A few days ago when my mom was shopping, she bought Yellow Croaker for the first time. She was a little nervous as this was a fish we had never tried before. But we are a somewhat adventurous family, culinary wise, so we decided to give it a go.
I looked up recipes and videos on how to cook it and my mom prepared tilapia for the youngest and squeamish of us. Since I did all the research on how to cook it, I had the honor of being the one to actually handle the fish.
It was pretty frozen so I let it defrost before cleaning it. It had already been gutted and de-fined (?), so all I had to do was take the scales off. That job wasn't to bad (it is actually one of my favorite things to do), but finding scales in my hair the next day was disturbing. I might have nightmares about that.
I didn't have all the ingredients for the marinade but I had enough to make a decent one. I seasoned the fish, set it to marinate and then cooked it. The aroma was perfection. It left the oven looking like it could tackle a culinary catwalk. The trauma is in the eating.
The flavor was incredible, the meat tender and flakey(the good kind), it just had waaaaaaaaaaay too many bones. Big ones, little ones, sharp ones that stab into your gums. Two fish took me roughly an hour to pick through. That's how bony it was. I was exhausted just picking them out.
If I could find Yellow Croaker filets, I would definitely do it again. Until then, my family and I will just have to walk past this fish. There's too much anxiety wrapped around its bony little self. Shame though. It is truly tasty.
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