On the way down to Cape May, Kevin and I called his parents and sister Shelley to let them know we would be running late and that they could start dinner without us.
‘And by the way,’ I asked, ‘what’s for dinner?’
‘Tilefish and Dolphin,’ Kevin’s dad, George, replied.
‘Where did it come from?’ I wondered.
‘Cape May Canyons,’ answered George.
What I really wanted to know was the name of the fish market. What I learned instead was that I have to be really specific about asking questions of George. The eventual answer was yes, it came from the Lobster House (but by the way, tilefish is caught 600-800 ft deep off of the Cape May coast in an area known locally as the Canyons. Not sure where the dolphin comes from).
We started the meal with a Hocking family favorite: oyster crackers and horseradish.
This was accompanied by another favorite: cosmopolitans. During the summer, I suspect that the Hockings keep the cranberry juice companies in business.
After a hearty side salad, it was time for the main course. To prepare it, Kevin’s Mom, Dale, poured some olive oil over both of the fish and then added a few handfuls of chopped tomatoes and onion. She also added:
-3 cloves of garlic
-a few good shakes of Paula Dean’s seasoning
-a dash of garlic powder
-a dash of pepper
And then baked everything at 325 degrees for approx 45 minutes.
This was our first time having tilefish and it was excellent. In a head to head competition of flavor, texture and overall yummy-goodness, I’d have to say that the tilefish easily beat the dolphin. It absorbed more seasoning and was thinner, but tasted richer than the dolphin. It received rave reviews:
‘this is really good!’ exclaimed Kevin on his second helping.
‘the tilefish is really smooth,’ said George. ‘I’m impressed with this dinner.’
To wrap up the meal, there was corn. Lots and lots of corn. Hockings love it. Kevin has been known to eat 10 ears of corn in a single meal. Somewhere in South Jersey is probably a happy farmer, his tractor paid for by the amount of corn eaten by the Hockings over the course of a summer. Seriously. It’s a lot of corn consumed. Maybe next summer I’ll keep a tally. Sadly, keeping a tally of Hocking corn consumption is actually my idea of a good time.
Lessons learned:
-Did I mention that tilefish live in very, very deep water? According to George, they like the average temperature of the water to be around 47 degrees Fahrenheit.
-I really like tilefish. I would definitely order it in a restaurant.
-It’s really hard to photograph corn with butter. The butter kept melting causing it to slip off of the corn before I could shoot it. I don’t know how the food stylists do it. Maybe they don’t use hot corn?
-I struggle with shooting hot food. Both the corn and the fish produced a lot of steam. How do you get close enough to the food so that it looks awesome, without getting a lens full of steam?
