The Simple Sardine
A situation where size does not matter.
The sound of the waves, the feeling of salt on my skin, and the smell of grilled sardines in the tropical air. This describes a perfect summer day for me.
Before moving to Southern Spain, my beach memories were few and far between. As a child, short dips in ice cold Lake Michigan would leave us blue lipped and shivering. Sandwiches made by my Mom were consumed with that extra crunch of sand that always seems to slip in between the pieces of bread.
During my university years, we would drive to Puerto Peñasco in Mexico, or San Felipe in Baja California. With nothing more than a sleeping bag to protect us, we would fall asleep under the stars on the long sandy beach. Our sustenance was provided by the beatuiful women who walked the beaches selling 3 for a dollar burritos, lathered in Tapatio sauce.
I did not recognize my beach addicted inner self until I moved to Granada, Spain. My addiction is serious but I have no plans to seek help.
My daughter could never understand how I can be on the road for days on end and arrive home with an insatiable desire to go straight to the beach. This is a necessity for my body. It is my cleansing and healing place. The air, the water, and the food.
The first time I sat with my feet in the pebbly sand, with a cold beer in my hand, I lost all grasp on reality. In Spain you might say, se me fue la olla. I lost the pot.
Of course I lost my mind. It was 1995, and a beer in Spain cost about 70 US cents. A free tapa of fresh seafood was served with each beer, and the sea was a stones throw away. Ten dollars could buy you hours of beers and tapas, only interrupted by segments of swimming in the deep, blue water of our tropical coastline.
My addiction has grown through the years. And once I discovered fresh, grilled sardines, giving up the beach bum life became a lost cause.
We can thank the Phoenicians for our consumption of sardines along the coastlines of Spain and Portugal. Traveling from what is primarily present day Lebanon, they arrived on the Iberian coast around 800 BCE. The fishing industry flourished during this time along the Mediterranean.
The Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans produced a fermented fish sauce called garum that added umami and salty goodness to other foods. You can visit different archaelogical ruins to learn more about these garum factories. They can be found in the town of Almuñecar close to Granada, in Baelo Claudio in Cádiz, and the largest one, on the Troia Peninsula in Portugal. The fish were salted, fermented and stored in amphorae.
In Troia, they now produce a modern day garum made from sardines, salt and water.
The size of fresh sardines can vary, depending on the month, and the body of water from which they are fetched.
Where we live in Southern Spain, the sardines tend to be on the smaller size regardless of the month. In Portugal the sardines are larger, and by the month of August, they are quite pudgy.
Size is not important here. What is important, is the freshness of the fish. A fresh sardine should be shiny and not floppy. When cooked, the meat is soft and flakey, with a sweet and rich flavor.
There are many ways to prepare a sardine. For me, grilling is at the top of the list. All along our coastline in Southern Spain we can get an “espeto de sardinas”. Slide some fresh sardines onto a skewer, add salt, and put them over the flames until perfectly grilled.
On the Tropical Coast, near Granada, we always enjoy grilled sardines with the local salad that can be any variation of local tomatoes and avocado.
In Portugal, sardines rule the country. During the month of June, Lisbon celebrates the day of Saint Anthony, and you can smell grilled sardines all over the city.
Receive your plate of grilled sardines.
Drizzle bread with a bit of olive oil.
Place them on top of the slice of whatever fantastic Portuguese bread you have on your table. Broa, a type of cornbread, is best.
Allow the bread to soak in the flavor of the sardine as you delicately stuff the meat into your happy mouth.
After the sardines are consumed, add a bit more olive oil to the bread, and devour.
The hard working grill at my Mother in law’s house. Photo by author.
If fresh is not a possibility, quality canned sardines are readily available around the world, and they are delicious. Morocco is the largest producer of canned fish, but Portugal exports some of the highest quality canned sardines by far.
However, I recommend catching a flight to a sardine consuming country. Then, run straight to the closest beach before the season is over. I promise that you will never regret this decision.
You can have a visual of sardine devouring in these videos! How I cured my mid-pandemic boredom and unemployment.
As always, thank you for walking this Camino of life with me. Stay safe in the heatwave if you are in Europe.
Margaret Gypsy
I absolutely love grilled sardines! As long as they are fresh. However, when I tried to touch some in our local fishshop, to check the freshness, I I was scolded and almost thrown out of the shop. It might have been an insult.
Remind me again why I haven’t moved to Spain? Sardines and beaches sounds so nice!