Real Music & Real Estate . . .

Yiddishe Cup’s bandleader, Bert Stratton, is Klezmer Guy.
 

He knows about the band biz and – check this out – the real estate biz, too.
 

You may not care about the real estate biz. Hey, you may not care about the band biz. (See you.)
 

This is a blog with a gamy twist. It features tenants with snakes and skunks, and musicians with smoked fish in their pockets.
 

Stratton has written op-eds for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post.


 
 

TIL (Today I Learned): SARDINES

by Bert Stratton

Oliver Sacks practically lived on sardines until he found a partner who liked to cook. Sacks said he ate sardines on the run. (For sardine eating, seating is optional. So is a plate.)

My wife, Alice, invented an odd sardine recipe, because she doesn’t like sardines. She pan-fries the sardines, then mixes in pickle relish, mayonnaise and a dab of soy sauce. She spreads this concoction on bread.

I buy sardines at Discount Drug Mart. A can of Chicken of the Sea, lightly smoked with bones, is 68 cents. Texture, size and nationality (of the sardine) vary.

sardines

Some sardine advice: don’t buy sardines in water. They’re tasteless. Also, don’t go with “skinless and boneless.” That is not a true sardine experience. You need the calcium, the crunch from the bones.

Here is some sardine lingo: “Good source of calcium . . . Source of omega-3 fatty acids . . . All natural wild caught . . . Sustainably harvested . . . MLHB Parasite Free — Rabbi Shneur Z. Revach.”

I don’t bulk-shop for  sardines (like six-packs at Costco). Sardine shopping should be more spontaneous, like buying a Snickers or Hershey bar. (Confession: Alice went to Costco on Sunday and I asked her to get me a six-pack.)

Some respected brands: Ocean Prince, Prince Oscar, Roland, Season, Trader Joe’s.

The Season box reads: “After opening, refrigerate and store in a covered glass or plastic container and consume within 3 days.” No problem — for me. How about you?  (Maybe you don’t like sardines. Get out of here!)

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8 comments

1 Irwin Weinberger { 02.01.17 at 9:06 am }

I totally love sardines as well. They do tend to gross out my grandsons when I eat them. I like them mashed up on cottage cheese and or placed over cream cheese on a bagel. My favorite is in olive oil, but I also enjoy the tomato sauce variety.

2 Mark Schilling { 02.01.17 at 9:23 am }

Both of you guys (Irwin and Bert) need to come to Japan and expand your fish horizons.

3 Ken Goldberg { 02.01.17 at 9:42 am }

How about with a mustard sauce. Only sardines packaged in fancy, decorative cans should be purchased. They taste best when eaten out of a pocket. If they ruin the clothing, who cares? Ditto cream puffs. but they don’t need to come in a can.

4 Bill Jones { 02.01.17 at 10:47 am }

Are you Jewish? Jews eat herring. OK herring are just older sardines, but still. On the plus side sardines (canned) have more Omega 3’s than most tunas.

5 David Korn { 02.01.17 at 11:12 am }

Bert’s knowledge on topic is encyclopedic. Yes, most of what he said is opinion, but I just thought he’d like the compliment. (Preference: Rolands, w/ skin and bones; raw onion; sprinkle of white vinegar; eat with saltines or pumpernickel.)

6 marc { 02.01.17 at 3:22 pm }

When I was a kid, living at home, my mother would make me brown bag school lunches with ocasional sardine sandwiches consisting of sardines on ryebread with sliced hard boiled eggs on the bread. It was pretty disgusting, but I didn’t have a choice if I wanted to eat. I thought the cans with the keys that you used to roll the tops off to open the cans were very cool.

7 Ken Goldberg { 02.03.17 at 4:10 pm }

Cool and very oily.

8 Steve Ostrow { 03.01.17 at 9:16 am }

Poor little sardines!

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