Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Trippin' TripInn - Westport



I was in Westport from Thursday to Monday morning. During that time, I stayed in a very cool backpackers called TripInn. The hosts, Donna and Jack Devine were really very friendly and helpful. The place was warm with coal burning stoves and the house was built in the mid 1800's, so a jewel of a place. I love old buildings!
Since Donna was out of town when I first arrived, I got a chance to speak to Jack and found out that he's also a fisherman! I told him about one of my goals for the South Island: eating whitebait.

I had been told several times about whitebait, a tiny fish that is eated in a kind of patty. I figured, if it's a typical Kiwi delicacy, I should try it! Jack just happened to have a bag of frozen whitebait in his freezer and invited me for lunch one day so I could see for myself what it was like. Below, you will see a bit how it's made.

Below: how to clean and prepare whitebait

You add an egg and stir the whitebait and the egg slowly, adding in some flour to make it more dense.

Below: cooking it



Cooked whitebait

It was absolutely delicious! I couldn't believe that it really tasted like fish, because as you could see, it didn't look like it would have the consistency or taste of fish, but it was fresh and awesome. We put some salt and pepper on it and a squeeze of lemon. Yummy! I'm now in love with whitebait and I understand why people were telling me to eat it! ....and I had frozen whitebait, imagine it fresh!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey chick...bring me back some WHITEBAIT! It looks delicious. Reminds me of some jewish foods. Kippers and smelts and actually the shape at the end after cooking looks like potatoe pancakes..LOL
YUM, YUM , YUM..now I'm hungry
Going to get some food...and continue catching up on entries after that.
a.

L said...

I wish I could bring some back, it was soooooooo good! I'm looking forward to having some catfish when I get back. That's the thing you've cooked that I liked the best! Yummy, I'm hungry now too!