In these mild summer evenings, we love to eat dinner outside while hummingbirds do the same at the backyard feeder. We are obsessively trying to photograph the pair of Rufus birds that we think have set up house in a very spiky tree that hangs over the low fence between our yard and the neighbors’. We can hear the little guys cheeping away, their odd little hummingbird conversation spilling out of the branches into the yard before one of the pair swoops up to the feeder.
They won’t land when I have the grill on, it makes sense that they wouldn’t like the smoke, but they don’t care if we sit at the table and talk about them. As soon as the going back and forth to the kitchen, the slamming of the screen door, the scraping of plates and silverware has stopped and the grill is off, they resume their post.
I am trying to eat less food and enjoy it more (if that’s possible, I do love to eat). I recently read a piece in Bon Appetit on how a food critic eats – she recently decided she didn’t need to eat every last thing on her plate. There’s little more enjoyable than eating a well grilled piece of fish in one’s own backyard, but admittedly, I am finding myself a little peckish about an hour after dinner. This won’t do.
I sautéed the red onions for a very long time in olive and sesame oil and then added chopped kale and a little water to help cook the greens. The fish I slathered with O’Plum Sesame Sauce a gift from recent house guest Mausi. Note to travelers and future house guests: Anything food related goes down big here. It probably would where you’re going, too. The sauce left a nice sweet glaze on the fish with just a little of that burnt sugar taste – good stuff on the meaty tuna steak.
Here are a few things I have learned from this summer of grilling.
- Coat the grill with a nice light coat of oil to keep your food from sticking.
- Grill the fish on a very hot grill on each side for a minute or two, then turn the heat down, close the lid, and walk away.
- If you must peak, baste while doing so.
- The fish is done when the fat starts to set up on the outside.
- It takes about 10 minutes to cook fish. 5 minutes more for a very thick cut.
- If you make a lot of weird noises, the hummingbird will spook and fly off.
Eat your fish. It refines your powers of observation.
you may officially invite me for dinner anytime you like.
And also, your discussion of the birds not minding you talking about them reminds me of a snippet in David Sedaris’ Dress Your Family in Courdoroy and Denim (his mother is helping him change apartments, don’t have the book handy) where he talks about the birds are oblivious to descriptions of plumage and imitations of calls made my their human observers. And it made me laugh, both times.
@E: If you’ve been reading for any length of time, you know that pretty much the only thing you need to do to get dinner at my house is be in Seattle at dinner time. And the mere mention that my writing might evoke David Sedaris, well, you don’t even have to bring a bottle of wine.
wheee! it’s just as well that I not bring wine to fish Wednesday, as I am a philistine and prefer red wine always, regardless of the dish. Will have to take you up on your Seattle dinner offer sometime, and David Sedaris comparisons notwithstanding, I’ll bring something.
But as a travel writer, don’t you also consider yourself a food critic? I guess finding and assessing restaurants – whether it’s for the books I’m writing or the stories I’m doing – is about 1/4 of my work I guess.
It’s impossible to eat everything, especially if you’re eating out twice a day (and then there are snacks to try street food). If I do eat everything on my plate then that’s a sign the restaurant is truly great. I’ll have to check out that blog!
I love grilled fish and seafood too – the simpler the better – but unless it’s an Asian recipe, it’s olive oil all the way for me!
Nice post!
@lara – I guess I consider myself more of an observer than a critic but yes, food is a critical part of travel writing. I used to feel like I shouldn’t write food here, but then I realized how important it is to defining a place.
Even if it’s only my backyard.
@Eileen – a nice tomato based fish chowder goes great with red wind. Just sayin.