Galician seafood

Since Galicia is a coastal region, seafood forms an important part of the diet. When I came here I had no experience cooking seafood, and was quite intimidated by the idea. When I visited a supermarket fish section or a market, I just saw full fish lying on ice, and had no idea how to go from that starting point to a finished dish. When I first bought fish I realized it was easier than I thought, because the fishmonger guts and cleans the fish for you, cuts off the fins, scrapes off the scales, etc. So I've done some learning. One odd aspect is that I don't know a lot about fish even in my first language. So I'll look things up in the dictionary and then still have no idea what they are. And there are still things I don't understand that well. For example, I know that the difference between "blue" fish and "white" fish is that blue comes from the ocean while white comes from inland water, but I don't really know the relevance of this for the kind of flesh you get from the fish.

Here are some things I have made at home:

Jurelo = apparently a kind of Mackerel, although there are different related types (jurel, jurelo, etc). You can do this in a pan or in the oven. I made it in the oven with potatoes and onions and seasoned with lemon, olive oil, garlic.

Sargo = bream. I bought this from my local fish shop and the shoptender told me that the fish was from the ría de Vigo. I made it in a similar way to the Jurelo.

Acedía = dab. This is a small flat fish that you make in the pan with just a little olive oil.

I made some other kind of fried fish but I can't recall the details.

I also have made squid in several different ways. I made "calamares a la plancha," sautéed quickly in a hot pan, with sun dried tomatoes and garlic. I made "calamares a la romana" which are breaded in an orly sauce and fried. I also made a nice dish of squid and artichoke which you can see in the photo above (it's a Ligurian recipe via Mark Bittman).

I've also eaten lots of other kinds of seafood, including:

Merluza = hake. This is one of the most common fishes that you can find in restaurants.

Chipirones = small squid. Often fried or grilled with onions.

The squid-and-rice dish that is black with ink

Bacalao = cod. Also very common. It's made in different ways, often boiled.

Carioca = I don't know what this is called in English. I had it fried and it was incredibly good.

Pulpo = Octopus! A Galician classic. Often boiled and served with paprika.

Mejillones = Mussels. Very common. You can eat them by themselves or in pasta or other dishes.

Ostras = Oysters. I ate raw oysters last fall and got really, really sick.

Gambas = We can't forget shrimp, which is one of the favorite foods of any Spaniard worth his salt.

Cigala = scampi