Bacon of the Sea

One of the many pleasures of life is having good friends, especially those that share your interests. Julius Gittens is one such friend.

On a fine Saturday morning a few weeks ago, Julius arrived at my place and we had a foodie exchange. I gave him fiery hot bird peppers and he surprised me with a back of Bacon of the Sea. You should have seen him, armed with an insulated bag to keep the goodies at the right temperature. I was immediately intrigued.

Bacon of the Sea is a smoked fish product made in Grenada. It is naturally smoked sailfish strips. Packaged just like bacon, it sells itself as a bacon substitutes for those who do not consume pork or are looking for a healthy alternative to regular bacon. With strict instructions not to cook it for more than 30 seconds, Julius was off. He had more stops to make on his Bacon of the Sea tour.

A week later, I cooked the bacon substitute. Once defrosted, I followed the package instructions of heating a pan with a little oil and sticking to the overall cooking time of 30 seconds. Cooked longer (and I did do that just to test it), the 'bacon' becomes stiff but that is not such a bad thing because you can then chop it into bits, like bacon bits.

As you can see in the picture from the package, the fish is redolent with the signature, brown, smoked hue. However, once it hits the pan, it turns opaque (see photo below) and there is a slight hue of pink. One of the surprising things for me is that it smelt a little like bacon while it was cooking. Maybe it is because of the smoke-cured process.

As I tasted the bacon, it reminded me of smoked salmon. I enjoyed it and would definitely buy it if I had ready access to the product. What I especially liked is that I found the portion in the package to be quite generous. There were 13 strips in the packet (I counted).

If you are interested in the sautéed tomatoes on the plate, here's what to to:

So, Jules, when you making another delivery?

For more information on Bacon of the Sea and how you can access the product, please check out the following:

Southern Fishermen Association Inc.
Grand Mal
St. George's
GRENADA
website: www.southernfishermen-grenada.com
Email: southfish@spiceisle.com
Tel/Fax: (473) 435-1693