Whitebait

Patrick- Molly and I have made a good effort to try the local food. Most of the time, you win, we have not yet really lost and had to spit anything out, but sometimes you can't figure out what all of the fuss is about. That is what we thought of whitebait. Whitebait are these little tiny gelatinous little fish that swim upstream where streams and rivers meet the ocean. New Zealand men and women of all ages, but mostly older people, stand with waiters on holding these wooden framed nets for hours waiting for a whitebait run. I haven't seen them catch any but they are also very secretive about their catch, like most fishermen. Whitebait cost like $50 per pound so we expected quite the delicacy. I bought a very small container at George's, the local fishmarket and asked around about how to cook it. After also consulting google, I settled on making kind of a fritatta with egg, whitebait, and a small bit of flour and milk. While Molly was a bit squeamish, the whitebait honestly have very little taste. They kind of taste like egg strangely enough so we don't' see what the big deal is. I also made an omelet for Grant and he agreed that they had a pretty neutral taste. While whitebait has not been a hit in our house, I will soon be blogging about the meat pies, which are awesome!!