Foraging the Bay

Herring season is here! Since the boy struck out catching any herring (timing is everything, and we were out of town at the height of the local herring spawn), we decided that a consolation prize would be herring eggs. 

Herring eggs on seaweed

We now have a jar of brined herring eggs, and they are rad. Not surprisingly, they're crunchy, slightly salty, and mildly fishy. It's their crunch that makes me want to sprinkle them on everything I eat. I even mixed some in with mashed potatoes the other day.

Brined herring eggs - they should last a few weeks refrigerated

Still, as pleased as I am with our consolation prize, I wish he was able to score some herring. I had dreams of making pickled herring, but that is not to be. Our salmon supply is almost out, and I've become accustomed to having fish a few times a week. Even better is that I don't cook or clean any of that fish since this is the boy's thing.

If you'd like to chase herring, the best way to keep track of the spawns is by checking the CDFW's herring blog: https://cdfwherring.wordpress.com. The herring come to the Bay Area from November to February, and the chase is on when they get here because, as mentioned earlier, timing is everything. We were in town a few days after the big spawn in Richmond, and we didn't get squat.

Happy 2016!

Diwali Cow

Happy New Year!  Although it's been awhile since I've nurtured my blog, there have been many things happening that are worth documenting. Sadly, Instagram is so, well, instant that once I post something there, I feel like it doesn't need mentioning again.  But, as I found out last night when I wanted to make renkon kinpra for a dinner party, Instagram has it's downfalls. It's not searchable, and it's not the right format for more than a few sentences at a time.

Cow and dog on Goan beach

Last November, I spent three weeks on a food tour of India. What this trip did was make me and the boy go on an Indian cooking spree that still hasn't fully ended - and I hope it never does! It also made me hungry to visit the country again, because I only visited a handful of cities (Dehli, Agra, Bijapur, Udaipur, Jaipur, Mumbai, Goa). The regional differences surprised me. For example, even if I spoke fluent Hindi (one of India official languages), there would be people who wouldn't be able to understand me. To an American, that's such a strange concept because I can speak English anywhere in the USA and it would be reasonable to expect that the person I'm talking to also speaks English. Not so with Hindi in India. I met a women born and raised in Mumbai who couldn't speak any Hindi, but she spoke fluent English.

Since the trip, I've been immersing myself in Bollywood movies and music, Indian history (I finally broke down and watched the movie Ghandi, and am watching every food show on India that Netflix instant streaming has to offer. The more I learn, the more I find that I need to learn more. There's serious talk about going to India again this year, this time Southern India, and taking mostly cooking classes and maybe a few yoga classes. 

Remind me to tell you one day about how I almost tipped a raj - luckily , the crisis was averted by dumb luck.