Visiting Barbados? I won’t be the first to tell you –you will eat flying fish at some point there. Didn’t sound too appetizing, considering how unnerving those critters can be flapping their way across the surface of water. Always creeped me out. Until I met one… battered and fried, with a side of Bajan Macaroni Pie and rice.
We spent a week on Barbados, departed Christmas night to lessen crowds and layover issues. From California, it’s a long haul, but we made up for it, aaaah. They make rum there, by the way.
If you wander around different “larger” towns you cannot miss an open air fish market; stand after stand, locals cleaning flying fish for market. Restaurants, cruise ship executive chefs, sandwich stands and regular folks all find their seafood there.
Flying Fish Sandwiches are the fast food version – toast some bread and add a dressing plus a little shredded lettuce. Just as good. To obtain this official recipe, I admit to cheating. I photographed a dish towel in a gift shop. Didn’t buy the towel, sorry.
What, you say?? No flying fish in your local store? Try any thin, light fish filet (tilapia comes to mind).
Flying Fish Barbados Style
- 8 flying fish fillets
- 1 small onion grated
- 1 small green pepper chopped
- 1 blade chives, chopped
- Thyme and parsley
- Salt and pepper
- Few drops of lime juice
- 1 egg beaten
- Breadcrumbs
- Oil for frying
- 2 limes, wedged
Mix the seasoning ingredients and spread over the meaty side of the fish. Leave for about 1 hour. Dip the fish into the beaten egg and then into the breadcrumbs. Fry gently in a little oil for about 10 minutes. Serve with wedges of lime. Feeds 4 to 6.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Happen to get the macaroni pie recipe? Trip sounds divine. Speaking of travel&eating, do you have any yummy moderately-priced restaurauts worth trying in NYC? LTJ
Patti, this sounds good so Dolores and I are going to try it tonight. We don’t fry a lot so what kind of oil would you recommend to fry the fish in? By the way, did you only take 4 pictures in Barbados?
Patti comments – we took a lot more pix in Barbados. An upcoming post on travel will show them. As for the oil, something like safflower or peanut oil would be OK.
I guess I’m not clear on the concept — what, exactly, are flying fish? Do they literally jump out of the water? What kind of flavor do they have?
Also, the fish in the photo looks like it has more of a batter crust than a breadcrumb crust. Is the photo made as the recipe indicates?
Patti comments: flying fish DO jump out of the water, they are about 8-inches long with a fin/wingspan about the same. They use those fins to skim across water, sort of like skipping a rock. The fish plate photo was one of our lunches, the crust had more texture than the photo reveals. If you wanted to use a flour+spice type of breading, it would work fine. Flying fish in Barbados is cooked with the skin on.
Sorry for so many questions!
What a wonderful way to spend Christmas! I don’t even like fish and that looks delicious!
Happy New Year!
Sounds like a completely lovely vacation. I generally love all kinds of fish, especially when fried (although my waistline wishes I didn’t) so this sounds tremendously pleasurable.