I got to London yesterday afternoon for the coming Monday’s tasting tutorial by WSET. Starving when I finally arrived at my lodging, so I dropped the luggage and dashed out for some food shopping.
Grabbed two Scottish macheral fillets, a jar of Marmite, mangtout peas and radishes.
I buy macheral every time I come back to Britain. In Italy they only exist in glass jars, skinned, chopped into the size of a mascara, roughly 7 mascaras per jar, submerged in salted water. Here the Scottish macherals are fresh, fat and very affordable.
Marmite, which you may frown upon. But ever since I tried it almost 20 years ago when I was a student in Britain, I’ve always liked it. Its umami flavour and how salty it is can never distance itself too far away from soy sauce, which I grew up on. Been a long while not having Marmite. Seeing it waving in salute with its iconic label on a supermarket shelf, I just had to take it.
Back to my place, initially I wanted to pan fry the macheral as usual. But the scratches on the frying pan’s coating extinguished the idea. Eyes now glued to the stainless steel, coating-less saucepan. “What can I do?” That was when the word “sukiyaki” flashed by my mind.
Sukiyaki is a Japanese dish very similar to a hot pot, but instead of boiling in a broth, you simmer meats and vegetables in a savoury-sweet mix of soy sauce, sugar and mirin. Meats and vegetables are sliced up finely for better absorbing the mix’s flavour. So when they’re cooked, they’re also well seasoned already.
I dropped a spoonful of Marmite into the saucepan, added in water and kept stirring. As Marmite melted in the water, I sampled it and adjusted the saltiness to my taste. In order not to overcook the fish, I first put in mangetout beans and the cut radishes. After about 3 minutes of simmering, macheral fillets in. Once the flesh began to curl, it was ready.
To go with the sukiyaki, I made some couscous.
Savoury, hearty and nutritious, what a lovely first meal in London!
People always say, “You are what you eat.” So, what am I eating a melting-pot dinner like this?
A Londoner.
