O-FISH-ially Done With This Week

 

Last week was absolutely awful. It was nothing but repeatedly staying at the Hamilton library until it closed, setting up fort at the grody 24-hour Denny's in Waikiki and typing with one hand while frantically munching through their seasoned fries with the other, and having only one break the whole weekend, which consisted of watching The Boys in tense silence with my best friend, who had a bad day. The week had its bright spots, however, and I did finish all my work, Thank God. 

One of those bright spots was trying a new recipe. It was improvised, to be honest, but it ended up tasting extremely restaurant quality. The fish, while being the not-so-popular Tilapia, was delicious. The upside of the little bottom-feeder is that it has very little taste of its own, and so, you can focus on the taste of whatever marinade you've prepared. In this case, it was a wonderfully sweet, hoisin-based marinade. You absolutely cannot go wrong with hoisin sauce. I'd eat it like a pudding cup, right out the jar, if my mother wouldn't chide me. I've tried. If you like--here comes an oft-used but honestly very vague term-- "Asian flavors," you'll be fond of this recipe. It goes great with an arugula salad--which adds a nice tinge of spice, with those spicy leaves--and sesame dressing. The texture was also incredible. It turned out very soft, like steamed fish, one of my favorite things to order at Panya, near Ala Moana. This fish, however, was baked in the oven! 

Here's a loose approximation of what the recipe might have been, but since it's from recollection, I can't be certain. Anyway, if you try it, I hope it brightens your own sucky week, too. There's a chance it'll make it worse, though. You never know.

-Fishy Realness-

Ingredients:

-Fish(any kind, again, I used tilapia)

-chopped green onions

-white rice

-arugula plus sesame dressing if you want to add veggies for health lmao

-Marinade= 3tbs bison sauce, 4 tbs soy sauce, 1tbs seasoned rice vinegar, 1tbs sesame oil, 2-3 tbs brown sugar, minced garlic, 1 tbs grated ginger

Instructions:

-heat oven 400 degrees Fahrenheit

-mix marinade, taste, adjust amounts if necessary, try to make sure the marinade is THICC

-put parchment paper on sheet pan, place fish on it and spread marinade (but save some!)

-put in oven and bake 10 mins, take out of oven and add the rest of the marinade and bake until fish is flaky (3-5 mins more)

-listen, I'm sure you know how to make rice. You betta...

-SERVE! FISH!!