Words by the pound

and a recipe for Richard’s soy-ginger salmon

I’ve been thinking back to when I first began writing about food.

A long defunct blog started in 2009, the focus was on the recipe, and included lots of details and photos that, in retrospect, were superfluous. Step by step instructions, the requisite shot of the ingredients arranged in a tableau, a belaboured description of why this recipe was de rigeur—it was blogs like mine that made the “jump to recipe” button so genius.

Back then I wasn’t too worried about getting it all right. It was too much fun discovering the size and diversity of the food blogging community. I threw a stone in the pond and with each ripple, I still couldn’t make out the distant shore. Relationships mattered, and Twitter provided a way to form immediate connections, even if at arm’s length and more like cousins twice removed than siblings.

Getting the story straight

Then money shifted the blogosphere landscape. The community went from backyard gathering to music festival, complete with corporate sponsors, monetization, and writing for search engine optimization. A far cry from creating a recipe for homemade plum jam.

It gave me pause. How many followers were enough? Did I have the right number of “views” and comments? Site referrals, bounce rates, vanity stats—did they really matter? And then I went to a small gathering of food bloggers in the middle of Pennsylvania called The Big Summer Potluck.

I learned a lot. Not about SEO, or monetization, or tagging or writing the perfect post. I learned that a moment can be an idea. That the hardest part of getting a great photo is getting past yourself. That you need a point of departure - what, exactly, are you trying to say with those words? That photo? The post? And that it's okay not to know the answer to those questions when you start.

Words by the pound

When I decided to start writing again and created Delicious Bits at the end of 2020, it was with the idea that this would be a revitalized and modern version of that old food blog. More concise, perhaps; straight to the point and the recipe (jump to recipe button included). No need to tell a story.

But time and circumstance have given me a different perspective on what matters most to me.

A mentor told me many years ago that writing wasn’t words by the pound. Her point was that prose should have precision and purpose. She reminded me that getting to the point with brevity and a touch of elan is a finely honed craft.

Yet that isn’t my primary goal here. I describe Delicious Bits as “dispatches from an adventuresome globetrotter who likes to discover things, share things, cook things, eat things and write about it” (with thanks to my friend David Cooperstein for that nifty descriptor).

Hardly concise. In fact, it’s pretty broad reaching. That’s exactly the point. This isn’t a food blog; rather, it’s a weekly rumination with the added bonus of a recipe thrown in for fun. I’ve talked about deep grief; the power of music; how work has changed post-pandemic; the paradox of choice; learning to be wrong. It’s a thought buffet of the best possible kind.

Look, I know it’s not for everyone. While I’ve slowly gained a modest following, I’ve also lost subscribers along the way. Know that I feel very lucky to have you here still reading my musings.

As I wrote about when I published my 100th newsletter, I’m never quite sure what the latest issue will be about. Last minute inspiration more often than not strikes in the most unlikely of ways: a phrase heard, a poem read, a conversation had. Usually it has very little to do with food, and everything to do with an idea sparked, a thought provoked, a discovery made.

Words by the pound, indeed.

Soy-ginger salmon

Food+Wine magazine

serves 2

There’s something important to get straight, and that’s that I’m not the only cook in the kitchen. Far from it. Always the king of soups and stews, Richard is an absolutely all around excellent cook. Lately, he’s been hitting in out of the park with dishes that have wonderful flavour profiles.

This salmon recipe calls for cubed salmon to be placed over noodles, poke bowl style. Richard decided to forgo the noodles and presented it as a beautifully plated main. By all means feel free to cube the salmon before broiling it. If you do, be sure to use a skinless piece of salmon. You can also serve the salmon over shirataki noodles or rice.

Ingredients

½ cup soy sauce

2 medium green onions, thinly sliced (about ⅓ cup)

2 tablespoons canola or other neutral oil

2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

1½ tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

1 tablespoon finely grated peeled fresh ginger

1 tablespoon water

1 medium garlic clove, finely grated

1¼ pound salmon fillet with skin (see headnote)

1 medium avocado, sliced

2 mini seedless cucumbers, thinly sliced

1½ tablespoon thinly sliced jalapeño or Serrano chile

½ cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves, optional

1. Whisk together soy sauce, sliced scallions, canola oil, sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds, grated ginger, 1 tablespoon water, and grated garlic in a medium bowl. Pour ½ cup soy sauce mixture into a large ziplock plastic bag. Add salmon, press out excess air, and seal; refrigerate at least 30 minutes or up to 1 hour. Reserve remaining soy sauce mixture; set aside.

2. Preheat oven to broil with rack 8 inches from heat. Line a large rimmed baking with aluminum foil and lightly spray with cooking spray. Remove salmon from marinade and place skin side down on the baking sheet. Discard marinade. Broil salmon until lightly charred and nearly cooked through, about 7 minutes.

3. Place salmon on a serving platter and top with avocado, cucumber, chile, and cilantro. Serve with reserved soy sauce mixture.