When my host mom asked me what I wanted to eat for dinner on my 21st birthday - I could only think of one thing: fish tacos. My favorite summer dish at home, I had recently been feeling fish deprived and was in the mood for something light and fun to brighten the dreary and cold days of February in Copenhagen.
Of course, tacos are a relatively new idea in Denmark. They are still trying to figure out the concept of the beef taco, so one made with fish was completely foreign territory. So alas, I made my own birthday meal, but it was totally worth it and delicious, and I got everyone (including my three young host brothers) to eat and enjoy fish in a way that they had never considered before.
My host mom does not make fish. She says it is because she is not good at it, and because they only way she knew how to make it was the traditional Danish way - in a cream sauce or parsley sauce with rice or potatoes. This seemed so weird to me, because when I think of fish, while it can be served breadcrumbed and buttered, most of the time it is something prepared simply with light flavors such as citrus and fresh herbs. Even after being here 7 months, there are still so many things about Denmark that continues to surprise and fascinate me.
I told my host mom that fish tacos go well with just about any fish, so I asked her just to buy what looked the best. She came home with a few kilos of the most beautiful fresh tuna I have ever seen. This confused me even further, as she claimed the fishmonger was right down the street from our house, and it was actually significantly cheaper than buying meat from the butcher. With fish this good, why would you not make it more often?
I prepared the fish with a simple red cabbage slaw, an avocado and tomato salsa, and top the seared tuna with an orange and lime vinaigrette with lots of coriander (cilantro). Stuffed inside your choice of flour tortilla or corn taco shell - my taco-deprived friends and I could not have been happier.
However my host family was at first pretty skeptical. One of my host brothers walked in as I was slicing cabbage and said in a very negative voice 'it smells like the ocean in here', before promptly walking out again. When I was searing the tuna for just a minute on each side, my host mom looked as though I might be trying to give them all food poisoning. My host father, who is always on alcohol duty, asked if a Chianti Classico was the appropriate drink to have with a fish taco. I could not help but laugh before I explained that fish tacos were all about the beer or margaritas - as is anything that is wrapped in a tortilla. But I also assured him that the delicious champagne he bought for my 21st would be a very proper aperitif.
The skepticism ended when tacos were individually assembled and all 12 of us took our first bites. That perfect silence, where only the sound of chewing and clinking of forks can be heard - I call it the 'happy food silence' - completely fell over the room. For the first time, my entire family abandoned all utensils (that they use for even a cheeseburger) and dug in with gusto. As I finished my first taco, I realized that I would have to act quickly to get my hands on more tuna, as the few kilos my host mom had bought were almost gone. They literally just evaporated.
As a result, my family made me promise if they brought fish home once a week, I would prepare it. I have absolutely no qualms with that. I had been missing fish so much since being here, but I never bought it because I assumed my host family did not like it. On the contrary, they LOVE it, but like many ingredients, they just had to experience it in a new way. I am glad that even after living with my host family for so long, I could still teach them something new about American culture and California's fantastic fish tacos.
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