Shio Saba

Hi everyone, I am back from my PhD-induced blogger coma. All is well again for the time being, the sun is shining, although this scenery is far from the current reality of Sydney's winter rain. Yup, t'is the season of thick coat, funky winter boots, gorgeous scarfs and wintery food. I'm itching to make my own minestrone soup with some serious tomatoes and legumes, and depending on how chirpy I feel, maybe even celery (uggghhh).

Meanwhile, yesterday after catching a movie with my lab mates, I caught myself a bag of frozen Korean salted mackerel. Gosh I was the happiest girl in this city last night. It is, in my humble opinion, the most delicious fish especially growing up in a geographically remote location where the well-known tuna and salmon were almost unheard of. Despite this, we were and are blessed with mackerels. You know the species thrive when the locals make salted versions of the fish and steamed salted mackerel with young tumeric leaves and shallots is what I seek, I crave and I find when luck is beside me in my trip home. Here in Sydney, you can find mackerel in Japanese and Korean restaurants although theirs are much bigger than our pinky-to-thumb sized mackerels.
The Korean salted mackerel came in a pack of 3 fillets for $6.20. It was a relief because buying things there is sometimes a gamble. Firstly, I don't always know what I am buying because there's no English translation anywhere and every purchase is almost driven by pure curiousity and an adventurous spirit. Secondly, I can't always find the price. It's a bit of a pain because it takes me about 2 minutes to match one price tag on the shelve with the Korean writing on one packet. But anyway, I still go back there again and again like an addict.

All that I did to make a meal was to score the X on the fillet and grill the baby, press "cook" on my rice cooker, and shred some vegetables. Done.