THE WORLD YOUR SARDINE

 Did you know (and I certainly didn’t until about 24 hours ago) that sardines belong to the clupeoid group of fishes, in which there are  over 300 species?  These include Sardinia pilchardus pilchardus, Sardinella  aurita,  and Sardinops melanosticus, to name but a few.

This is only to say that I have no idea what kind of sardines we bought and ate last weekend from our trusty local fish man, who had gutted and decapitated them in advance.  But unidentified though they might be, heck they were good – dredged through a little seasoned flour, fried rather than grilled (though I gather grilled is the approved method) and served with samphire - how could you go wrong?

ABOVE PICS BY CAROLINE GANNON

After the fact I consulted Alan Davidson’s  The Oxford Book Companion to Food which tells us, ‘Canned Sardines are among the few canned products which have their own retinue of connoisseurs.’

I can see how that might work, though I think mostly I’d be in it for the design of the cans, which can be deeply wonderful:

 

And just in case three sardines each weren’t enough (though they were), and despite there being no R in the month (though only 2 weeks to go) we had a few oysters as well.  

They were some of the most difficult oysters I’ve ever had to open, but I got there in the end, and they tasted great - and no, I can't tell you what family they came from either.