Since I live here and walk Cannery Row on a near daily basis, I feel like I should appreciate the history of Monterey's sardine boom, bust, and return a little more. But, I don't... that is, until the marina guys offered me as many sardines as I could carry. Oho! Uh, two would have been plenty, thanks. They're way bigger than what you get in a can, but really not all that big, coming in at 10" even. After scaling, beheading, gutting, and attempting to remove backbone and ribs in one fell swoop for 7 sardines, I am now fully aware one of my previous posts of small silvery fish was incorrect. It was hard for me not to turn a quick fish cleaning into a dissection exercise (Oh, is that the liver? This one must be a girl. What is that!?! Etc.) Eh. At this point without any other sardine cooking practice, I'd say I prefer canned sardines for the 2 times a year I crave them. Andy was a trooper and patiently picked through the surprisingly tough bones. Only later did one of the fellas tell me that larger sardines are not considered as good to eat as the smaller ones with softer bones. Sigh. Now, I just need to make friends with a crab potter...
ps 01/15/15 - Here's an interesting blog post about historical Cannery Row.
ps 01/15/15 - Here's an interesting blog post about historical Cannery Row.
