GB fishes. From the mother ship, The Fox. From the dinghy, Grey Fox. Underway. At anchor. Even when all I want to do is get from The Fox to the nearest stinkin' beach for a short walk, he's all about, "Do you mind if I dip a hook?"
"..."
[clenched teeth] "Why, no, my sweet, go right ahead - for the 40 feet we have to the beach...."
So from my perspective I am impelled to spend a lot of time and energy - more than I would prefer - dealing with fishly things. But GB and I have come to an understanding, that I identify whatever he catches (to satisfy my Amateur Biology Geek urges), and he cooks and we eat whatever I pronounce from my analysis as Not Toxic. He enjoys (as do I) the peace that comes from him reef-fishing for 3 hours 'most every morning in the dinghy by himself -- and it's hard to argue with the results. Feast your eyes upon these before-and-after photos:
To the left we have two spotted sea bass, and a larger goldspotted bass that GB caught off one of the entrance points to San Juanico, (between Loreto and Santa Rosalia on the eastern shore of the Baja peninsula). GB honored them by pan-frying them stovetop, accompanied by rice with roasted garlic & poblano chile mixed in, and a side of chopped nopales* (poached to draw off some of the cactus-snot, then pan-fried in oil & garlic & lime). Here's what the fishies looked like when GB plated them. The chopped nopales are at 9 o'clock on the plate:
* Prickly pear catcus pads. Cheap veggie. Highly nutritious & full o' antioxidants. Sold almost everywhere in any Mexican market, large or small, most of them with the spines already removed for your convenient eating enjoyment. Tend to give off an okra-like slime that can be controlled with cooking technique.
San Juanico has lots of reefs, hence lots of reef fish, hence GB was floatin' in the dinghy a lot between 0730 and 1100. He nabbed quite a variety of reef fish another morning: an orangeside triggerfish, 2 good-size burrito grunts, a spotted sea bass, a yellow snapper, and another as-yet-unidentified snapper-like critter**:
Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of what GB made from all this fish - but it was a lot of food, 2 big meals for the 2 of us, plus dinner for 4 on another night; about 4 pounds of fillet all told - from multi-course dinners to lunchtime tacos.
The Propane Chef was on a roll. So when we anchored at Playa Santispac in Bahia de Concepcion he did what now comes natural for him: he went fishin' in the dinghy. This time with good friend Geoff from Curare, who happened to have beaten us into the anchorage by like 10 minutes. Both boys did well and came home with spotted rose snappers - Geoff nabbed the bigger one, GB, being in a Japanese mood, took the 2 smaller ones. He had some sushi rice he'd bought in La Paz, some nori he'd kept safe since Seattle, and some fresh carrots, cabbage and cucumber (all of which last fairly long on a cruising boat), plus some mushrooms in one of those shelf-stable boxlike cartons, and his usual array of soy sauce and other condiments...and he came up with this meal - 10 days after his last onshore provisioning of any kind:
Here we have sushi - both vegetarian (with mushrooms reduced in mirin (sweet sake), a bit of honey, and soy sauce) and fishly (the other group of sushi rolls with the cucumber and pink centers - that's the fish); chopped spicy sashimi (chopped fish with a red Thai sriracha sauce you can get at any Asian market), a spicy Thai-style cabbage slaw (rice vinegar, dash of sugar, hot pepper flakes & a touch of both olive and sesame oil), and poached carrots marinated in vinegar & hot pepper flakes. Wasabi and soy sauce for dipping on the side. Yes; The Propane Chef has these items on board the boat. Always has. The condiments are all kept in the galley cabinets, and the other stuff (rice, nori, etc.) keeps for a bazillion years if properly sealed in Ziploc bags.
** all you wildlife biologists and fisherfolk out there? Help a girl out - what's a snapper that has the rosy coloration, gold-olive tinge on the dorsal side, and the blue streaks along the body? Like this guy below the orangeside triggerfish? And while you're at it - the little guy at the bottom of the spotted rose snapper pic above? He was too injured to release, but we don't know what he was. Oragne spots on body and dorsal fins, orange streaks around face...who is he???
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