Real ‘ food people’ enjoy sardines

I’ve always liked canned sardines. They’re a sustainable seafood and high in lovely omega- 3 fat. There has been much talk of eating low on the seafood chain. Eating the small fish that the bigger fish eat makes perfect sense to me. It’s a balanced way of keeping our fish stocks growing.

In 2006, I became aware that fresh sardines were abundant in our own backyard. I had eaten sardines in Italian and Portuguese restaurants in Toronto and loved them. But here, there was an actual sardine festival and I was invited to give a demonstration and sampling. The recipe I chose was sardines with a sweet and sour balsamic, mint and onion glaze. There were hundreds of people and long lineups to buy fresh sardines, which were priced fetchingly at 10 for $ 5, and various smoked sardine products.

Then in 2007, when Jill Lambert was collecting recipes for her book on sustainable seafood, A Good Catch, I was asked to do sardine recipes for the book and had to create them because there were no written ones in my repertoire.

After sardine- ing it up, I offered the sardines to the kitchen and front of the house staff. There were polite nibbles but some flat out refused.

Barb Philip — the lovely and talented wine guru — was managing the floor that night. I mentioned that I was cooking whole sardines for dinner with hand- cut fries and aioli and would she like to join me. Without hesitation she agreed. I was thrilled to find a sardine lover in this wasteland. I grilled up a big plate of sardines, liberally seasoned with garlic and thyme and plopped them down on the table.

Then a friend of Barb’s appeared. “Would you like some sardines?” we asked. “I would love some!” the friend replied and sat herself down.

Another friend of Barb’s appeared and sat herself down. Then two more friends. The six of us happily ate the sardines, peeling the succulent flesh from the bones until all that was left were the bones and a tablecloth decorated with golden smears of aioli.

This is pure joy in our own backyard to be enjoyed with real food people — you know, the ones who love sardines.