Wednesday, September 28

- A TALE OF TWO TUNAS

Last night I was walking home from work and stopped at a wonderful fish shop named Fish Tales on Court street in the neighborhood that borders mine. The fish mongers there are masters of their game. They know everything you could ask about and the store just gives off a great vibe. The shop is clean and has no fishy odor smell in it because they buy fresh every single day and get the highest grade possible.

This also means that the prices are not exactly cheap.

And I wanted Tuna.

Tuna be one pricey mother f'in fish ya know.

I think the price was $18-19 a pound because it's Sushi Grade, meaning as the man told me, "You could take a bite out of it right now." He then had to slap my hand away as I reached for the Tuna to do as instructed. I guess he meant hypothetically I could do that when I got home, if I wanted to.

I ended up not buying the fish because I wasn't going straight home and didn't want to walk around with a pound of 19 dollar tuna in my bag for the next hour. I might go back tonight and pick some up on my way home.

After finishing some other errands and heading home, I stopped in another fish store that was closer to my apartment. This one doesn't have quite the appeal of Fish Tales but seems to do good business.

As I entered the store I realized it was already closed. The fish was gone from the stainless steel trays but still an aroma wafted into my nostrils as I walked in.

There was a man standing there who said abruptly, "We're closed." I realized that but was just wondering if they sold tuna and how much per pound it was. "$9.99" was his response. I thought wow that is a HUGE price difference. For that price I might even feed Mingus some.

Then I realized he was standing there over the steel trays, smoking a cigarette inside. I was a little shocked. I asked if that tuna was sushi grade. He said yes it was.

Then by accident his cigarette slipped out of his mouth, first dropping on his shirt and then falling onto the floor. He just said "Whoops."

I thanked him and walked out.

UPDATE:

Yesterday during lunch I was walking around Chinatown with a friend. I normally hold my nose when passing by the open air fish shops because there is a pungent fishy aroma that really pierces the olfactory senses.

I had to stop though, and ask if they sold yellowfin tuna. Yes they did. Guess how much it was there? GUESS DAMMIT! $3.80 a pound!

WHAT?!?!?!

So basically tuna, which you would think shouldn't vary that much in price goes from:
- $19 a pound and the fancy pants place
- $10 a pound at the cigarette smoke shop
- $3.80 a pound at the stink-o-rama Canal Street fish spot.

I was confused and well... just mostly confused. Oh and hungry too.

I ended up choosing the middle of the three. The guy who apparently uses the shop as his personal ash tray wasn't there and it smelled okie dokie. A nice woman gave me a pound of fresh looking pink tuna which I promptly brought home and seared for a few minutes on each side in a bit of canola oil, after lightly patting it in salt and pepper of course.

I then prepared a reduction of chopped ginger, garlic, rice wine vinegar, and soy sauce until it became a syrupy consistency and drizzled it over the tuna.

Also made a nice mango salsa and pan fried string beans with olive oil and minced garlic...and had a nice dinner with a lady friend.

Looking back now the title should be "A Tale of Three Tuna's" but I'm not going to change it. Sorry

9 Comments:

At 11:09 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

brat

i dig the can, in fact i'm going to go gank some from your kitchen before i put your home surgery kit to good use.

ciao

 
At 11:13 AM, Blogger Daniel said...

I can't eat canned tuna anymore I think it tastes like stankfunk.

It shouldn't even be allowed to use the same name since the two are worlds apart.

 
At 4:02 PM, Blogger Kris said...

Ummm.. I hope this is fiction. If not which was the store that ran afoul with the Tuna?

Also, didn't you buy loads of bread last night? and why didn't you tell me this then?

Did you have visions of sugarplum fairies dancing in your head?

Do I even know you any more!!!!!!

 
At 5:26 PM, Blogger Daniel said...

I went in to buy one roll to have with my dinner but it was so late they gave me all that free bread because they were going to trash it, which is why I stopped by and gave you a loaf.

Fowl Tuna is on Court and Carroll I think.. underneath that building you like, across from a church.

 
At 5:35 PM, Blogger BLAND said...

Watch out, man. Tuna has high levels of Freddy Mercury.

 
At 7:33 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

They still call them fishmongers? It sounds so unappetizing. Also, just out of curiosity, what is the dictionary definition of stankfunk?

Doronit

 
At 2:47 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

tuna-ight's the night!

 
At 1:46 AM, Blogger Emily Farris said...

Yeah, for $0.99, I'll eat that shit out of a can. Add some mayo, relish, mustard and put it between two pieces of toast and it goes from stankfunk to a delightful meal for kitty and me.

 
At 3:37 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Time for a new post

 

Post a Comment

<< Home