The nearby Asian food store has a remarkable variety
of frozen meats (including alligator!) and a few
months ago I bought some smelt (after not seeing
smelt for many years), but it was uncleaned smelt.
WAAAY to much work to clean. I only ate a few
of them and threw away the rest.

Today, I was browsing the freezers looking for
something for tomorrow, when Trader Joe's will
be closed, and I spotted CLEANED smelt. $2.69
for a one pound bag. They are from Peru, but
they look good. I want to recreate the teriyaki
smelt recipe I used to make as a college student.
Half of the bag is defrosting in the fridge
right now, and the other half is in the freezer.
The smelt I bought as a student were from Quebec,
but these smelt look similar. I anticipate
having some very good smelt tomorrow.

The American distributor is Great Northern Products
of Warwick, RI. Ah, they have a web site!

http://www.northernproducts.com/

That's interesting. Their wholesale price is
$1.20, and they might be closing them out.

http://www.northernproducts.com/asse...seoutlist.html

That would explain why the Asian food store has them.
I'm sure they are always looking for a bargain.
If I really like these smelt, I better buy another
bag before they disappear.

Mark Thorson wrote:
>
> Today, I was browsing the freezers looking for
> something for tomorrow, when Trader Joe's will
> be closed, and I spotted CLEANED smelt. $2.69
> for a one pound bag. They are from Peru, but
> they look good. I want to recreate the teriyaki
> smelt recipe I used to make as a college student.

These are not my idea of smelt. They are
a different species from what I bought as
a student, and Wikipedia indicates that
nearly any small fish species can be designated
as smelt. This Peruvian so-called smelt has
a strong fishiness flavor that was not
nearly so strong in the Quebec smelt.
I'm not sure I'm going to finish what
I cooked up, and the other half of the bag
in the freezer is going into the garbage.

Alas. I miss Quebec smelt.