Yup, we’re still in America. Nope, that is not meat on my Memorial Day grill. I was at the store (and starving, never a good move) looking for food to grill. B called “Is it okay if I just do seafood?” I asked, standing over an enormous tub of giant Pacific oysters. These puppies were big and meaty. But I couldn’t stop there, I went a little overboard. Scallops, for ceviche, mackeral (aka saba) to wrap in banana leaves and grill, big, beautiful asparagus. It was, I must admit a bit of a feast.
The ones on the left are topped with lime juice, salt, pepper and cilantro in a ceviche style, the ones on the right are just plain sashimi style topped with tobiko, which I had picked up in all the hungry excitement at the store. I grilled the asparagus plain, with just olive oil, salt and pepper, a little bit of fresh thyme, from my plant (which has yet to die!). The oysters are even easier, I just plop them on the grill. After 8 or so minutes you can hear them give a little “POP” as they open, and they are ready to go. I served them with a spicy sauce made of sambal oelek and tonkatsu sauce mixed together.
For the main dish, we took the mackeral and rubbed it down with salt, pepper, curry and turmeric and let it sit for an hour before wrapping it in a banana leaf and throwing it on the grill too.
It is really too bad that America insists on filling their grills with big honkin’ cuts of meat, because these oysters and fish were at least as good as the last overcooked steak or store bought hamburger patty I ate.
Do you have pictures?