Adventures in budget foods: anchovies

Here we go, more tinned fish. This time it’s the one I’ve been dreading the most—though I don’t know why. I imagine I’ve had anchovies before in one form or another. Caesar salad, fish sauce, pasta… But the thought of them still pushes my ick button. Time to be a man and just go for it.

I found these anchovies in Safeway, hiding among sardines, kippers, oysters, and a million permutations of tuna. They’re imported from Spain. (Anchovies are popular on tapas.) The ingredients are anchovies, salt and olive oil.

I struggled to open the can. It had a pull top, but the metal was thicker than a typical US can and there wasn’t much can to hold onto. And since it’s filled to the brim with olive oil I ended up spilling some of it.

The anchovies were much firmer than the fall-apart sardines. And, wow, they were salty. Almost too salty. The fish were kind of a secondary part of the flavor. But, yeah, they were tasty and not at all off-putting. Some crackers helped mute the salt. I skipped the hot sauce this time. It was unneeded.

So, I surprised myself. I actually liked the anchovies better than the kippers and sardines. I kinda regret not trying them decades ago. Now, when someone offers me pizza with sardines I won’t be rejecting it.