Mac Attack!!

This evening I took my wife and her parents fishing off Balboa Pier.  There was a stiff, cold breeze coming off the ocean so everyone was pretty cold.  Evidently the fish were cold too because they weren't biting much.  There were a couple people fishing the surf and a several more people fishing mid-pier; best I could tell they were all pretty much striking out.  

There was a slow but steady flow of mackerel coming in on the end of the pier, so I changed a couple of the poles from high-low leaders set up for shovelnose to sabikis with 'chovies.  I figured my wife's parents would rather catch mackerel than nothing at all .  (I also threw a glow stick on the line that I got on clearance at Walmart.)

Sure enough, my wife caught a decent-sized mackerel.   Everyone was excited because they felt they could now escape the cold without leaving empty handed.  

I usually avoid mackerel because they have the reputation of being stinky, strong tasting fish, but I figured since everyone was so excited we'd give it a try.  My wife's family is from Vietnam and eat a variety of fish on a regular basis, so I was curious to see how my mother-in-law would prepare it.  She cooked it stove top with lemon grass, Costco seasoning (how's that for very authentic vietnamese cooking), chile pepper sauce of some sort and onions for garnish.  She served it with rice and cucumbers.  

Meanwhile my wife cooked mac & cheese a burner over.  I asked my wife's mother if they had mackerel in Vietnam.  She explained to me that they didn't have that kind of noodle.  I didn't quite get it, but my wife who was listening to the conversation busted up.  I guess my mother-in-law thought I was talking about the macaroni instead of the mackerel.  I suppose you had to be there, but it turns out there are mackerel in Vietnam for those of you who are curious.

As it turned out, we had the mac with the mac and the dinner was a success!!  

Lesson of the day:

Mackerel can actually be pretty good when prepared properly and cooked fresh.