Char! Pescetarianism!

I heard a rumor recently that char was the new black. I was also told some ten years ago that if I was to cook for the emperor of Japan, I should cook char. Granted, that was in a pamphlet handed to me by the International Char Lobby (or whatever they call themselves) but still, it has stayed with ever since.

When I spotted some fresh char on special today I knew that I would have to take it home for dinner. Not because I was expecting the emperor to stop by (though it wouldn't be entirely uncharacteristic -- dude owes me twenty bucks) but because I thought it might make a nice dinner.

More on that later. First, a boring salad!



Jen's mother got us an Aero Garden for Christmas (much to Jen's father's dismay) and we hooked it up on Saturday. So far, we don't have any herbs, but we have had a fair amount of light. It puts off a shocking amount of light. When I got home from work today and saw the light gleaming from the table my first thought was that someone had broken a hole in the wall. If I'd been thinking clearly I'd have realized that even if someone removed the wall entirely it would not bring any more light into our apartment's sad, dark alley window.



For the salad I used some remaining farm greens, other greens, farm beets, leftover blue cheese, olive oil, salt and pepper.



I roasted some of the farm vegetables (garlic, onion, baby carrots, turnips), and some other vegetables I still had in the crisper (parsnips, celery). When they were just about done I tossed in the char fillet and roasted it with the veggies for another 15 minutes or so until it was just a little underdone.



To accompany the char we had some extremely unremarkable dry white wine. After dinner we even had a delicious cupcake (not pictured) that was made with some unholy bright blue buttercream frosting. Nothing so wrong ever tasted so right.

So, overall, I'd have to say that if I was serving dinner for the emperor of Japan, I may choose to serve him char. I may also go for salmon because I am not convinced that his highness's palette is refined enough to tell the difference.

Char on!