Whole grilled fish and octopus

Hi, sorry for the extreme delay in posts, school has come to an end, need I say more??

Anyhow, my friend took me to a fantastic dim sum restaurant yesterday in White Plains NY, called Aberdeen on 3 Barker Avenue, it was delicious. We then walked across the street to an unassuming building that housed not only the DMV, but a very large Asian Grocery store in the lower lever.

There are few things I enjoy more than perusing a new NON- American food store. I leisurely strolled down each aisle examining new products, most of which I was not able to identify, picking up new items to try as well as a few tried and true ones.

I bought some delicious roast duck that we ate for dinner last night with some steamed edamame and I also bought 2 small fresh fish about the size of your hand as well as 2 tiny baby octopus which I made for lunch today with another friend who took me on a gorgeous bike ride.

When we returned from the ride, I put each of us to work. She cut the cantaloupe and papaya and I chopped a handful of fresh parsley which I mashed in 2 cubes of frozen garlic, a little olive oil, the juice from a lemon and a good pinch of salt and pepper. I rinsed the fish and cut a slightly larger cut in the middle of the fish, then I stuffed the fish with a bunch of the parsley mixture and rubbed the rest of the mixture on top of the fish. I used whatever was leftover to season the octopus with.

I turned the grill to high and grilled the fish and octopus for about 5 minutes total time. The octopus tentacles curl up almost immediately and I turned them, and the fish I let cook for a couple minutes per side. They don't flip so easily as the skin cooks off.

My friend made a salad and we enjoyed a yummy lunch al fresco.

If you've never grilled whole fish, don't be intimidated, it's very easy and so delicious.