DECEMBER 27, 2020

 GOOD MORNING EVERYONE!!! 

Well, the days got longer by a minute yesterday and that feels amazing! This year is about to end and then all of our problems will go away. I can't wait! 

The dishes that people prepared this past week were truly inspiring. So many people trying to fit in 7 fishes over two days and being wildly successful. This has been such a surreal holiday season primarily because we haven't been able to share in the collective energy of our extended families, friends and strangers in bars, restaurants or at home. 

Yet, we persist. 

In the winter 2009/2010, my sister who lives in Chicago bought a plane ticket for our mother to fly over and spend the winter break with her family. The flight had a 3 hour layover in Philly. That, to me, was already an ominous red flag. A major storm was headed our way  but would likely skim us. Well, in the span of a few hours, the storm shifted and her flight from Montreal into Philly would be one of the last flights to land as all other flights would be cancelled in the Northeast. I picked her up from the airport and brought her home and we ended up with 3 feet of snow.. What a storm. And now we were trapped together. 

Don't get me wrong. I love my mother. We just don't really get along or I should say we don't see eye to eye on most things. After some silence and some bickering, I started to make dinner and she came in to help. My mother is a great cook. Always was. Even the sisters and sisters-in-laws would say so and that acclaim didn't come easily in my family of good cooks. One space where we always could flow together, though, was in the kitchen cooking alongside on another.

After dinner, we sat down in the living room for the customary interrogation. I still had time to go back to school to become a doctor or lawyer, she would claim. At the age of 42, it wouldn't be too late. Why did I decide to make a career in the restaurant industry instead of pursuing a masters or PhD in psychology as I had intended long ago? These types of questions had always led to confrontational battles of wills between the  two of us. One hurricane meeting another. But instead of fighting and looking ahead at two or three days together, I told her something I never told her.

When I was a kid growing up in the  1970's, we would often have people over for drinks and dinner. The time was pretty traditional all around. The men in the living room drinking whisky or pastisse with bowls of nuts and olives at the handy. The talk would usually revolve around politics, business or sports. Booooring. Being a boy, you had to sit around and listen to this nonsense. Within earshot, though, you could hear the women in the kitchen helping my mother and grandmother laughing and cackling away. 

It was not acceptable for boys to venture into the kitchen in those times. I knew that. There was a loophole in the rules and regulations, however. A boy COULD go in to help. And so, I would often go in to help peel carrots, shred parsnips, slice eggplant, take out the trash, etc. All this so I could hear the stories being told in there about who did what to whom, who said this to that, what funny thing so and so did the other day and so on. I loved it. 

I told my mother all this as she listened intently, which was not a usual thing for her. I continued that as I got older, i started to see the experience in different, more layered ways. I told her that by the time I hit 15 or 16 years old, I started to get the feeling that all of the  stories that were being told in the kitchen while we were cooking and to which, by now, I was contributing as well, we were cooking INTO the food. And as we laid every course out for everyone to eat, we were all eating those stories of laughter and love and connection. That's why the food tasted so good, I began to believe. And that's why I got into the food business. Because of her gift to me. Because of her. Well, right in front of me that night, puddles. I never thanked her in the past for all of that. I did that night and our relationship changed forever. When I see all of the dishes you prepare out there, I imagine that there are stories and laughter and tears in your food too. I can't smell it or taste but I definitely see it. Thank you for sharing them with us.

Now, enough with the mushy stuff. This week, we will being doing lots of things lobster. We will have frozen Canadian lobster tails, fresh cooked lobster meat (claw and knuckle) as well as lobster stock to make delicious lobster bisque or sauces. Hey, it's New Year's Eve coming up and 2020 is FINALLY going to end unless Trump decides to extend it by a few weeks. Let's go out with a bang. I am not sure which fish we will feature but I will know tomorrow morning when I can see what actually comes in. 

Clams are back on the menu. Scallops will be around again. Fresh Jumbo lump will not but, hey, we are doing lobster, right? Oysters will be Pickle Points from PEI. Added to the smoked fish list is another shot of Spence Scottish-style smoked salmon. Also sliced and 1lb worth. 

After this week, we will go back to our normal schedule of emails and delivery, FYI. To those who we won't see this week, thank you for making 2020 bearable for us. Hear is to a healthier and saner year!! To all others, look out for the  order from tomorrow at 11am.

Oh and here is another thing from my childhood that reminds me of love in a year that was consumed by stress. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z85C1cYS7f4&list=LL&index=62

Peace,

Robert Amar

Small World Seafood

Owner