THE WINNER OF THE GREAT TASTE:LOOKS UGLY RATIO!
Consider yourself warned, I’m restating this - if your’e a vegan or a vegetarian, you just might want to skip this post.
When I was younger, my friends and I used to joke about singers (often singer/song writers) who seemed to have terrible singing voices, but somehow found songs that went well with their voices. My personal #1 was Rod Stewart, but one could just as easily top their personal list with Neil Young, Janis Joplin or Joe Cocker (people like Yoko Ono don’t count despite their inability to sing - I can’t think of any song that could go well with her voice). And then there’s always everyone’s #2 if not #1, Bob Dylan. Great musician, but . . . . Well, when we were in Madeira we started thinking about the animal that has the highest great tastes to looks ugly ratio that we’ve ever eaten and we think we discovered it.
You should understand that this, in a juvenile way, is a very interesting concept. Face it, I’ve eaten sugared crickets from Japan and they were both good and, in original form and cooked, not very attractive. Perhaps that was the bar here. Our Madeira discovery topped that bar, on both ends. But I guess we should set some guidelines first, because we’re talking about ugly in original form, not as it appears on the plate.
If you’re thinking about great tasting but odd as it appears on the plate, competing with the above-noted crickets must be what has become one of my favorites since I’ve moved to Portugal - Polvo. In fact, I had it my first night in Madeira, and it did not disappoint. Delicious!
In case you’ve forgotten, yes, Polvo is octopus. And the Portuguese know how to cook it. In fact, I had it twice while I was in madeira.
But as I said, the rules are not “disturbing” as it appears on the plate (although I’m no longer disturbed at seeing a well-cooked tentacle on my plate as I used to be), but what the animal it comes from looks like in real life. And the fact is, I don’t find octopi ugly.
Given that Portuguese cuisine is not loaded with delicacies such as grubs or evil looking . . . insects, spiders, etc . . . pick your poison, it does include a fair amount of tripe and typical animal parts from animals I otherwise generally eat (cows, pigs and chickens), but refrain from said parts. And that’s what our #1 Great Taste - Looks Ugly meal comes from, something you would otherwise normally eat.
As you might guess, it’s a fish. To throw out a teaser at this stage of the post, more than one travel guide recommended that people try the meal first, before looking up what the fish looks like. Yeah, it’s that nasty looking.
We had a lot of fish during our trip in Madeira. The catch of the day is usually splendid and I didn’t regret a single meal when that’s what I had.
Portuguese chefs know both how to cook the fish well, and how to supplement it with something creative whether quinoa (above) or risotto (below).
When out dining in Portugal, I’ll more often than not order some kind of seafood. I’m now to the point where I generally know the fish name better in Portuguese than in English. Sea bass? I couldn’t tell you. But say Robalo, and I’ll respond, “Oh, it’s delicious.” Same thing for sea bream/ gilt-head bream. I had to flip from the English menu to the Portuguese menu to decide, “I’ll have the Dourada.”
My apologies for the mangled fish. I dug into it before I realized I hadn’t photographed it, so I flipped it over for the shot.
So what is this fish that is so horrifying looking? Its cooked name is Espada. Note, Espada, not to be confused with Espetada, which is meat on a skewer cooked over an open fire.
That too is a Madeira specialty and is also excellent, in both its beef and pork form. But we’re talking about Espada, the fish meal, which is also a Madeira speciality.
My first Espada came at a nice little restaurant where the chef had his own twist to the meal. In Madeira, Espada (a filet of the fish) is often severed with a cooked banana on top. This chef first wrapped the filet in phyllo pastry and not only did the cooked banana on top thing, but included a passion-fruit sauce on it to boot.
It was heaven to the taste buds. Oh yeah, they made their own freshly pressed poncha too. Aguardente de Cana (I.e. alcohol), honey, sugar, lemon juice and orange juice. Pretty yummy as well.
On other occasions, the Espada filet stood largely on its own, this time lightly breaded with some garlic on top. Just perfect with our sangria.
And other times, once at your normal eat-in restaurant (nothing fancy), the meal was just that - a filet with a cooked banana on it and vegetables on the side.
But whether part of a deluxe presentation (above) or a simple, well prepared dish (below), I never once regretted ordering the Espada. It was moist and never dry, and always tasty. So now that I’ve established the one end of the scale (Great Taste), you’re probably wondering what’s on the other end of the scale (Ugly). Well, Espada is a filet from a black scabbardfish.
As you can see below, they are not your most attractive fish. They’re long, black, slimy, with huge eyes, and nasty looking teeth.
I think I missed my best opportunity to photograph them (a beautiful display at a Continente where the open-mouth-teeth were lined up in a row like soldiers in formation), but I thank that display for giving me the idea to do this post.
Below is a sharper image taken with my point-and shoot just to give you an idea of those teeth!
Black scabbard fish are long and shaped like a scabbard (duh). They are a deep dwelling fish that range from 500 feet to 6,000 feet below sea level at one of several select areas around the world. One of those locations is about 5 -10 miles south of Madeira. At those depths, there is no light, so their eyes are very sensitive. Apparently they are fished using deep lines and die due to decompression as the lines are brought in.
They are ugly and nasty looking. But oh so delicious. Thus, top of the Great Taste to Ugly ratio.
If you think I’m exaggerating the photos in any way, do a Google image search. You’ll see I’m right.
Now you see why the travel books say try Espada first before you look at any black scabbard fish photos.
(POST NOTE: One advantage of SquareSpace’s uploading problems is that we’ve had time to go shopping here in Braga in the week between when this story was written and then posted. We can buy black (and white) scabbard fish here in Braga. Now I just have to convince Ann that she wants to learn how to cook it!).