What's skate pee? Well, we know what pee is and there are many possibilities for skate. This particular example is the fish. It's in the ray family of fishes. See? It's a delicious white fish and we serve it at the restaurant. One of my favorite fishy dishes.
Last week, a guy orders it. After a few bites, gives it to my fellow bartender and says it "tastes of ammonia." She takes it back to the chef. When she returns, she says to the gentleman, "You're right about it tasting that way. The reason is because skate urinates on itself and sometimes it doesn't always come out."
Seriously. She said something to that effect. I was agog. Did she really just tell the customer that the fish peed on itself and that he was eating it? Nice. I ain't hating. I loves me my fellow bartender! But, hey. Funny's funny. And a fish peeing on itself is comedy gold! (Thank God she's pretty.)
Maybe I'll come up with a new cocktail called "Skate Pee." Vodka, Clamato juice and Galliano. Yellow and fishy! Mmmmmm......good! Drink it in, bitches! Drink it in!
is THAT what skate looks like? I never really wanted to order one before, and I'm definitely not going to now. And all this BEFORE I heard the pee story.
Posted by: mike. | March 26, 2007 at 12:32 PM
SPEW. Note to self: avoid skate.
Also, hi! Surprise, I’m not quite dead, yet. Actually, far from it, currently listening to the 3/21 podcast while tapping away at the keyboard at work.
Cheers & Beers,
Edwina
Posted by: Edwina | March 26, 2007 at 03:55 PM
dont let the skate scare you! it's one of my fave fishes on our menu.
EDWINA!!! where you been, fool? we miss you! awww...listening to the show. thanks! hope things are rocking! you have to get out of the apt. soon and come hang w/ us. cool?
Posted by: jimmy | March 27, 2007 at 04:42 AM
Mmmmmmmmmmmmm....skaaaaaaate! Great fish to work with. FYI...broiling skate gets all of the pee smell out (the chef should have tried that before serving it).
JIMMY, great idea for your drink. Serve ME one, with pufferfish on the side.
Posted by: FireflyChef | April 06, 2007 at 11:34 PM
Jimmy! You and your blog! :) Always love it, but have to comment on the previous poster's remarks.
As you know, the Executive Chef of Marseille is an award winning and well respected chef. He oversees 3 major restaurants in NYC. As Chef de Cuisine, I cook according to his wishes. We pan sear the skate. It's a natural process of the "pee" flavor (which comes out like ammonia) to sometimes stay in the fish. We certainly have thought of everything in our preparations but an occasional "hiccup" will happen on a busy saturday night. If the previous poster was as experienced as we are, then they'd know that. We are a very successful and busy restaurant with nothing but great reviews for our food. So, forgive me if I don't take the suggestion of "broiling" and for slightly taking offense to the suggestion of "we should have thought of that." What are his/her credentials?
Don't mean to offend if this is a friend of yours. But until this person has the experience of working in a 2-4 star restaurant, planning a menu, running a kitchen that feeds 300-500 on a busy night, etc, then they need to be more careful of their culinary opinion.
Posted by: Chef de Cuisine | April 09, 2007 at 06:00 AM
whoa! chef de cuisine brings the hammer down! gotta go w/ him on this one. the pedigrees of our kitchen are solid, impressive and well respected.
Posted by: jimmy | April 11, 2007 at 04:17 AM