Swordfish Steak Finally!

One thing I dearly missed in my stay in London this time is the great range of fresh seafood offered by the Angel Sainsbury's - e.g. baby octopus, squid, skate wings, salmon, cod, tuna, large prawns, oysters, mussels and swordfish!

I still remember my first visit to Browns in Angel during my previous stay in London, can't remember with who though. I chanced upon swordfish steak in the menu and decided to give it a go. Yummy! Ever since I've been buying swordfish from Sainsbury's in Angel and grill it the way Browns does it.

But that was when I live near to Angel. Not all Sainsbury's have such wide range of seafood.

This time around, my nearest supermarket is a huge Tesco, which is just opposite my flat. But it has a lousy range of seafood - only readily packaged or frozen ones, and there is not much of variety. Angel's Sainsbury's is too far away while the Sainsbury's in Stratford is small and lousy. Billingsgate market is only one mile away but I'm too lazy to wake up very early in the morning to get there.

Then came the Waitrose in Canary Wharf. Johanna and I walked into it on one lazy Sunday while we were at Canary Wharf, which is slightly more than one mile away from our flat. We were looking for a gift for Niki, who is having her early birthday celebration on Monday (25th June). It was then I discovered that this Waitrose has a great range of seafood just like the Sainsbury's in Angel. I immediately had something in mind.

Till now I have yet to introduce swordfish to Johanna. The last time when we were at Browns with Matthias and Lisi between London Bridge and Bermondsey, swordfish was not on the menu.

Since I would be attending Niki's birthday celebration at the Narrow - a gastropub owned by the 3-Michelin star Scottish chef Gordon Ramsey, Johanna would need to eat dinner on her own as she would only reach home around nine or ten. I quietly went back to the Waitrose in Canary Wharf and bought a piece of swordfish and other necessary ingredients to fix a dinner for her. I also bought some sushi for her. Since I wouldn't be there that often, I also bought a piece of skate wings for our dinner sometime that week.

Before I went out for Niki's birthday dinner, I quickly grill the swordfish the way I used to do it. I managed to nick a bit of the juicy flesh before going out. The cooking wasn't that good though. More practice needed after such a long absense of swordfish in my life.

Jo's dinner that night


Swordfish steak with grounded coriander seed and black pepper

Anyway, that was how happy I am to rediscover my long lost favourite fish. It is the same feeling I had in KL for cod. Despite the urge, the price has always put me off. But not so in London as cod is a frequent feature on our dinner table.

Anyway, before everything gets too fishy, I better stop writing about fish for now.