I used to live in a
town called Bacliff (pronounced “bay cliff”) so it was not surprising these Beach Cliff brand sardines called out to me.
There actually isn't
any such thing as a sardine fish, but rather “sardine” refers to
a dozen or so different species in the herring family.
The can
advises that it “may contain crustaceans” which I found a bit
surprising because crustaceans are pretty different from herring and
it would be difficult to confuse the two. Maybe they run crustacean
canning on the same production line or something?
At any rate my can
was free of crustaceans and only contained delicious smoked sardines
and soybean oil.
The can opens easily
with the pull tab, and the smell is more smoky than fishy. I actually
don't like fish much but this I don't mind. The taste is smoky and
oily, the texture moist and flaky. The bones are included and you are
supposed to eat them. You can just feel them as you chew the fish,
lending a slightly crumbly crunchy sensation (and when I say crumbly
I mean it's like the fish was filled with a strip of biscotti,
texture-wise). It's not in any way unpleasant and it's also a good
source of calcium. They're also a good source of Omega-3 fatty acids
which most of us don't get enough of in daily life. At only $1 a can
there's no reason not to throw one of these into your lunch every now
and again.
When I was younger,
people used to use the phrase “like sardines” to refer to people
being packed tightly into a space. For example: “the bus was so full
we were packed in like sardines”. I also remember sardines being
cheap but they seem to have gotten relatively expensive over the past twenty years..
Now, both the idiom and the canned fish are less common.
At $1 for a 3.75oz
can, these sardines would be about $4 a pound, pricing them above
chicken, pork, and beef which sounds bad until you realize that none of those provide omega-3 fatty acids. Nor are you likely to find free-range meat anywhere else for $4/lb,
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