while I’m stuck at home anyways.
For reference I’m budgeting ~1700 calories per day. Another interesting point—the article recommends eating 1 gram of protein per pound that you weigh. That’s a whole lot of protein damn.
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Anyways back to the sardines. After a bit of trial and error my favorite pack of sardines right now is King Oscar’s Brisling Sardines in Extra Virgin Olive Oil (5/21 edit: I’m over the King Oscar Brislings. Too oily. My current favorite is the olive oil packed Bela Sardines)
Once you’ve been in the sardine game for a while you kinda get a feel for what you like and don’t like in a can. There’s a good amount of variety here.
First is the type of sardine. You may not realize but sardine is a term that covers multiple different species. You could eat a pack of sardines from one company and it could be a completely different species from the next.
This leads to the sardine packing. Depending on the species of sardines in the pack you choose you might get a big species where 2-3 filets can take up the entire space of the can OR you might get a small species where you can squeeze in at least 12 individual fish before you start running out of space.
Once you get past the species and size you also have to decide whether you want skinless and boneless or you want the sardine as nature intended.
And finally you have to decide about the pack filling. Common flavors include
sardine in oil
sardine in hot sauce
sardine in lemon sauce
sardine in tomato sauce
and so on…
Some other things I like about sardines:
High in protein
High in fish oil, vitamins and all that other random good stuff
AND because they’re low on the species chain they contain a significantly lower amount of mercury compared to something like tuna.
There truly is a world around sardines. People like to collect them like you’d collect Pokemon cards. I stumbled on this blog (started in 2011 and still going strong to this day) that’s dedicated to collecting and reviewing different cans of sardines. At last count this guy has reviewed 634 different cans of sardines.
I’m probably not going to do this but I can see the appeal of collecting different sardine cans. Some of these can designs are pretty aesthetic and I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a museum of canned food art somewhere in the world that features them.
Another fact that really surprised me: You’re probably aware of vintages in wines where people collect and prize older wines from certain years.
This is a thing that exists in the sardine world as well!
Certain companies (like my current favorite King Oscar) will set aside the best of the best cans in a certain year and release them years later as a vintage. On an individual level there are collectors that will set aside some cans for years (they just have to flip the cans every once in a while so the liquid covers the fish from top to bottom). Apparently the longer the fish is in the can the better the flavors get to know each other. Here’s an entry in the sardine blog where the writer eats a 32 year old tin of sardines.
Last bit of sardine trivia for tonight: King Oscar runs an annual sardine Haiku contest where winners can receive some of these coveted vintage sardines. I hope to enter next year.
From all this sardine research I walk away with the desire to one day visit Portugal (one might call it the sardine capital of the world) to check out the sardines. Maybe tour a cannery if they’re open 😍.
Besides my research on sardines this week has not been very eventful (perhaps evident by the amount of research I did on sardines).
Some highlights:
Went to my annual check up at a new doctor. The view from her office is almost beautiful enough to make me want to go to the doctor’s office.
Got KBBQ with Tony and Annie in Koreatown. Literally my first time in Ktown (or midtown for that matter) in almost a year. They set up these heated tents that almost gave me a pocha vibe. Tony—for some reason—was fixated on the brisket so we ended up getting at least 6 servings of that. We also got a somaek tower which ended up being pretty fun. Will miss these guys when they move to the bay
Discovered a new spot for beef patties. I took a walk Sunday afternoon in the hopes of experiencing the winter storm that was projected to hit NY. Wandered over to 3D Bakery where I had one of the best beef patties I’ve had in a while. Super flaky crust. Flavorful warm beef filling. Great way to experience the cold.
Took a walk after the winter storm came down. I have not seen this much snow in a long time.
