I guess that puts the little bluegill I caught when I was seven in perspective, doesn't it?

You sure that isn't just some fish story?

I went to Alaska and caught some salmon, but I am sure your friend worked a little bit harder for his fish than I did, haha. Nice halibut!

Mmmmmmm, halibut. In Alaska they wait for May of every year because that's when halibut season starts. The favorite part is what is known as the cheeks, whatever that is.

He caught it just for the halibut

!@#%$!

What would you even DO with such a thing? I don't think my freezer is big enough.

I've got a smoker I built out of an old piece of office furniture...but even if it's as yummy as smoked salmon, that looks to be about 80 years supply of Smoked Scary Devil Fish.

Dh is impressed, he's an obsessive fisherman. He lived in Alaska when in the airforce and did some halibut fishing. He's an obsessive fisherman, grew up on the coast, and takes several 3-4 day trips a year. He's mostly CPR though-catch photo release. Mostly because I can't stand the smell of fish so no cooking it allowed in our house. He only keeps what they can grill and eat the nights there are there.

DD is coming up nicely in his footsteps, she had her photo with a shark she caught and released in a fishing magazine 2 years ago.

Where does it end, Bloomy?

"What would you even DO with such a thing? I don't think my freezer is big enough."

You give a lot of it to friends you can trust to do the same when they land a big one. It's like when you slaughter a hog.

Halibut is tricky to cook becasue it dries out so easily, being so lean. Here's a good recipe:

Peel, chop and brown one yellow onion in a high-died pan in a couple tablespoons of butter.
Grind one teaspoon of fennel seed and add it. Let it aromatize a bit.
Lay the piece of halibut over the onion in the pan.
Julienne a bulb of fennel and lay that around the fish.
Add a cup of mild white wine and a cup of fish stock (powdered dashi from the box added to water is fine.)
Salt and pepper
Cover the pan and simmer the fish for a short while, checking to see when it gets about halfway done. It'll still be pretty wiggly.
Finish it under the broiler on high heat as close to the coils as you can get it, to brown and finish it.

It's best with parsleyed potaotes or just good bread. A mild salad alongside is nice.

Yeahyeah poignant and all, but some might think a deeper sleep would be more humane.

He's a photographer, too.

Spark of sanity

Would you pay $2.5 billion dollars for this image?

You did.

No more loose chatter about the erotic sophistication of the French, capiche?

The newborn baby gorilla photo is beautiful... made me smile.

PS Amy- your friend Arihas a very cool website.

I'm totally smitten by his food columns! So glad you linked to him!

Gonna go smash up some garlic with salt right now...

Your friend kind of looks like Nicholas Cage.

>> Gonna go smash up some garlic with salt right now

I found a beautiful sage plant growing wild in my backyard this morning- about 3 cubic feet in size! I just fried up about 10 stalks with butter, salt and parmesean.

(Chased with a cheap but tasty Australian chardonnay and frozen french bread pizzas in the oven.)

Action film.

How do you teach a beast to do it the hard way?

Smithsonian magazine ran an article showing off people's trophy fishing photos from Key West, over a period of fifty or so years.
The first ones all looked like this.

Then they got smaller,

and smaller.

The newest ones look like baitfish, anymore.

Re: halibut cheeks.

Wasabi. Ginger. Soy sauce. Raw.

I die