Food: upping the fish quota with a seabass

I'm foodie; I like snacks, I like vegetables, I like plates filled to the brim with delicious fresh salads and fish or grilled chicken and I like malteasers ice creams. I will eat pretty much anything except livers and eyeballs. Food brings me pleasure and I like cooking; the process of preparing an amazing meal is all part of the fun for me.

And one of the best bits of expat life is the food. Exploring a different country through its cuisine is one of the best ways to get to know a place. I probably get more excited than I should admit, when walking the aisles of the supermarket, as my eyes feast on a whole world of new products that my belly urges me to throw into shopping basket. 

While I haven't had a taste of traditional Emirati cuisine yet, I am certainly making the most of the abundance of fresh fish here in Dubai. In England, the fish quota within my diet extended to salmon and tinned tuna; I have a thing about buying fresh fish in London because I am never sure if it is just that, fresh. And I don't want to disappoint my taste-buds in a mediocre fish experience. No fear of that here though. The supermarket fish counter is packed with everything from whole fish and fillets to seafood and you only have to look at it to know it was swimming around not too long ago. 

As such, seabass has become a regular feature in our diet because it's cheap, easy to cook, versatile and really delicious! And it has loads of health benefits to boot; oodles of omega-3 essential fatty acids, a whole range of vitamins and minerals and can help improve brain function, reduce the accumulation of body fat and it is a natural anti-depressant (apparently). 

The fish counter can do the messy bit and clean it out and de-scale it etc. and then all you need is some olive oil, fresh lemon, salt and garlic. Pop it in the oven for about 25 minutes and what emerges is soft, delicately flavoured fish which melts in your mouth. Pair it with a fried potatoes (because fish and chips are an English girls perfect combination) a home made tatziki and a simple salad and you have a delicious dinner in no time. I will be honest, my better half is the fish king in our house and I do the rest. I do knock up a pretty decent tatziki after my years of training in Cyprus!

Remember I was saying it is versatile? Seabass can be paired with a whole host of flavours to suit your palate; this recipe and this one are next on my radar.