trying new things

I mentioned on Twitter last night about "maybe this is the night to try the smoked trout I bought"

I picked up a can of the stuff (it comes in cans, like the little flat sardine cans) the last time I was at the natural-foods store. I did that for two reasons:

1. I used to LOVE smoked salmon, but the typical deli smoked salmon (the kind you usually get in bulk or in shrink wrap packages) is too high in sodium for me now, and this trout claimed to be quite low. (I don't always believe the sodium content claims of packaging, but this one might be right)

2. Fatty fish like salmon and trout (which is practically salmon: trout is a salmonid fish, same family) have certain nutrients good for you.

But I also have had some bad fish experiences in the past: there is not a lot of fish I like. (Fresh whitefish from the Great Lakes, yes, but only if it's really fresh and is sort of steamed. Panfish like perch, yeah, as long as they're cooked well (i.e., not fried in old oil). Monkfish, but I don't remember the last time I saw monkfish....and salmon). Fish that's a little older (and frankly, most of the "fresh" fish we get here is a little older by the time it gets to us) or fish that's really strongly fishy is unappealing to me. As is fish that's full of bones I am afraid of choking on. I don't care for catfish, either, it's a texture thing. And I don't really care for tilapia, and I've read a few things suggesting that regular consumption of tilapia might not be the bestest idea ever (but then, I never know how much you can trust "nutrition news"). And I dislike canned tuna to the point that in the classroom where students are allowed to eat, I ban tuna from my classes.

So anyway. I decided to try the trout, because I'm half-planning to go down to the natural-foods store (where I found the trout) and figured if I liked it, I could pick up another can or three. It has a really long shelf life - at least, the can I had, showed an expiration date of 2019. So I thought, "If I like this, it could be another 'emergency shelf' food."

I commented on Twitter that my "emergency shelf" looks a lot more like Niles or Frasier Crane's "emergency shelf" would than your garden-variety prepper's would....because most often the 'food emergencies" I have are of the "I need to eat something for dinner but lack the time or energy or motivation to cook up something" or "I need quality protein but there's no meat in the house and no time to buy any and if I eat another egg I'm going to be sick"

Or they're of the "I never get to eat anything 'special' and I want something 'special' and different" variety.

And yeah: smoked trout is expensive and definitely falls into the "delicacy" category but there are so few "delicacies" I eat any more (and I almost never eat in restaurants, because sodium), that I feel like I deserve a treat like that once in a while. (And I can afford it. I work hard and I don't spend a lot of money on other stuff).

So anyway. I was also kind of prepared not to like it, because of past bad fish experiences.

I made my little salad and my dish of red cabbage and my dish of fruit, and I toasted a piece of bread and cut it into toast points (and darn it, presentation IS important, even if you're eating alone) and put some cream cheese on them. And I opened up the trout and put a little on each toast point.

Smoked trout - at least this kind - is DELICIOUS. Yes, I will be buying more on my next trip to the natural foods store. I ate about half the can last night; I figured, even though fish is one of the more perishable foods out there, that the other half would keep at least through today and I could have it tonight.

This trout is more delicately-flavored than the smoked salmon I've had. I don't know if that's just that trout is milder than salmon to begin with, or if because it was tinned (and therefore, less in need of heavy duty preservatives), less salt and other things were used - but I was very happy with it.

I did wind up picking out a few pinbones. They claimed it was boned, and yeah, I could see where the backbone section would have been taken out, but there were tiny little bones, which are the one thing that bug me a little about fish. (And yes: with canned fish you can pretty much just crunch up the pinbones but it's just a "thing" for me, so I pulled out the ones I could see). It also had the skin on but that was easy enough to remove. (I SUPPOSE you can eat the skin but I couldn't tell how completely it had been scaled).

I'm also gonna look to see, I think the same company had a smoked salmon like the trout (but it's possible that I rejected it in favor of the trout because of higher sodium, I don't know)


EDITED TO ADD: Ooooooh, smoked-trout omelet. I'm going to have to try that. I just thought of that.