Fish rule

I had a craving for fish so I went to The Fishery and ended up getting fish for both lunch and dinner. Just for myself, because Andrea doesn't eat anything that tastes "fishy," I got the Spanish mackerel fillet, which I don't see there all the time.

Mackerel is supposed to be especially good for Omega-3 and I've dabbled with the canned version. I was wondering if this skin-on fillet was going to be too fishy even for me.

I sprinkled a little salt and lemon juice on it, dredged with flour and shook of excess and fried it in some olive oil. It looked thicker in the skillet than it did in the store but it fried up quickly. It tasted really good, bursting with a freshness that made me feel I was right at the ocean. I served with just a green lettuce salad, using one of our splendid Italian olive oils and, in keeping with the Spanish theme, some sherry vinegar.

For dinner we had salmon, which Andrea does like. This time, the Scottish farm salmon looked better to me, so even though it was more expensive this is the one I got. We usually just get the regular farm salmon. The wild salmon is almost too lean for Andrea, but I find the domestic farm salmon pretty fatty. This was a good compromise, unctuous but full of flavor, and, again, very fresh. We served it with broccoli that was parboiled and sauteed in oil and garlic.

Fish are great when they are very fresh and The Fishery has never let us down on that score. The guy breaking down the fish was alone when I came in so he quickly finished scaling a couple of big fish while I waited. But this is one place I never mind waiting -- I could watch them work the fish as entertainment. One funny note: The broccoli I bought there, I noticed when I got home, had a Safeway band on it, so I don't know whether Safeway delivers them wholesale or they just go over to the store and buy retail for resell.