Dover Sole Exceptionalism: Lunching Large In Hard Times

Dover sole, "super-fish"


           "On the day that Obama is to deliver his jobs speech to Congress, Bret Baier attends a secret White House meeting. Over Dover sole in the Red Room, the president tries to sell his $450 billion plan to a handful of anchors. The earnest, square-jawed Baier is animated upon returning, briefing two news executives in the hallway.

          Obama “painted a picture of a double-dip recession” and said if the bill “does not get through, I will blame Republicans” for their “irresponsible position,” Baier says, reading from his scribbled notes. Although the two men clashed during an interview last year in which Baier repeatedly interrupted the president, Obama made a point of praising the previous Fox debate, telling Baier: “By the way, you guys did a great job in Iowa.”

From "Roger's Reality Show," by Howard Kurtz

Newsweek, September 25, 2011

Dutch beam trawler dragging for Dover sole near Dogger Bank, North Sea.  Dogger Bank has been suggested as the possible submerged location for the "lost continent" of Atlantis.  In 1931, the largest earthquake ever recorded in the United Kingdom took place below the bank, measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale.

NOTE:  It has been ages since I've enjoyed a dinner (never mind a lunch) of Dover sole.  As Alan Davidson, the 20th century's leading writer on fish cookery, once observed, it is "the best fish," and ruinously expensive, always a "top of the menu" item, food literally fit for a king. (Please click on link above to be directed to the current Dover sole price guide for New York City restaurants.)

Davidson notes in North Atlantic Seafood [1]:

           "The range of this super-fish is from the Mediterranean to the north of Scotland and the south of Norway.  It is not present in the Baltic, except around the mouth of that sea.  The best fishing grounds for it are in the North Sea and the Bay of Biscay.  Dover is not its home in any exclusive sense, but was the best source of supply to the London market of freshly caught soles.

          Everyone knows how good the sole is, and it is never better than when plainly grilled and served with a simple garnish of lemon wedges.  However, it is also very good when cooked a la meuniere; and the filets, which can be lifted off easily, may be used for a great variety of culinary feats.  Most of these involve poaching them in a court-bouillon or wine and then dressing them with a sauce.  Do so by all means, but do not complicate your fish unduly or risk masking the delicious flavour of the sole itself."

Dover sole on the sea floor

I wouldn't argue with a single word in Davidson's excellent description.  I would like to suggest, however, that serving Dover sole at an event such as a deliberately ostentatious, "over the top", State Dinner would seem more appropriate, and less likely to provoke objection, than offering it to a group of journalists at a working lunch during severely straitened economic times in the U.S. on the cusp of delivering a speech about severely straitened economic times affecting most (but clearly not all) of the American people and then allowing publication of the menu in Newsweek.

Brill, megrim, scaldfish, topknot, plaice, flounder, dab, or lemon sole (to name some lesser flatfish) simply wouldn't do.  Nor would the noble (and pricy) halibut or turbot -- it had to be solea solea, the true sole, whose name is derived from the Greek, "as the Greeks considered it would form a fit sandal for an ocean nymph." [2]

It forces one to ask, however, whether these people are crazy, stupid or both?  It certainly tells you everything you need to know about their grasp on reality and what they think of you.

SMS Blucher in the process of capsizing during the Battle of Dogger Bank.   This armoured German cruiser was sunk by the British Grand Fleet on April 24, 1915.

[1]  Alan Davidson, North Atlantic Seafood, London, 1979.

[2]  Francis Day, The Fishes of Great Britain and Ireland, Volumes I and II, London 1880-84.

Embossed colored and illustrated 1917 postcard showing two young girls in Connaught Park, Dover, surrounded by a Dover sole "frame."

9/27/11 Update:  It was fascinating to me to (tediously) review Newsweek's "comment sewer" just now and observe not a single reader remark concerning the White House's regal menu for reporters.  I guess providing $60-80 portions of Dover sole for luncheon guests is more common practice than I previously thought.  I really should get out more.  One wonders whether whole fish were deboned table-side or if the sole were  filleted in advance?  Also, which wine to serve?  Personally, my favorite was always the M. Chapoutier "Chante Alouette" Hermitage Blanc, which I would dearly love to enjoy again.   Shortly after completing this post today, I turned on the Morning "Limousine Liberal" Joe television program. They were discussing Howard Kurtz's article also and it wasn't a great surprise to find that the  3-star Michelin menu items went unnoticed at Domaine Lord Haw-Haw. Recessions and depressions go largely unnoticed among the fully-employed, I have found.    "Bless you, Uncle Son.  We won't forget you when the Revolution comes."  (R. D. Davies)

Atlantis (Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος) Found? (In my lifetime, thank heaven.)

 

 

Athanasius Kircher's map of Atlantis, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. From Mundus Subterraneus 1669, published in Amsterdam. The map is oriented with south at the top. 

 

Lost city of Atlantis, swamped by tsunami, may be found

By Zach Howard

Sat Mar 12, 11:36 am ET

 

NORTHAMPTON, Mass (Reuters) –

        A U.S.-led research team may have finally located the lost city of Atlantis, the legendary metropolis believed swamped by a tsunami thousands of years ago in mud flats in southern Spain.

        "This is the power of tsunamis," head researcher Richard Freund told Reuters.

        "It is just so hard to understand that it can wipe out 60 miles inland, and that's pretty much what we're talking about," said Freund, a University of Hartford, Connecticut, professor who lead an international team searching for the true site of Atlantis.

Location of Atlantis?

        To solve the age-old mystery, the team used a satellite photo of a suspected submerged city to find the site just north of Cadiz, Spain. There, buried in the vast marshlands of the Dona Ana Park, they believe that they pinpointed the ancient, multi-ringed dominion known as Atlantis.

Structure of Atlantis?

        The team of archeologists and geologists in 2009 and 2010 used a combination of deep-ground radar, digital mapping, and underwater technology to survey the site.

        Freund's discovery in central Spain of a strange series of "memorial cities," built in Atlantis' image by its refugees after the city's likely destruction by a tsunami, gave researchers added proof and confidence, he said.

        Atlantis residents who did not perish in the tsunami fled inland and built new cities there, he added.

        The team's findings will be unveiled on Sunday in "Finding Atlantis," a new National Geographic Channel special.

        While it is hard to know with certainty that the site in Spain in Atlantis, Freund said the "twist" of finding the memorial cities makes him confident Atlantis was buried in the mud flats on Spain's southern coast.

        "We found something that no one else has ever seen before, which gives it a layer of credibility, especially for archeology, that makes a lot more sense," Freund said.

        Greek philosopher Plato wrote about Atlantis some 2,600 years ago, describing it as "an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Hercules," as the Straits of Gibraltar were known in antiquity. Using Plato's detailed account of Atlantis as a map, searches have focused on the Mediterranean and Atlantic as the best possible sites for the city.

        Tsunamis in the region have been documented for centuries, Freund says. One of the largest was a reported 10-story tidal wave that slammed Lisbon in November, 1755.

        Debate about whether Atlantis truly existed has lasted for thousands of years. Plato's "dialogues" from around 360 B.C. are the only known historical sources of information about the iconic city. Plato said the island he called Atlantis "in a single day and night... disappeared into the depths of the sea."

        Experts plan further excavations are planned at the site where they believe Atlantis is located and at the mysterious "cities" in central Spain 150 miles away to more closely study geological formations and to date artifacts.

Aquaman

"For it is related in our records how once upon a time your State stayed the course of a mighty host, which, starting from a distant point in the Atlantic ocean, was insolently advancing to attack the whole of Europe, and Asia to boot. For the ocean there was at that time navigable; for in front of the mouth which you Greeks call, as you say, 'the pillars of Heracles,' there lay an island which was larger than Libya and Asia together; and it was possible for the travelers of that time to cross from it to the other islands, and from the islands to the whole of the continent over against them which encompasses that veritable ocean. For all that we have here, lying within the mouth of which we speak, is evidently a haven having a narrow entrance; but that yonder is a real ocean, and the land surrounding it may most rightly be called, in the fullest and truest sense, a continent. Now in this island of Atlantis there existed a confederation of kings, of great and marvelous power, which held sway over all the island, and over many other islands also and parts of the continent."  

-- Plato: Timeus -- 360 BC

A 15th-century Latin translation of Plato's Timaeus