Fish. The chicken of the sea some say. One thing I do know, is that it is the only "meat" that is prepared at my home. You see, my parents are pescetarians ( you can add this to your mental dictionary, no need to thank me). In their earlier years they did consume chicken and other meat, but they made a decision to only eat seafood many years before I was born. There is at any given time in the refrigerator, at least two types of fish or shellfish. If I had to choose, pink salmon might be my favorite. The fish pictured above is tilapia , its nutritional value cannot be underscored.. However, I am not a loyal follower of the sea as my parents. I place other sources of nutrition on my plate for sacrifice.
On to the reason for this post. Someday last week, mom was going to season some fish and asked if I knew how to do same. I gave a slick response, but the result was her showing me anyway.
There are two methods of seasoning fish, quick and dirty or long and precise. Both methods require your use of lime or vinegar to remove some of the "freshness" of the fish. Quick and dirty is exactly what it means. You purchase a bottle of fish seasoning from the grocery and smother it all over your unseasoned fish and you are done. The bottle contains various seasoning spices and to me it removes the fun that could be had from the L + P method. You can "fridge" it, or throw it in your non stick frying pan or grill. L + P requires specific steps. All the spices are added individually and because the potency of some are stronger than others, the quantity added varies. The difference between the two methods are the application of the spices and I have a feeling that the taste differs as well.
After mom showed be the ropes I decided to write it in my sketchbook. I used some whimsical icons for each step and it got me thinking I could transpose this information into a digital format !
The image above shows two things. On the left is the scan of my sketchbook and on the right is my first attempt at a digital translation. You can see the digital layout is identical to the sketch. At first I was going to make near exact replicas of the symbols in the original, but I changed my mind. Some elements were kept such as the ice cube, but the regular fish in an ice cube wasn't hitting home. I wanted something special. I could have put an illustration of Ice Cube's face in there, but then people would think I'm a cannibal. The fact that I didn't specify what my other sources of nutrition above were, makes me all that more suspect. When I was finished, I sent my graphic art cousin a copy to get some feedback. His site here. Which brought me to attempt numero dos. A cleaner, more breathable layout, compared to my first attempt. Thanks Cuz.
This is only the beginning of these digital montages. Who knows, I might make this into a series. Sounds a bit fishy if you ask me.
