The more colorful the origin story of a recipe, the less likely it is to be true. But that doesn't make them any less entertaining. One of Nancy Leson's favorites is the account in James Michener's novel "Chesapeake" of how humans got the idea to eat oysters by watching seagulls drop them onto rocks. How else would they have known what was in those shells?
From there we moved on to other bits and pieces in this grab-bag edition of Food for Thought.
Nance wanted to know what I do about cooking when circumstances prevent a trip to the store. My answer, though hardly innovative, is at least honest: frozen leftovers. And I'm not too proud to open a can of chili and "beef" it up with whatever frozen ground meat I've stashed away for just such an occasion.
From there, I began whining about how once cheap and flavorful cuts of meat like oxtails, though still flavorful, are no longer cheap. To which Nancy mentioned the collar, a tasty part just behind a fish's gills, still available for small bucks. She gets hers at Kuzma's Fish Market in Edmonds, where she lives.
Bon Appetit calls fish collars "the spareribs of the ocean," and offers complete directions on how to grill them. But Nancy's favorite use for salmon collars is the Filipino soup, salmon sinigang, as made by Auntie Leila Rosas at Pike Place Market's Oriental Mart. Here's a video recipe.
This week's bits and pieces grab bag ends with a terrible joke and a brief appearance by the Dave Clark Five.