MARCH 2, 2021

HELLO EVERYBODY!!!

It looks like it is going to be a beautiful week!. More sunshine!!! Ughhh...We need it!. With all this snow this February, it really reminded me of Februarys in Montreal. I would always say that it was the grayest month. The streets were gray, the snow was gray, the sky was gray, our skin was gray...everything was gray!

Lots of tacos with mahi last week and tons of stews and curries with monkfish. So nice to see. This week, we are featuring a couple of crowd favorites. Black bass fillet is back!! This beautiful, sweet tasting fish is a favorite of chefs and many of you, as well. A simple preparation really goes a long way with this fish. Here is a link to a great recipe which you can find on our website, smallworldseafood.com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5jKRlgd6qc&t=5s

The next item we will be doing is fresh haddock fillet. This beautiful fish from up north is the prized member of the cod family. It comes skin on as well. The skin is very thin and quite tasty. It can be dredged or deep fried for a fantastic fish and chips. Here is a link to a primer on using dredges that I posted back in January.

https://smallworldseafood.com/past-emails/f/january-26-2021

The last feature is another arts and crafts thing for adults. We are working with CJ from Oui Pastries in Old City who has made some brioche dough for us but here is the deal. She made the dough, took it through its first fermentation and then balled up 125g balls. She is freezing them in bags of 8 balls so 1000g for each order. Now, with this, you can really play. You can shape the dough into buns if you like. You can make challah if you like. You can make cinnamon rolls if you like. Babka? Yup. You can do whatever you want with this buttery goodness. After you thaw out however amount of dough you plan to use in your fridge, you can shape the dough and proof it until it is ready to bake. That's it. To give you a little guidance on how much dough this is, a large loaf of challah that you may buy in a bakery will be made from 500g of dough. You don't have to make it that big but you can. I would suggest you look at some of the videos I will post on our website for a few ideas and start from the shaping, proofing and baking parts. Or search on Youtube. Tons of good recipes. Have fun. This is only going out to your group this week. We will do Fairmount next week, FYI.

One thing for sure for this week, oysters will be Thatch Islands by popular demand. Mussels are the shellfish of the week. Bay scallops are definitely coming in. Kippered salmon is a smoked fish addition this week as well.

Anyway, I guess we can't get out of under this Covid thing and especially all the little radiating waves of effect it has caused on our lives. ALL of us had to pivot our lives, not just businesses. We all learned how to buy things differently. We learned how to make things for ourselves we never cared or dared to make before. We learned to communicate differently. We learned how to learn differently. We learned how to connect differently. It's been quite a year. And as we still try to navigate these rapids, we are starting to see an end in sight but it is hard to see what is beyond that. There is a big bend up ahead.

The trauma of certain events can change the way we choose to interact with the world. For example, in the  restaurant industry, the high flying, opulence of the  late nineties and into the new millennium crashed into 9/11. People were no longer willing to display big spends on wine and such nor did lavish theatrical restaurants seem appropriate in the wake of what had happened. What emerged from that was the focus on BYOBs. A place to show more subdued restrained out of respect, perhaps. 

After the Great Recession of 08/09, an acceleration away from high spending occurred but another pivot happened. The arena of high quality, inexpensive quick serve food was born. Fine dining restaurateurs got into the fast food business. Think Chipotle and Shake Shack and all the concepts that rode that wave like HipCityVeg, Honeygrow, Sweetgreen, etc. How could we know that would happen? How could we anticipate those outcomes? We couldn't, really. It just happened by the natural forces that converge on things. One thing for sure. A lot of what existed before these events could no longer survive. 

So how will WE change this time? How will we want to consume things? What type of restaurants will not be able to survive? What space is created and who will fill it? Who knows.. I guess this past month has made me a little melancholic like any February can. We are coming up on a year since everything was shut down in a few weeks. Although I am trying to stay focused on the future flow of this river, I feel like I am beginning to mourn parts of it that I may never see again. People, routines, an innocence. 

Sorry for being so serious this week. I'll get over it. I just needed to share. This video made me tear up when I saw it. It made me think of sadness but also community. I watched it a few times and had the same feeling. There is a sadness there but a shared one which seemed to cleanse them all. I am truly grateful that we are in this together. The power of us is the  greatest of all. Well, I guess that's a good place start healing, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vV_yHGl0kg&list=LL&index=5

Look out for the order form Thursday at 9am.

Peace

Robert Amar
Small World Seafood
Owner