The whole fish ...

... all the fish, and nothing but the fish, so help me God!

Yesterday I went to the Broadway Market and was drawn as if by a magnet to Broadway Seafood. I bought a Pompano -- that is the fellow up above -- and a Bluefish. The whole fish! They scale it for you and everything. And they were going to take the heads off but I said no. And they were going to take the tail fins off and I said no.

They know me so they just smiled. They do not speak a lot of English anyway, do the folks at Broadway Seafood.

Last night we cooked up these fish. Yum! You do not realize how easy it is to cook whole fish. None of my cooking magazines will go near it and so I found a recipe from Mark Bittman, the Minimalist. You turn the oven to 400 degrees and wrap the fish in foil with some, ahem, aromatics. I used red onion rings and lemon slices and kosher salt and black pepper. And toasted walnuts, which Bittman suggested. Well, he asked for pine nuts. Whenever I see the words "pine nuts" I do not even see them. I just think walnuts.

I also roasted some mushrooms and asparagus. Everything went into the oven and came out perfect.

Triumph! I make a lot of mistakes but sometimes everything turns out great. This fish was amazing. As was the asparagus.

How come stuff never looks like this when you have your friends over? That is what I would like to know. It is just you, or it is just the two of you, and things look right out of Martha Stewart. I remember thinking that in California when Leonard Pennario came over for dinner. The dinner was good but not as good as dinner had been the night before when I was just cooking for myself. Maybe you just try too hard sometimes. I do not know what it is.

Well, I know one thing. I will be going back to Broadway Seafood!

I want to cook my way through their fish!

The whole fish, all the fish.

And nothing but the fish!